Archinect - News

JAHN-Designed Japan Post Tower to Open in Tokyo

2013-03-13T13:53:00-04:00

Tokyo has a new skyscraper: the Japan Post Tower, a 38-story high-rise building designed by Helmut Jahn's Chicago firm in collaboration with Mitsubishi Jishu Sekkei, will hold its official grand opening for all commercial space Friday, March 21, 2013.

eVolo 2013 Skyscraper Competition Winners

2013-03-12T20:42:00-04:00

Our friends at eVolo Magazine just announced the winners of the 2013 Skyscraper Competition. The annual award, established in 2006, recognizes design visions that rethink the conventions of vertical living and the use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. [...] The winners were selected for their creativity, ingenuity, and understanding of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities.

To commemorate the award, eVolo published a collector’s edition of its highly acclaimed book eVolo Skyscrapers. The book is a two-volume, 1300-page set with the best 300 projects received since 2006. Only 150 copies are available worldwide.

United Bank of Addis Ababa Entry by Söhne & Partner Architekten and BET Architects

2013-02-26T19:29:00-05:00

Viennese practice Söhne & Partner Architekten has shared with us their competition entry for the new United Bank building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The tower design with the dragon-scale facade was conceived in collaboration with Ethiopian firm BET Architects.

Massive mixed-use project in Hollywood clears a hurdle

2013-02-20T16:47:00-05:00

A proposal for two skyscrapers that would flank the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood gained the approval of the city's planning department Tuesday despite push-back from dozens of disgruntled residents. The Millennium Hollywood plans are the most ambitious in a string of revitalization projects in the area, including the W Hotel and the Hollywood & Highland Center. The $664-million mixed-use development could include more than 1 million square feet of apartment, office and retail space.

Previously: First Plans Released For Huge Towers Next to Capitol Records

Essence Financial Building by OMA

2013-02-07T13:17:00-05:00

Yesterday we published a first image of OMA's latest competition win, the Essence Financial Building in Shenzhen. Here is the project now in more detail.

Previously: OMA to Design Essence Financial Tower in Shenzhen

OMA to Design Essence Financial Tower in Shenzhen

2013-02-06T17:25:00-05:00

OMA has been awarded the first place in the international design competition for the Essence Financial Building in Shenzhen, China. OMA Partners David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas are heading the project which they intend to be a new generation office tower for Shenzhen.

UPDATE: Click here to see the project in more detail.

Gehry’s 8 Spruce Street Wins Emporis Skyscraper Award

2012-12-12T14:45:00-05:00

The ten winners of the 2011 Emporis Skyscraper Award have been announced with New York City's 8 Spruce Street tower taking home the top place. The winners were chosen from over 220 skyscrapers completed in 2011. Now in its 12th year, the award program rewards ten skyscrapers completed in the previous calendar year.

Tianjin Hotel Entry by HAO / Holm Architecture Office

2012-12-11T13:22:00-05:00

Danish firm HAO / Holm Architecture Office has shared with us its competition entry for a high-end hotel in Tianjin, Northern China.

Ten-Story Building In 48 Hours: 'Instacon' Building Reportedly Completed In Two Days In India

2012-12-03T12:55:00-05:00

A 10-story building in India made headlines this week after it was reported to have been successfully constructed in only two days. According to NDTV, the construction of the building, located in an industrial area in the city of Mohali, began on Thursday afternoon at 4.30 p.m. local time. It was reportedly completed on Saturday, also at 4.30 p.m.

First Plans Released For Huge Towers Next to Capitol Records

2012-11-01T13:39:00-04:00

The new buildings will be designed by Gary Handel Architects and Roschen Van Cleve Architects, but these renderings, like the rest of it, are conceptual. Landscape starchitect James Corner Field Operations (of New York's High Line and Santa Monica's Civic Center Parks) will design "extensive open space, street-level plazas, and enhanced pedestrian circulation encompassing approximately 25 percent of the entire site."

