Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, Russia
This 87-story, 1516-foot-tall
tower is known as the Lakhta Center on the coast of the Gulf of Finland
in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was developed by the Joint Stock
Company and the architect was RM3M.
The tower has a variety of public uses, including a planetarium, a medical center and a science education center.
18 Robinson in Singapore
The
591-foot-high tower at 18 Robinson in Singapore was developed by Tuan
Sing Holdings Limited and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
The 28-story tower is dramatically raised, angled and obiliquetly,
above its podium base at a highly visible intersection, and the upper
tower is significantly chamfered while its lower portion is lightly
chamfered. The upper tower's facade abounds in thin mullions that
exaggerate its modest height.
The "levitation" of the prism-like upper tower is sensationally subtle.
Leeza SOHO in Beijing
The
46-story tower known as Leeza SOHO in Beijing was developed by SOHO
China Co., Ltd, is a 679-foot-high office building that was
designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
It anchors the Lize Financial Business District and straddles a new
subway line that diagonally divides the site.
From the outside, it resembles a slit "boom-boom" dress.
Leeza SOHO's interior
The
circular tower tapers at its top and at its bottom but its banded
fenestration is boldly interrupted by windows that sinuously reveal its
very exciting and spectacular atrium, perhaps the architectural firm's
greatest creation - a platinum roller-coaster trip.
Inside, the atrium resembles a giant squid's shiny intestinal fortitude
with suckers galore!
One Thousand Museum in Miami
A
second project by Zaha Hadid Architects in the book is the 62-story One
Thousand
Museum tower on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami that was developed by
Regalia Beach Developers that was headed by Louis Birdman, Gregg Covin
and Kevin Venger. It was designed by Hadid before her death in
2016.
The tower is 699 feet tall and has an exoskeleton composed of about
5,000 pieces of glass-fiber reinforced concrete that were shipped from
Dubai. The tower roxes from a low-rise podium that is largely
perforated with small holes but centrally highlighted by very large
lobster-like "claws" that look like albino ruins from Jurassic
Park. The lower levels of the tower have balconies and the
tower's top has a 28-foot-high swimming room. There is a helipad
on the roof, a screening room and very dramatic and handsome concierge
desk in the lobby and a spiraling and perforated ceiling in the spa.
The building is not a swan, nor a sleeping beauty, but, as is typical
of many of Hadid's designs, fluid and unexpected.
She had an italic eye.
The Exchange 106 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The
1,460-foot-tall known as The Exchange 106 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,
was developed and designed by the Malia Group. The floor
plan is a square with circular elements and night its 65-meter faceted
crown is illuminated.

Kuala base
The tower has two
low-rise elements at its base, one angled and one eliptical, that
provide an interesting contrast at grade to the tower's imposing and
impressive verticality.
The Brunel Building in London
The
15-story, 233-foot-high Brunel Building in London was developed by
Derwent London and designed by Fletcher Priest Architects.
The council's book provides the following commentary:
"The building's exoskeleton was derived from a desire to reference the
Great Western Railway, as well as the wider engineering heritage of
Paddington Station. Combined with its aesthetic appeal, it also
serves an engineering function in supporting the building over the two
subterranean tunnels of the Bakerlook Tube Line, while helping to
create flexible column-free interiors."
The bold angled bracing of the exoskeleton is very dramatic and "for
the first time since Paddington Basin was opened more than 200 years
ago, the public has acccess to a new tree-lined canal towpath."
271 Spring Street in Melbourne
Another
mid-bride building with "crazy" angled facade bracing is the
17-story, 241-foot-high building at 271 Spring Street in
Melbourne was developed ISPT Super Property and designed by John Wardle
Architects.
The tower is dramatically cantilevered over two historic low-rise
buildings and the top of the cantilever is slightly angled as the
building's roofline.
The lower half of the building, including most of the steeply angled
cantilever, has an random assortment of angled, projecting frames that
give the base a very prickly, spiked appearance.
White Tree in Montpellier, France
White Tree, a mid-rise residential building in Montpellier, France is the epitome, or possibly, nadir, of balconies run riot.
It was deverloped by Promeo, Opalia Urban Workshop and designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects.
The various-sized, rectangular balconies project from the tower tower
like drawbridges and some has stairs to upper levels and the overall
effect is an albino bristling cactus tree. In addition to the
balconies, the apartments have thin pergolas to provide some shade and
add more complexity to the structure's dizzy aesthetic.
U. S. Embassy in London designed by Kieran Timberlake
The most unattractive building in this year's crop is the U.S. Embassy in London designed by Kieran Timberlake.
It replaced an embassy designed by Eero Saarinen that was an impressive
Brutalist foray into a Georgian-style neighborhood. This
mid-rise, boxy structure rises from an two-story-high base with angled
piers. Its main facade conjures a frozen cave of bulbous
stalagtites with a two-story hole near its top at one corner just to
add a hint of unbalance.