by Ann Withanee — August 15, 2011—The winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2010 is Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona, Spain. An expert committee annually presents this award to an exceptional building at least 100 meters tall completed within the award year. The critically acclaimed prize for global architecture is now in its 11th year.
The winner was chosen from over 300 competing skyscrapers around the world. Porta Fira, with its fascinating visual appearance, beat out the world’s highest structure, Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The jury says it weighted Porta Fira’s aesthetics and integration into its urban environment over humankind’s fascination with building the tallest structure.
Porta Fira rises to a height of 113 meters, with 26 floors, on the outskirts of Barcelona in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. The two architecture companies, Toyo Ito & Associates and b720 Fermn Vázquez Arquitectos, conceptualized the surreal structure noted for its organic design with a façade of red aluminum tubes that form continuous lines enclosing the complex geometry of the building, which twists and increases in size as it rises.
The second-place winner, Burj Khalifa, was heralded for its technical achievements. The skyscraper towers over Dubai at 828 meters, with 163 floors. The world icon designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill surpasses the world’s second highest skyscraper, Taipei 101, by an impressive 319 meters.
The building in third place, Tour CMA CGM in Marseille, France, was recognized as a symbol of modernity and is situated a mere 500 km from the winner. Tour CMA CGM reaches a height of 143 meters, with 33 floors. The elegant glass tower is nestled near the historic harbor of Marseilles.
The Top 10 winners are:
- Hotel Porta Fira, Barcelona
- Burj Khalifa, Dubai
- Tour CMA CGM, Marseille
- The Pano, Bangkok
- Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi
- The Legacy at Millennium Park, Chicago
- Strata, London
- Capital City Moscow Tower, Moscow
- Torre Diagonal ZeroZero, Barcelona
- International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong
- Goldman Sachs Headquarters, New York City
In 2010 buildings from the Mediterranean coast dominated the top three of the Emporis Skyscraper Awards. Places four to ten, however, were occupied by nominees from all over the world, from Bangkok, to Moscow, to New York. The judges expressed pleasure in the regional diversity. Facilities managers are sure to have noticed the worldwide trend to ever-higher buildings, and may appreciate the Emporis site’s data covering most of the world’s major structures, their construction status, images, and highlights of their building information.
The Emporis Skyscraper Award is described as the only prize for high-rise architecture awarded annually and on a global basis. Nominees and winners are chosen from Emporis’ database by Emporis editors, who are building and architecture experts from all over the world. Essential information on the buildings, as well as images, is available to the public on the Emporis Web site.
