Awards recognize dynamic tall buildings from across the globe
The Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has officially announced the winners of the 17th Annual CTBUH Awards Program at the 2019 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference in Shenzhen in China.
The CTBUH Awards aim to recognise projects and individuals that have made significant contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and urban environment, and that achieve sustainability at the highest and broadest level.
The objective is to deliver a comprehensive and sophisticated view of these important buildings, spaces, and technologies while advocating for improvements in every aspect of their performance – especially those that have the greatest effect on the people who use them every day. This means that the buildings highlighted in the Awards are often not the tallest in a given year, but represent the best qualities and innovations in the global sector.
There were 21 awards categories in the 17th Annual CTBUH Awards Program, with each category having its own set of Jury – made up of a prestigious panel of experts in their field.
This year San Francisco’s tallest building, Salesforce Tower, received the honour of ‘Best Tall Building Worldwide’.
The Salesforce Tower is the tallest building in the city and the first to break the previously established height limit. The primary function of the limit was to ensure no new shadows were cast on neighbouring public parks. To accommodate this, the tower’s design needed to be as slender as possible, tapering in silhouette as it rises, and had to be semi-transparent for 46 metres at its peak.
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects won an international competition in 2007 to design the tower and the Salesforce Transit Center at its base. Together, the two buildings represent a novel approach to public-private collaboration and sustainability in an urban setting.
Now standing at an impressive 326 metres tall, the tower has the simple, timeless form of the obelisk, giving the 61-storey tower a uniquely slender, tapering silhouette.
Salesforce Tower has implemented a blackwater recycling program that is the largest yet to be used in a commercial high-rise project. It also deploys an innovative mechanical ventilation system that brings 100 per cent fresh air to each floor.
In addition to the Best Tall Building category winners, several other award recipients were recognised at the conference.
This included the La Trobe Street Student Accommodation, which was recognised as the ‘Award of Excellence’ winner in the ‘Tall Building Construction’ category.
At nearly 150 metres high, the development will be one of the world’s tallest student accommodation projects to use prefabricated construction methods.
The 783-bed project includes a 43 level tower, a seven level building at the rear of the site and a ground floor café and public access laneway. Terraces, lounges and other communal spaces for studying and socialising are dispersed throughout the development, which was designed to foster a sense of community amongst the student population.
Australian construction company, Hickory Group, utilised patented prefabricated building technology known as Hickory Building Systems to construct the tall building on a 22,000 square metre site in Melbourne’s CBD, enabling the project to be completed in just 22 months and accelerate its construction programme by 30 per cent.
A full list of recognized projects in the Annual CTBUH Awards Program:
Geotechnical Engineering Category Winner: 181 Fremont, San Francisco
Award of Excellence Winners Avalon Brooklyn Bay, New York City Panorama Tower, Miami
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