Archinect - News

KPF designs Columbia University's first purpose-built, all-electric research lab building

2024-04-10T18:28:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox has designed a new state-of-the-art research and academic facility that will deliver Columbia Universty’s first purpose-built, all-electric lab building for the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The project will augment Columbia’s Plan 2030 for achieving campus-wide net-zero emissions by 2050. It boasts a system of air source heat pumps (ASHPs) that manage the building’s temperature controls in unison with a high-performance facade that offers an optimized window-to-wall-ratio under 50%.

Credit: RGB, courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)

“As an all-electric research lab building in a cold climate, the biomedical research building presented a particular challenge given high heating loads brought on by the ventilation requirements of the building’s program,” KPF’s Director and Head of Sustainability, Carlos Cerezo Davila, said in a project announcement. “This required us to design a building where the architecture and the mechanical systems work toge...

KPF presents Detroit's new University of Michigan Center for Innovation design

2024-04-05T15:15:00-04:00

A new project in Detroit from Kohn Pedersen Fox will deliver the University of Michigan's Center for Innovation (UMCI), a six-story academic research and teaching facility that is expected to open by the spring of 2027.

Construction has already commenced for the $250 million development, which will be delivered at 200,000 square feet in advance of two other “incubator” and residential structures that will follow at a later date on the four-acre site. The university says the UMCI will serve a host of purposes and is primarily intended for workforce development and different graduate degree programs.

Atrium view. Image credit: Kohn Pedersen Fox

KPF Design Principal Hana Kassem describes: “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation. It proudly bears the University of Michigan spirit focusing on progress and inclusivity which is embodied in its dynamic forward-leaning form and the portal that cuts through...

KPF completes Abu Dhabi airport inspired by undulating sand dunes

2024-02-13T11:58:00-05:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox has completed Terminal A of the Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Formerly named Abu Dhabi International, the new complex will serve up to 45 million passengers per year, doubling the airport’s previous capacity.

Image credit: Victor Romero

The design of the new terminal was informed by the country’s undulating desert sand dunes and the geometric patterns of Islamic heritage. Externally, the form was developed from a desire to provide shading for the interior without the use of external shading devices, which could be impacted by sand accumulation. Instead, the undulating form “drapes” over the facade, where high-performance glass is fritted in a graduated pattern to further mitigate solar glare.

Image credit: Victor Romero

As visitors approach the terminal, they are met with a 160-foot-tall, free-standing glazed facade, behind which sits a largely column-free departure hall. The hall’s supporting arc...

KPF reveals supertall Midtown Manhattan tower behind arched windows

2024-02-05T11:22:00-05:00

KPF has released new images of a supertall tower currently under construction in Midtown Manhattan. Named 520 Fifth Avenue, the tower rises 1,000 feet to “strike a distinctive presence on the most famous skyline in the world and rub shoulders with distinguished architectural icons,” according to the design team.

Image credit: Binyan Studios

When completed in 2025, the 450,000-square-foot tower will contain residential and office functions alongside ground-floor retail. The interiors have been designed to provide “venues of quiet retreat and spirited engagement,” while also targeting LEED, WELL, and WIREDSCORE certifications.

Image credit: Binyan Studios

The scheme’s exterior is defined by a motif of arched windows with design details inspired by the tower’s prominent neighbors including The Century Association, the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, and the Chrysler Building. The tower is also expected to the the second tallest on Fifth Avenue after th...

KPF’s tapered Tower 36 wins approval in Miami

2023-10-30T13:50:00-04:00

The design of KPF’s Tower 36 has been approved by the Miami Urban Development Review Board. Developed in collaboration with architect of record ODP Architecture & Design, the 922,000-square-foot tower will hold both office and retail functions.

Image credit: Atchain, courtesy of KPF

Externally, the 635-foot-tall tapered tower is defined by a glass facade containing terraces on all office floors. The terraces have been “arranged in a configuration that conveys a sense of movement across the building” and detailed with light bronze soffit accents.

