© Wikimedia Commons / Pintaric

Ever wonder why the skyline of Los Angeles is peppered with flat top skyscrapers? Or for that matter, why does such a global cosmopolitan city have so relatively few skyscrapers dotting its cityscape, the majority residing in downtown LA?

The answer lies in a section of the Los Angeles Municipal Code introduced in 1974 – Sec. 57.118.12 – “Emergency Helicopter Landing Facility.” The code stipulates that “Each building shall have a rooftop emergency helicopter landing facility in a location approved by the [Fire] Chief.” The text also dictates that the helipads measure 50′x50′ in addition to a 25′ safety buffer. The resulting skyline thus far has been dominated by flat roof skyscrapers that would only make it through the planning process if in strict accordance with this code. However, a newly introduced proposal called the Hollywood Community Plan would allow skyscrapers to be constructed along the subway served “Hollywood Corridor.”  In lieu of embarking on a plan that would surely result in more box type towers, an amendment has been introduced into the plan that would exempt skyscrapers within the corridor from having to conform to Sec. 57.118.12 helipad requirements. More After the break. read more »

Inga Saffron, the architecture critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, challenges cities to look beyond their “skyscraper fantasies and dreams of increased tourism”, suggesting they work to improve and build amenities that will make urban areas better places to live for the existing dwellers. She believes public spaces should be the priority and that cities should focus on upgrading transit systems, adding bike lanes to all major roadways, increasing walkability, creating and maintaining great parks and public plazas. Cities need a range of densities, this would allow for greater flexibility.

Inga Saffron has written about urban design issues for more than a decade. As an architecture critic, she has reviewed many of the most memorable new projects of the era, however her primary interest is centered on the less-heralded places that people encounter in their daily lives. As a 2011-12 Leob Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Saffron is exploring how cities can retain their district identities in a globalized, interconnected world, while remaining viable places to work and live.

Reference: TEDx, DI

© TFP Farrells

Every January the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat conducts a review of skyscraper construction and compiles all the data from the previous year. The trend since 2007 has seen record breaking years for buildings taller than 200 meters completed, with 88 skyscrapers completed in 2011. Even as the global economy is slowly recuperating from the 2008 financial crisis, it would appear as though this trend will remain relatively stable. China, leading the pack at 23 completed towers is predicted to remain at the forefront of skyscraper market, followed by Middle Eastern countries in the next decade.  UAE, South Korea, and Panama City – an up and coming cosmopolitan city – rounded out the top four. Of the towers completed in 2011, 17 have made their way into the top 100 tallest buildings – Shenzhen’s Kingkey 100, at 442 meters crowning this year’s list. More after the break. read more »

© SOM | MIR

The Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) has announced their victory in an international competition to design the Greenland Group Suzhou Center in Wujiang, China. The 358-meter tower’s efficient split-core configuration demands a double-take, as the “curved, tapered form unifies the office, hotel and residential uses within a single volume.”

Continue reading for more!

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Courtesy of CTBUH

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is announcing its second annual student competition for “Reimagining Tall”.  The competition will be held in conjunction with CTBUH 9th World Congress Shanghai 2012.  Competition chair William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox noted that the competition hopes to give new meaning to “the tall building” and move it “away from just an instrument of financial exploitation and toward a development highly concerned with its impact on the city, the environment, and the urban habitat”.  The competition is seeking proposals that address the building’s relationship with the urban fabric, integrate existing street life and reflect their environment in a productive way. This should be an interesting competition considering we are entering the era of the megatall.

More details on the competition after the break. read more »

Tallest Skyline © CTBUH

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat recently published The Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering the Era of the Megatall. Within this decade, the World’s first kilometer-tall building will be constructed, along with many other buildings over 600-meters tall. “The term “supertall” (which refers to a building over 300 meters) is thus no longer adequate to describe these buildings: we are entering the era of the “megatall.”

Continue reading for more details on “The Tallest 20 in 2020″.

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Courtesy Turner Construction Co.

Named One of the Best Inventions of 2011 by Time Magazine, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s (SOM) Al Hamra Firdous Tower will be the tallest building in Kuwait. The iconic structure appears to fold into itself, creating an efficient form designed to maximize views and minimize solar heat gain. The commercial complex will be complete early this year and is comprised of offices, a health club and a high-end shopping mall with theaters and a food court. Continue reading for the architect’s project description.

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Client / Developer: Al Hamra Real Estate and Entertainment Co., Mr. Abdulaziz Alhumaidhi
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Site Area: 10,000 m2
Size: 195,000 m2
Height: 412 m (74 stories)
Completion Year: 2011

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Courtesy of Rocco Design Architects

Architects: Rocco Design Architects Ltd
Location: 31 Queen’s Road Central, Hong Kong
Design Team: Rocco Yim, Bernard Hui, CM Chan, William Tam, Rebecca Chung, Lucia Cheung, Jackie Choi, Becky Luk
Design Date: 2005
Completion Date: 2011
Site Area: 1,059 sqm
Gross Floor Area: 16,541 sqm
Client: The Luk Hoi Tong Co. Ltd.
Photographs: Courtesy of Rocco Design Architects

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© Kiattisak Veteewootacharn

Architect: Architects 49
Location: Sukhumvit 24 Street, Bangkok, Thailand
Client: TCC Capital Land
Structural Engineer: Tham & Wong , Qbic Engineers and Architect
System Engineer: M & E Engineering49
Interior Architect: PIA
Landscape Architect: P landscape
Lighting Designer: Lightbox Design
Project Area: 70,125 sqm
Project Year: 2008
Photographs: Kiattisak Veteewootacharn, Krissada Boonchaloew

