Marina One in Singapore
This
three-building, mixed-use complex is known as Marina One and was
developed in Singapore by M & S Ptd Ltd and designed by Ingenhoven
Architects of Dusseldorf, which won an international competition for
the project.
Its 740-foot-high office tower is behing its two 462-foot-high residential towers that contain at total of 1,042 apartments.
The usable area of the project's green space is 125 percent of its site coverage.
The
organic shape of the building complex with its iconic louvres and the
generous planting contribute to an improvement of the microclimate and
increase biodiversity. Inspired by Asian paddy field terraces, the
green centre formed by the four towers - with its multi-story
three-dimensional gardens - reflects the diversity of tropical flora
and creates a new habitat. This "Green Heart" comprises over 350
different types of trees and plants, including 700 trees, on a
landscaped area of 37,000 square meters.
The thin angled fence atop the office building mirrors the complex curves of the gardens below.
Ocasio Hotel Downtown in Singapore
The council's book has the following commentary on "Nature and Height Interwine" in its introduction:
"The Ocasio Hotel Downtown...literally wears its green heart on its
sleeve, with a green plot ratio of 1,000 % - that is, the amount of
greenery on the site is now 10 times what it was before the building
was constructed. The perforated metal facade, painted bright red, is
festooned with creeper vines, revealing itself in a dynamic dance with
the changing growth, attracting animals and insects. Offices,
hotel and club rooms are located on different strata, each with its own
sky garden."
The building was developed by the Far East Organization and was designed by WOHA Architects.
The book notes that "the permeable facade lets the interior light shine
through at night, giving the tower the look of an illuminated
abstraction of a Chinese lantern."
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Ping An in Shenzhen,
China
The
115-story, 1,965-foot-tall tower is known as the Ping An Finance Center
in Shenzhen, China and was the second highest in China and the fourth
tallest in the world when it was completed. It was designed by
Kohn Pedersen Fox.
Ping An top in
Shenzhen, China
The tower is slightly tapered
at its bottom and top and its slim form has 8 corners that are
highlighted by its angled bracing. It is the world's largest
stainless steel facade.
Lotte World Tower in
Seoul
Another SuperTall by Kohn
Pedersen Fox is the Lotte World Center in Seoul. The 123-story tower
is 1,819 feet tall and was developed by Lotte Property &
Development.
The council's book provided the following commentary:
The curved line of the building references the gracefulness of dynastic
periods in Korean Art, inspired by the traditional Celadon ceramic
vases, bowls and cups.
It has a 2,036-seat concert hall on the eighth floor of its retail
podium and the top of the tower has wind turbines. Its slightly
"open" top appears as a flower just about to bloom.
Guangzhou CTF Finance
Centre in China
The Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre in China is another SuperTall design from Kohn Pedersen Fox. The 1,739-foot-high tower, the seventh tallest in the world at ttime of its completion. has four angled parapets.
Urby
in Jersey City
This very dramatic, 69-story apartment tower at 200 Greene
Street between Morgan and Bay streets is the first of three planned for this
site in Jersey City near the Hudson River across
from Lower Manhattan.
It is also known as Harborside, 34 Exchange Place.
All towers will be similar with shifted floor plates creating “jenga” style silhouettes. This
713-foot-high tower, which is known as Jersey City Urby, will contain 762
rental apartments and the complex will have a total of 2,358 units when
completed. This tower is scheduled for
completion in 2017.
Ironstate Development, the Roseland Residential Trust and Mack-Cali
Realty Corporation are the developers.
Concrete and HLW are the architects.
This “drunken” tower totters over its conventional neighbors
in Jersey City and was the second tallest in New Jersey when completed. The
shifted stacks of the three towers planned in the complex will vary in height and position, but will share
façade treatments.
Though not as wildly shifted and luxurious and as high in
feet but not floors as 56 Leonard Street, designed by Herzog & de Meuron in
Lower Manhattan, this is a sedate version of the new “crazy and wild”
architectural aesthetic as exercised by SHoP Architects at the Domino Sugar
waterfront site in Brooklyn or its “joined at the hip” American Copper
Buildings near the Manhattan entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which was also cited in this year's book by the council.
This tower and 56 Leonard are variations on the “jenga”
concept of shifted blocks and that word is derived from a Swahili word for
“build” and is the name of a game created by Leslie Scott with children’s wood
building blocks acquired from a sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana and subsequently
marketed by Parker Brothers.
The slight shifting here is not as pronounced as some
cantilevered projects because the shifting alternates and reverses resulting in
a relatively vertical structure with some bumps.
While eye-catching, the push/pull visual play of the tower
is not terrifying, but terrific.
150 North Riverside in
Chicago
With
a pinched based only 12 meters wide, this very sleek, 724-foot-tall
tower at 140 North Riverside in Chicago was developed by Riverside
Investment & Development and designed by Goettsch Partners.
One of the handsomest modern buildings in Chicago, it fronts on
the Chicago River and it has an angled, glass-enclosed lobby that
has its cantilevered edge facing a long rows of 89 LED blades that vary
in lengths and widths. The floors in the tower are column free
and the narrow site was long considered unbuildable because of its
railroad tracks that have now been covered over.
Canaletto in London
This
rugged, 314-foot-tall apartment building is known as the Canaletto and
was developed in London by Groveworld and designed by UNStudio.