Image credit: Atchain, courtesy of KPF

At the base of the tower, a podium holds retail spaces, bicycle, and car parking, and a landscaped roof accessed by a restaurant. The podium strikes a curved form, with the ground level cut away at the northeastern corner to reveal a motor court arrival and office lobby entrance.

Image credit: Atchain, courtesy of KPF

“Accentuating the podium’s cantilevered form and open corners, the façade’s layered patte...

Film and storytelling feature in KPF's latest New York job opportunity

2023-09-13T14:31:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Facilities Accessibility planner at Yale University, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Junior Video Editor-Producer at KPF.

The role, based in New York, calls for an individual who will “assist and support the creation of videos, from production to post-production, with the aim of telling the stories of the projects, process, and people of KPF.” The position is open to recent graduates, or those with 1–2 years of experience in a relevant field.

Why the role interests us

The latest role at KPF offers us the opportunity to reflect on Archinect’s recent coverage of the intersection between video, film, and architecture. In April, we took a closer look at a stunning Nordic hotel that played a prominent role in an episode of the hit HBO series Succession. In the ...

New York Gov. Hochul announces affordable housing plans for KPF's 5 World Trade Center

2023-08-02T14:07:00-04:00

Progress on the 5 World Trade Center (5WTC) project by KPF moves forward after a press conference announcement on July 27 from New York Governor Kathy Hochul. In an effort to build more affordable housing in Lower Manhattan, the news reported by The Real Deal states that the mixed-use skyscraper will also include 1,200 rentals "with one-third designated for low-to-moderate-income within the World Trade Center redevelopment."

In January 2022, Archinect reported on the project and its online petition for creating affordable housing options for 5 World Trade Center. Led by the New York Review of Architecture and Citygroup, the petition called for a "75% increase in the number of affordable units in the 900-foot 5 World Trade Center. The document, titled 100% Affordable, pressed developers to do away with the current plan, which designates 300 of the development’s 1,200 rental units for tenants earning less than 50 percent of the median income, in favor of a more progressive scheme tha...

Sustainable design trends are already outpacing One Vanderbilt's once-lofty green goals

2023-02-16T17:07:00-05:00

It is also the rare skyscraper designed with climate change in mind. It holds a self-contained, catastrophe-resilient power plant capable of generating as much energy as six football fields of solar panels. The building captures every drop of rain that falls on it, and reuses that runoff to heat or cool its 9,000 daily visitors. But One Vanderbilt is also something else. It is already out of date.

New York City’s recent ban on fossil fuels is making the green technology built into the merely two-year-old KPF-designed tower obsolete in terms of energy sources, the NYT's Ben Ryder Howe writes. Foster + Partners’ nearby 270 Park project is cited as an example of the forthcoming delineation triggered by the new mandate.

Speaking to the Times, SL Green’s director of engineering Jonathan Wilcox said it remains “to be determined” which elements, including a set of powerful natural gas-burning turbines, will be replaced in unison with city and state guidelines in the future.

Will Austin’s tall-buildings boom survive the skyscraper effect and looming tech recession?

2023-01-19T17:52:00-05:00

But joining the fraternity of cities with supertalls can also be a dubious distinction: Real estate is a lagging indicator, and skyscrapers often arrive after the boom is over, looming half-empty as monuments to a bust. Others, however, are convinced that Austin’s high-rise stampede is just getting started. Given the city’s emerging significance as a next-gen manufacturing hub this building boom could defy the skyscraper effect.

With a slate of high-rises and supertalls, including KPF’s Waterline design and the record-setting Wilson Tower from HKS in the works, Bloomberg asks if the pace of development can be sustained amidst tech’s downturn and the annals of urban economic history. The salvation apparently lies in the influx of manufacturing dollars into the city, along with a downtown area that offers what some consider to be the nation’s highest overall quality of living.

A planned cap-and-stitch project could add even more commercial parcels along a stretch of I-35 downtown beginning in 2025. The risks of repeating the same tax incentive-driven boom-bust cycle that led to so many of Dubai’s architectural headaches a decade ago are not lost on developers. For now, Austin’s only real crisis is the affordability of homes and a dearth of convenient worker housing.