View more from the Millennium Hollywood website.

UPDATE: Massive mixed-use project in Hollywood clears a hurdle

Guangzhou International Finance Center Wins 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

2012-10-15T15:43:00-04:00

Guangzhou International Finance Center in China by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won the RIBA 2012 Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. Now in its sixth year, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new building outside the European Union.

Barkow Leibinger’s Tour Total Opens in Berlin

2012-10-12T17:41:00-04:00

Tour Total, the latest project by German firm Barkow Leibinger, opened yesterday in Berlin. The 18-story tower, new home to the Germany headquarters of oil company TOTAL, is the first piece of the so called "Europacity" behind Berlin Central Station.

AS+GG Wins Competition for Qintai Center in Wuhan, China

2012-10-02T17:42:00-04:00

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture has just won another competition for a skyscraper in Asia: earlier today, the Chicago firm was announced as the winner of the international competition to design Qintai Center, a 248-meter (814-feet) tall, high-performance corporate headquarters tower and related podium structure in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Goettsch Partners Designs New Bank Tower in Abu Dhabi

2012-09-07T17:56:00-04:00

Chicago architecture firm Goettsch Partners has designed the flagship commercial development for UAE-based Al Hilal Bank in the heart of Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island, formerly known as Sowwah Island.

UNStudio Designs New UIC Building ‘V on Shenton’ in Singapore

2012-08-03T20:40:00-04:00

We have received images of Ben van Berkel / UNStudio's design for the new UIC building, ‘V on Shenton’, in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District. The office/residential twin tower concept is scheduled for completion in 2016.

Murphy/Jahn Designs Pentominium for Seoul’s Yongsan District

2012-05-23T17:32:00-04:00

Seoul's new Yongsan International Business District continues to dominate the news:

Now we just received images of Pentominium, the 320-meter-tall residential development designed by Chicago-based Murphy/Jahn Architects.

Project Description from the Architects:

The Yongsan International Business District will set a new standard for an integrated global city. Situated on a high-profile site in the western side of the district, plot R5 houses a signature topend residential building, 320m in height, which will attract the most exclusive clientele from both Korea as well as the rest of the world. These Pentominium units will provide unsurpassed urban living experiences, with spatial and privacy features normally associated with individual houses.

In order to maximize w...

AS+GG Designs Dancing Dragons Complex for Seoul’s Yongsan District

2012-05-10T17:51:00-04:00

Chicago-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture just released its design for Dancing Dragons, a pair of landmark supertall mixed-use towers for the new Yongsan International Business District in Seoul, South Korea. The buildings, which include residential, “officetel” and retail elements, consist of slender, sharply angled mini-towers cantilevered around a central core.

The AS+GG towers will find themselves in close proximity to MVRDV's highly controversial The Cloud towers.

Yabao Hi-Tech Enterprises Headquarter Park by 10 Design

2012-05-01T13:58:00-04:00

International architectural practice 10 Design has shared with us their concept of a headquarter park for pharmaceutical company Yabao in Shenzhen, China. Construction of this massive project already commenced last October and is well underway.

One World Trade Center to become NYC's tallest building...today!

2012-04-30T13:28:00-04:00

More than a decade after a terrorist attack brought down New York's twin towers, their under-construction replacement will become the city's tallest building on Monday. The placement of a column of the 100th floor will bring the colossal new steel structure of One World Trade Center tower to a height of 1,271 feet – surpassing the frame of the Empire State Building, which is currently New York's tallest skyscraper, by 21 feet.

BIG’s 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe Tower for Vancouver

2012-04-17T14:38:00-04:00

Copenhagen darlings BIG have unveiled their design for the 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe tower in Vancouver, a collaboration with Westbank, Dialog, Cobalt, PFS, Buro Happold, Glotman Simpson and local architect James Cheng. The new mixed-use tower marks the entry point to downtown Vancouver, forming a welcoming gateway to the city, while adding another unique structure to the city's skyline.