It has an extremely strong facade texture what alternates two- and
three-story groups with remarkable punctuation and sensational
composition.
The council's book provides the following commentary:
"The interplay of the balcony, the cowled overhang, and the
asymmetrical floor plates create highly nuanced outdoor spaces for the
individual units, some of which are rounded in three dimensions, that
cleverly blend sensations of enclosure amd exposure."
Raffles
City Hangzhou in China
Another, much larger design by UNStudio is the 845-foot-high Raffles City Hangzhou in China was developed by Capital and China. The mixed-use project has a heliport and retail.
The architects' website provides the following commentary:
"Raffles
City Hangzhou is a sustainable urban hub for living, working and
leisure located in Hangzhou, one of China’s most picturesque cities. It
forms the eighth Raffles City development in China. Situated 180
kilometres south-west of Shanghai, Hangzhou is one of China’s most
prosperous cities, especially renowned for its scenic landscapes.
Located in Qianjiang New Town near the Qiantang River, this mixed-use
development becomes a major landmark along the green axis of the city’s
new CBD. A rich mix of 24/7 functions occupies almost 400,000m within
two streamlined towers set atop a podium and landscaped plaza.
"As
Capital of the Zhejiang province, Hangzhou is steeped in tradition with
a view to the future. While the city’s heritage focuses on the
picturesque UNESCO heritage-listed West Lake, its future points to a
new economic, political and cultural centre orientated towards the
river. With strong future ambitions especially concerning
sustainability, economy and livability, Hangzhou is a city on the move.
Raffles
City Entrance
"In
the design of the two towers, the urban face of the project twists
towards the landscape, while the landscape aspect, in turn,
acknowledges the urban context. Through this, the urban context and the
landscape of the city are consolidated in one gesture. The main
entrance to the south of the corner site appears as a prominent gateway
from the city park and civic centre, as it borders both the urban
built-up context and green axis/city park that connects West Lake to
the Qiantang River. Reflecting the movement in the river, the tower
design features a wave-like motion. These concentric waves increase in
their dynamism, starting calmly at the base and building up more
vigorously along the vertical axis."
Raffles City Hangzhou is not the only extraordinary mixed-use project of UNStudio as its V on Shenton in Singapore is another wild and surprising major project.
Chaoyang
Park Plaza in Beijing
A more modest, two-tower
complex is the Chaoyang Park Plaza in Beijing that was developed by the
Beijing Jinga Properties Co, Inc., and designed by MAD Architects.
The council's book provides the following commentary:
"The scheme expresses the
'Shanshui City' philosophy, derived from the East Asian perception of a
world imbued with an affinity for nature. The design translates
natural elements found in classical Shanshui landscape painting into a
large sculptural art form that evolves a spiritial resembalance to
nature on a city scale. The two main towers reference 'the mountains';
the space between them 'the valley'; and the low-rise commercial and
residential buildings, which are also part of the master plan, as
'rocks,' forming 'the creek.' The towers' facdades are composed
of single-curved, cold-bent, dark, reflective glass that gives the
feeling that the architectural complex is naturally growing out of the
ground, rather than having been built, while evoking the resonance of a
Chinese ink painting."
The project has a top-floor atrium and several two-story "skyspaces".
Huangshan Mountain
Village in China
The
council's book contains this commentary on the Huangshan Mountain
Village in China, which was developed by the Greenland Group and
designed by MAD Architecture:
"A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the
region of Huangshan in Eastern China borders many ancient villages
using traditional architecture and embedded with a deep history. The
site of the Huangshan Mountain Village is on a hillside, with a rolling
landscape that offers a great view toward Taiping Lake, and the famous
Huangshan Mountain....The design team organized the buildings of this
residential project in a linked configuration across the southern slope
of the lake, so that they form a dynamic relationship with the site and
each other, establishing a new type of village landscape: one where
architecture becomes nature, and nature becomes architecture.
Each of the project's 10 buildings, the book continued, "has
been composed in deference to the local topography, whereby the
contour lines of the landscape continue into the shape of each volume,
so that they appear to be 'growing' out of the mountainous terrain."
Zeitz MOCAA in Cape
Town, South Africa
The
council's book provides the following commentary about the mixed-use
building known as Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, that was
developed by Victoria and Albert Waterfront and designed by Heatherwick
Studio:
"Since 1924, one of the most identifiable structures in Cape Town,
South Africa, was a massive grain storage and silo complex, constructed
by the South African Railways and Harbours Company on the downtown
waterfront. The building had sat unused since 2001....It was
decided that the grain silo could be transformed into a new home
for the Zeitz Foundation's art collection....The top portion of the
taller building was transformed into a luxury hotel....The two major
parts of the complex were connected by a central atrium carved from the
silo's cellular structure. Main circulation routes are housed
within the atrium, via cylindrical lifts that run inside two bisected
concrete tubes....From the outside, the greatest visible change in the
building's original structure is the addition of the glass windows
inserted into the geometry. These multi-faceted windows bulge
outward as if gently inflated. By night, this transforms the
building into a glowing beacon in Table Bay."
Beirut Terraces
Beirut
Terraces is a 392-foot-tall waterfront residential project that was
developed by Benchmark and designed by Herzog & de Meuron.
The 27-story building has a very distinctive silhouette with each floor different with protruding, perforated terraces.
Larry Silverstein was named the council's Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award.