Related Companies expands into Austin with a pair of new office projects from Gensler and KPF

2022-09-19T12:39:00-04:00

The ever-changing skyline of Texas’ eccentric state capital is getting another pair of new additions after Hudson Yards developer Related Companies announced plans this month for two new separate Austin office buildings designed by Gensler and KPF.

Related says both projects will be located in South Austin and are slated to be completed in 2024 and 2025 respectively. The larger 15-story One Ladybird Lake tower is designed by KPF for a 3.3-acre plot located along the waterfront at the city’s Lady Bird Lake reservoir. Its total 475,000-square-foot construction will include a mixed program of ground-level retail spaces topped by office amenities with four wraparound terraces, a bar, green spaces, and an activated rooftop area created by the local landscaping concern TBG.

One Ladybird Lake by KPF. Image courtesy Related Companies

This is to be joined by a shorter 5-story development located half a mile to the south on 901 South Co...

KPF and Heatherwick reveal design for Changi Airport Terminal 5 in Singapore

2022-09-06T11:51:00-04:00

KPF and Heatherwick Studio have offered an update on the design of Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 in Singapore. Described by the designers as a “bold re-imagination of the airport paradigm,” the new terminal will increase the airport’s capacity by 50 million annual passengers.

KPF and Heatherwick were awarded the bid to design the terminal back in 2018, part of a larger project to deliver 100 additional aircraft stands, a three-runway system, and new cargo complexes. The airport was also the focus of international attention in 2019 with the unveiling of Moshe Safdie’s “Jewel Changi” addition, featuring the world’s largest indoor waterfall.

The design of Terminal 5 adopts an “airport as a city” concept, where each component is seen as an opportunity to create a neighborhood with its own character. The team also bills the terminal as an “engaging new district” of benefit to travelers and locals, echoing Safdie’s move to combine natural and built elements within the airport.

Aerial credi...

How do web developers intersect with architectural practice?

2022-08-03T12:19:00-04:00

In our 2021 feature titled Meet the Architects Designing Software to Fight Climate Change, we explored the intersection between architecture and web development by speaking to four firms who have internally developed software to support their design process.

Among the firms we spoke to was Boston-based Sasaki. In our conversation, we learned that the benefits of creating in-house software and applications led Sasaki to form an entire division of designers, planners, data scientists, and software developers dedicated full-time to web development. Named Sasaki Strategies, the group’s output can vary widely, from interactive apps and software to data visualization and storytelling.

Archinect Feature: Meet the Architects Designing Software to Fight Climate Change

The propagation of such teams within architectural practices will unlock new career opportunities for architects interested in pivoting towards web development; opportunities we have explored in previous editions of our Job Hig...

KPF breaks ground on a new headquarters for T. Rowe Price in Baltimore

2022-03-31T19:36:00-04:00

An exciting birthday gift is underway in the Charm City as Kohn Pedersen Fox has finally broken ground on a new headquarters for T. Rowe Price in the company’s hometown of Baltimore 85 years after its founding.

The project was announced in December 2020 and centers around a new 550,000-square-foot two-winged building with an all-glass central atrium sited along a prime piece of waterfront real estate fronting the pivotal gateway of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area.

Image © Atchain, courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

KPF Design Principal Jeffrey Kenoff said the project will create a “hyper-porosity, both visual and physical, from the Central Plaza down to the harbor. The façade specifically reduces the scale of the massing through a cadence of grey double-height bays that echo the city’s historical DNA and industrial heritage.”

Plans are for construction to be completed in 2024. The building will aim for ambitious Fitwel Three-Star and LEED Platinum certifications in its interiors. T...

Summit One Vanderbilt announces opening date. See the latest pictures here.

2021-09-20T15:59:00-04:00

A dramatic new feature is close to opening atop one recent addition to New York’s skyline.

Summit One Vanderbilt offers visitors of the Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower a multisensory experience as well as an attractive nordic-themed café and lounge in addition to stunning views of the surrounding city that can be taken in from New York’s highest exterior viewing platform.