After the first leaked renderings from a few weeks ago, here some official images from BIG directly.

Gehry Luxury Tower Boasts Hong Kong’s Priciest View

2012-04-12T21:03:00-04:00

Built for Swire Properties Ltd. (962), the structure cost HK$27,000 ($3,477) per square foot to construct, including land premium. A standard high-rise apartment in the city can cost as little as $HK4,000 per square foot to build, according to Swire Chief Executive Officer Martin Cubbon. “Of course, it’s going to be enormously expensive by any standards,” says Cubbon. “In rental values and capital values, it’s going to command the highest numbers that Hong Kong has ever seen.”

Residential skyscrapers come of age in Britain

2012-04-12T12:23:00-04:00

Because towers take so long to plan and construct, the current crop reflect a vision up to a decade old, reckons Nick Offer of Arup, an engineering firm. Economic conditions and the scale of such projects mean that only the very brave will invest now... In 2010 the coalition scrapped the previous, Labour government’s density targets, which were designed to encourage developers to build more units. Instead it has endorsed “garden cities”

499.SUMMIT - Jersey City Prison Design

2012-04-06T20:35:00-04:00

499.SUMMIT is a conceptual proposal for a futuristic high-rise urban penitentiary in Jersey City which seeks to challenge the conventions of traditional prison design. The project, a collaborative effort by grad students Andreas Tjeldflaat and Gregory Knobloch, was part of the PennDesign studio FUTURE PRISON DESIGN.

Coal Power Plant Mutation by Bogdan Chipara

2012-03-12T21:19:00-04:00

In our previous post, we just published the winners of eVolo's 2012 Skyscraper Competition. This entry here, Coal Power Plant Mutation by Romanian architect Bogdan Chipara, was one of the Honorable Mentions and suggests a radically new design approach towards fossil fuel power plants.

eVolo 2012 Skyscraper Competition Winners

2012-03-12T20:37:00-04:00

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2012 Skyscraper Competition. The annual contest—now in its sixth year—honors visionary ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution.

Tokyo’s skyline takes on a foreign flavor

2012-03-09T15:11:00-05:00

Although Japan boasts some of the most highly regarded architects in the world, many of the buildings that define the Tokyo skyline are the work of foreign architects.

Foster + Partners-designed Hermitage Plaza Granted Building Permit

2012-03-07T17:17:00-05:00

Foster + Partners announced today that Hermitage Plaza, the ambitious high-rise project in Paris, France, has been approved and was granted the Permis de Construire. The twisted twin towers – at 320 meters aiming to be Western Europe's tallest mixed-use towers – promise to create a new community to the east of La Défense, bringing the life of central Paris to the business district with a riverside park lined with cafes and restaurants.

SOM to Design the Greenland Group Suzhou Center in Wujiang, China

2012-01-18T13:46:00-05:00

The Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has won an international competition to design Greenland Group Suzhou Center, a 358-meter supertall landmark tower, in Wujiang, China. This is SOM Chicago’s sixth project with the Greenland Group.

Unit Fusion Housing Project by Y Design Office

2012-01-03T16:37:09-05:00

International design and research collaborative Y Design Office has sent us the proposal Unit Fusion, a modular, plug-in high-rise residential typology for Hong Kong. As of yet, the 75-story tower project is still in its conceptual design phase.

MVRDV designs The Cloud for Seoul’s Yongsan Dreamhub

2011-12-08T15:32:00-05:00

And here's another Dutch firm that just designed an unusual residential tower for a booming Asian metropolis: Yongsan Dreamhub corporation presented the MVRDV-designed residential development of the Yongsan Business district in Seoul, South Korea: two connected luxury residential high-rises. A 260 meter tall tower and a 300 meter tall tower are connected in the center by a pixelated cloud of additional program offering amenities and outside spaces with wide views.