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Courtesy of Jaeger and Partner Architects

The Guangfa Securities Headquarter, designed by Jaeger and Partner Architects, is a 308-meter tall class-A high-rise office building that will serve as the new landmark for the eastern portion of Guangzhou’s new CBD. Its orientation is rotated slightly from the dominating orthogonal grid of the surrounding area to mark the site as a transformational pivot point of the urban fabric. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of MA2

The design of the Two Towers, by MA2 in collaboration with CZ Visual Architecture, is a series of manipulated manifolds that construct a dual vertical lattice with angled surfaces. The towers radiate vertically deriving from a multi-sided body, diamond shaped, molded, intended for diversity, complexity, and robustness in form. Elongated diamond bodies functions as a poly-operational structure that addresses flows of energy, circulation, dynamic composites, both aesthetically and material make up. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of ADEPT and Urbanus

The winning design of a large international architectural competition, ‘The Two Towers’, was recently announced in Shenzhen, China. The team selected to design this new Shenzhen landmark – comprising 100.000 square meters in total – is a constellation of ADEPT (DK) and Urbanus (CHN) with VSA (HK), Max Fordham LLP (GB) and Beijing CCI Architectural Design Co, LTD (CHN). The jury meeting was hosted at the Shenzhen Municipal Planning Building with Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne as chairman of the jury. More information on the competition winners after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Ajmona Hoxha, Elis Vathi, Klodiana Millona

The project proposal for the first CTBUH international student design competition by Ajmona Hoxha, Elis Vathi, Klodiana Millona aims to redefine the gap created between the two extreme social classes of India as the widening income gap between the rich and the poor over the years has raised fears of a social backlash. Since it is highly noticed that the difference between the rich and the poor is displayed not only in the social life but at a major grade on the physical environment, there is a need for redirecting social organization by creating a new environment. Displacement of the concentrated power of the narrow rich circles to wider masses would be achieved by strong physical means. More images and project description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of STL Architects

The Taiwan Tower, designed by STL Architects, will act as a monumental building that will frame the new center and provide the entire city with a renewed and iconic identity, such as Eiffel Tower in Paris or The Sydney Opera House. Iconography achieved by challenging the forces of nature, designing an urban symbol, to strengthen people’s feeling of identity towards their city. Twisting the conventional idea of a tower and tilting the complex structure to contextualize the building in a technological era. The importance of symbols to civilization and architecture for people to feel identified with a place by means of an icon. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© Flickr / _gee_

The Balfron Tower by architect Erno Goldfinger is an iconic Brutalist residential high rise located in London’s eastside Poplar borough. Designed in 1963 for the London County Council and completed in 1967 by the Greater London Council, this social housing estate broke the traditions of typical residential architecture. Conceived as a solution to sprawling suburbia, Goldfinger embraced verticality as the cure. More details after the break. read more »

Urbarama.com

The Torre Blancas is an architectural icon of the Spanish Organicism movement. Designed by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza and completed in 1969, this exposed concrete tower rises 71 meters above the Madrid skyline. It also stands as one the most complicated and innovative reinforced concrete structures of the era, absent of the typical rectilinear qualities associated with cast-in-place concrete. More details after the break. read more »

Flickr / Strocchi

The twin office towers known as Puerta de Europa I and II located in Madrid, Spain defy the typical conventions of skyscraper construction. Designed by American architects Philip Johnson & John Burgee and commissioned by the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO), these structural expressionistic towers straddle one of Madrid’s most important boulevards – the Paseo de la Castellana. More details after the break. read more »

We’ve been covering the Freedom Tower quite extensively, sharing documentaries, time lapse videos, renderings and even news the tower’s first major tenant.  And, today, director Gaspard Giroud shared this amazing clip of the progress on the tower.  Commissioned by Silverstein Properties, Piranha NYC, a motion graphic design and visual effects company, wrote, produced, art directed, filmed, and finished all vfx for this inspiring piece marking the 10th year anniversary of 9/11.   The clip was then presented a few days ago at Tower 7 in the presence of Mayor Bloomberg.  We love how the film condenses the building’s time lapse of construction – especially the reflections of the progress in car windows and even through the glass façade of a neighboring building.   And, of course, it’s a beautiful thing to see people occupying the finished tower.   What do you think of the film?

Photo by Choo Yut Shing - http://www.flickr.com/photos/25802865@N08/

At the time of its completion in 1976, the Pearl Bank Apartment complex was the highest-density and tallest residential structure in Singapore at 38 stories.  The total height of the horseshoe-shaped complex exceeded 430’ tall and was home for over 1,500 inhabitants.  Designed by Tan Cheng Siong of Archurban Architects & Planners, Pearl Bank served as a beacon of contemporary residential design and acted as precedent to the subsequent high-density urban development in Singapore and throughout southeast Asia.

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BNKR Arquitectura started this proposal with a simple but relevant question: How to conceive an icon landmark for Taichung? Their research explored a wide range of conceptual references in order to find an artistic expression that was coherent with the Taiwanese culture and society. Their main goal of this multifunctional landmark is to blend with the city, not in aesthetic terms but in the ideas of appropriation and belonging. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »