Did you know that the Sears Tower (now renamed as the Willis Tower) is currently the tallest steel building in the world?
Tall steel buildings are possible thanks to Fazlur Khan, SOM engineer behind several innovations in terms of structural design. On Construction Week Online we found this list of the ten tallest steel buildings in the world, with Kahn’s buildings on the 1st, 5th and 10th place.
All the buildings after the break:
Egyptian architect Hunia Tarek Tomoum shared with us her proposal for the eVolo 2010 Skyscraper Competition. Her proposal is a three-dimensional structural mesh of variable size tetrahedrons where two different grids overlap to allow diverse programs and circulations. The building consists of a series of large pockets or community hubs with public amenities such as restaurants, theatres, parks, and plazas connected to diagonal units with offices, residences, and hotels.
The circulation network of vertical cores and diagonal elevators connects the community hubs with the private units. The tetrahedron skyscraper is planned as a see through mesh that will interact with the city and enrich the urban fabric – a visual pedestrian continuity is achieve by lifting the structure and creating open areas at ground level.
More images after the break.
Our director, David Assael, took some shots of Gehry’s latest creation – a wavy residential tower clad in undulating metal panels. While still in the construction phase, it is easy to get the overall idea of the structure. In person, the tower demands attention as its presence, due both to scale and materiality, is unmatched within its context. Throughout the day, the light plays upon the curves making the hard metallic color almost glisten. Some of Assael’s photos capture the tower in the early evening – the perfect time of day to see the reds and oranges of the setting sun against the building. What do you think of Gehry’s skyscraper?
More of Assael’s photos after the break.
London based architects Anthi Grapsa and Konstantinos Chalaris shared with us their entry for the Piraeus Tower 2010 Competition, for which they gained commendation.
Mekano, a team of young Egyptian architects shared with us their proposal for the Piraeus Tower 2010 Competition, for which they received an honorable mention. More images and architect’s description after the break.
One World Trade Center has reached a construction milestone by rising 260 ft above street level. Upon its completion in 2013, it will become the tallest office building in the United States reaching 104 stories.
Our friend and architecture photographer, Iwan Baan , just published on his website some of his recently shot images of Steven Holl’s Horizontal Skyscraper in Shenzhen, China . The project is a long mixed-use complex which includes office spaces, apartments, a hotel and even a public landscape. Baan’s photos illustrate Holl’s idea that the “building appears as if it were once floating on a higher sea that has now subsided; leaving the structure propped up high on eight legs.”
Complete photoset at Iwan’s website, more images and more about the project after the break.
We just featured an article about London’s construction frenzy, which includes over half a dozen skyscrapers for the city. This new era will completely alter the city’s skyline as tall buildings will be sprouting everywhere to house new office, commercial, and residential activities. Of these new structures, Renzo Piano’s 310 meter high mix-used tower, The Shard (be sure to check out our coverage of the tower), will not only become London’s tallest tower, but also the tallest building in all of Western Europe. Of all of London’s new developments, we are excited to see this dynamic tower’s impact on the city and its relationship with London’s context and future neighboring skyscrapers.
We have new images to share from Renzo Piano Building Workshop and more video clips of the construction progress after the break.
London’s skyline is about to get a complete makeover. While in the past, almost every tower proposed was stalled due to financial shortcomings, or workers just leaving the job site, now, London is dusting off their old building plans and getting ready to move into a construction frenzy. Thanks to Kieran Long’s article at the Evening Standard we get to know more details about this process:
Being awarded the Pritzker means you’ve hit it big. Having that ribbon placed around your neck proves you’re top dog in the architecture world and you’ve practically become a household name….doesn’t it? While that may seem that case for Gehry and Hadid, even Piano and Meier, the Pritzker’s seventeenth honoree, (France’s first laureate, in fact) Christian de Portzamparc sometimes feels forgotten.
San Francisco based IwamotoScott sent us their latest tower development produced for the Greenwich South design study led by Architecture Research Office, Beyer Blinder Belle and Architects & Planners and OPEN. Contributing architects, artists and designers included Coen + Partners, DeWitt Godfrey, IwamotoScott Architecture, Jorge Colmbo, Lewis.Tsuramaki.Lewis Architects, Morphosis, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Transolar Climate Engineering and WORKac.