Image courtesy SL Green

Snøhetta is behind the design of Summit One Vanderbilt’s 65,000-square-foot interior space and lounge called Après. Kenzo Digital’s Air gives visitors an option of two Matrix-like experiential spaces courtesy of Levitation boxes and an all-glass elevator called Ascent that extends to a height of 1,200 feet.

Image courtesy SL Green

“We can’t wait to welcome New Yorkers and visitors to New York to experience this truly unique destination right in the heart of Manhattan connected to Grand Central Terminal. People are going to want to come back to SUMMIT One Vanderbilt again and again.”

Image c...

Five architecture students awarded the 2021 Kohn Pedersen Fox Traveling Fellowship

2021-05-24T16:13:00-04:00

In a continued effort to support and mentor emerging architects and designers, firms like Kohn Pedersen Fox have developed scholarships and fellowship opportunities for students to explore and expand their architecture experiences.

"Each year, Kohn Pedersen Fox presents awards to students who are in their penultimate year at one of the twenty-seven design schools with whom KPF has partnered," shares the firm. "The purpose of the award is to allow students to broaden their education through a summer of travel before their final year at school [...] Recipients are awarded cash prizes to fund summer research on far-reaching topics that push the boundaries of critical thinking and architectural design."

This year's winning fellowship recipients are listed below in no particular order.

Rachel Bouraad of Pratt Institute

Portfolio by Rachel Bouraad. Image courtesy of KPF

Bijou Harding of Cambridge University

Portfolio of Bijou Harding. Image courtesy of KPF

Nicholas Houser of The Universit...

New views of KPF's Midtown supertall show off sky-high greenery

2021-05-12T18:24:00-04:00

A slew of new renderings showing the breadth of the next-gen 343 Madison Avenue have emerged. The supertall tower, developed by Boston Properties and designed by skyscraper pros Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), is currently on the rise atop the former site of the Metropolitan Transit Authority headquarters in Midtown East just one block from Grand Central. [...] The tower will rise 1,050 feet and be among the tallest in the neighborhood.

Kohn Pedersen Fox shares images of newly completed Bundang Doosan Tower

2021-04-15T12:50:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) recently completes the Bundang Doosan Tower in Jung District of central Seoul. With its stacked, interconnected masses, and glass facade what makes this tower so interesting is the 100-meter tall sky bridge connecting the two towers.

Designed for the Doosan Corporation James von Klemperer, KPF President and Design Principal explained, "The Bundang Doosan Tower represents the latest example of KPF’s work in Korea. The design strives for rational simplicity while being highly expressive and impactful. By using office building masses to define a large rectangular void, the composition affords striking views from the highway. The architecture conveys qualities of solidity and strength, and by organizing itself around a central space, it also communicates the value of community."

"In order to construct the skybridge, the 1,500-ton structure was preassembled on site at ground level and then lifted into place over the course of 24 hours." Image credit: Time of Blue...

KPF's first residential tower in Philadelphia, Arthaus, tops out

2021-02-24T15:35:00-05:00

After breaking ground on its first residential high-rise in Philadelphia in June 2019, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates now celebrated the topping out with developer Dranoff Properties. Dubbed Arthaus, the 47-story glass-and-steel tower sits on Avenue of the Arts vis-à-vis the city's Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

View from The Union League of Philadelphia. Photo: Thomas Koloski.

KPF Chairman Eugene Kohn said: "As a Philadelphia native, I feel immensely proud of this project. Arthaus is a major addition to the city skyline, marking the Arts District from afar [...]."

View from South 17th Street and Pine Street. Photo: Thomas Koloski.

"In plan, units are organized in a pinwheel shape around a central core, allowing each residence to occupy a corner of the building," explains the project description. "With large windows and two exposures, every apartment is flooded with natural light and offers panoramic views of the Avenue of the Arts, the Philadelphia skyline, the Delaware and Sch...

