by Brianna Crandall — July 22, 2013—Highly distinctive towers in Canada, China, the UK and UAE have been named the best tall buildings in the world for 2013 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The four regional winners include The Bow in Calgary, Canada (Americas); CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, China (Asia and Australia); The Shard, London (Europe); and Sowwah Square, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Middle East and Africa).
An overall winner for the “Best Tall Building Worldwide” will be named from the four regional winners at the CTBUH 12th Annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Illinois Institute of Technology, November 7, in the iconic Crown Hall, designed by Mies van der Rohe. The 10-Year and Innovation awards will be announced separately prior to the ceremony.
The Council received more than 60 entries from around the world for the Best Tall Building awards. “The winners and finalists include some of the most striking buildings on the global landscape,” said Jeanne Gang, awards jury chair and principal of Studio Gang Architects. “They represent resolutions to a huge range of contemporary issues, from energy consumption to integration with the urban realm on the ground.”
The CTBUH Best Tall Building Awards are an independent review of new projects, judged by a panel of industry executives. Projects are recognized for making an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and for achieving sustainability at the broadest level.
This year the CTBUH Board of Trustees awarded the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award to Henry Cobb, founding partner of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. His list of tall-building achievements includes Hancock Place in Boston and the Library (US Bank) Tower in Los Angeles. Past winners of the Lynn S. Beedle Award include Helmut Jahn, Lord Norman Foster, Cesar Pelli, William Pedersen and Adrian Smith.
The Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal went to Clyde Baker, senior principal engineer at AECOM, who has performed geotechnical engineering for seven of the 16 tallest buildings in the world, and a major portion of the high-rise buildings built in downtown Chicago over the past 50 years, including nine with deep basements and slurry walls.
Winners and finalists are featured in the annual CTBUH Awards Book, which is published in conjunction with a major global publisher and distributed internationally each year.
Americas:
- Winner — The Bow, Calgary, Canada
- Finalist — Devon Energy Center, Oklahoma City, USA
- Finalist — Tree House Residence Hall, Boston, USA
Asia and Australasia:
- Winner — CCTV, Beijing, China
- Finalist — C&D International Tower, Xiamen, China
- Finalist — Park Royal on Pickering, Singapore
- Finalist — Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China
- Finalist — Sliced Porosity Block, Chengdu, China
Europe:
- Winner — The Shard, London, UK
- Finalist — ADAC Headquarters, Munich, Germany
- Finalist — New Babylon, The Hague, Netherlands
- Finalist — Tour Total, Berlin, Germany
Middle East and Africa:
- Winner — Sowwah Square, Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Finalist — 6 Remez Tower, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Finalist — Gate Towers, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is a leading resource for professionals focused on the design and construction of tall buildings and future cities worldwide. A not-for-profit organization based at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the group facilitates the exchange of the latest knowledge available on tall buildings around the world through events, publications and its extensive network of international representatives. Its free database on tall buildings, The Skyscraper Center, is updated daily with detailed information, images and news. The CTBUH also developed the international standards for measuring tall building height and is recognized as the arbiter for bestowing such designations as “The World’s Tallest Building.”