Kohn Pedersen Fox selected to design 5 World Trade Center

2021-02-11T17:30:00-05:00

A development team for 5 World Trade Center (5 WTC) has been selected by the Port Authority of NY and NJ. The board voted unanimously during their monthly public meeting to award the bid to Silverstein Properties, Brookfield Properties, Omni New York, and Dabar Development. The board also offered up a snapshot of the design, which comes from none other than Kohn Pedersen Fox. The image depicts a 900-ft skyscraper emerging from one of the World Trade Center’s last developable sites.

The full press release from the Port Authority of NY and NJ...

Award for 5 WTC, the Location of the Former Deutsche Bank Building, Cements Governor Cuomo’s Commitment to Complete the Rebuilding of the World Trade Center Campus

New Mixed-Use Tower to Include First Residential Properties at World Trade Center Campus with Hundreds of Units Designated as Permanently Affordable

Development Team Will Now Enter Exclusive Negotiations for Detailed Lease

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board (LMDC) voted today to approve the recommendation of the selection committee for the Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop World Trade Center Site 5. A partnership led by Brookfield Properties and Silverstein Properties has been selected to enter into exclusive negotiations for a lease for the development of a residential tower on the World Trade Center Campus.

The proposal for the future 1.56 million gross square foo...

Long-plagued Midtown office tower will be reborn as 660 Fifth Avenue: See new looks

2021-02-04T21:00:00-05:00

The office tower formerly known as 666 Fifth Avenue has shed both its superstitious address and its controversial connection to the Kushners. Brookfield Asset Management will undertake a $400 million overhaul of the 41-story Midton office tower. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, it will have a new glass facade and floor-to-ceiling windows, a new lobby and retail spaces, and new outdoor terraces when it’s completed in 2022.

Construction begins on 1.4 million-square-foot office complex in New York city

2020-11-23T12:14:00-05:00

Construction has commenced the 1.4 million-square-foot development, One Madison Avenue, that will transform the existing full-block structure into a 27-floor, state-of-the-art office complex. The design and development team includes Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), developer SL Green, and other partners.

KPF's design for One Madison Avenue updates an existing, mid-century podium and adds an elegant new tower along with over an acre of outdoor space and multiple terraces. The glass-enclosed tower will create a dynamic office space across floor plates upwards of 35,000 square feet.

The 10th and 11th will feature 22' slab heights with expansive outdoor roof decks. By retaining 67 percent of the building's original structure, a notable amount of embodied energy will be reused. The redesign is projected to result in an energy reduction of over 60 percent against the AIA 2030 Commitment baseline, KPF reports.

...

KPF's One Vanderbilt, Midtown Manhattan's tallest office tower, finally opens

2020-09-15T14:27:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox's (KPF) infamous One Vanderbilt tower has finally opened. A project extensively covered on Archinect, the 77-story building now stands completed and open to the public. According to the firm's press team, the tower "transforms the civic experience of the Grand Central district, layering its architectural language and skillfully meeting market demands for cutting-edge, contemporary office space."

“The materials of the building reinforce a Manhattan DNA,” says Jeffrey Kenoff, KPF Design Principal. “The authenticity and quality of these details are not only critical to their relationship within the tower itself, but also to the neighboring buildings including Grand Central and the Chrysler Building. This includes the custom glazed terra-cotta facade and soffits and the bronze podium framing, as well as the main lobby’s bronze “art wall” installation and hammered desk marking the arrival.”

One Va...

KPF to replace parking structure with gridded, metal-clad office tower in Vancouver

2020-06-25T14:45:00-04:00

Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has announced that the firm's 601 West Pender Street project was unanimously approved by the Vancouver City Council at a public hearing earlier this month. The building replaces a six-story parking structure in the city's Central Business District with a new mixed-use tower consisting of a retail base, 29 floors of work spaces, and amenities that offer panoramic views of the city.

"We felt the best way to complete this block of heritage buildings was to create a building that was at once modern and timeless and accentuates its context with scale and color – while bringing nature into the urban fabric," said Marianne Kwok, KPF Design Director, in a statement.

The building uses two metal finishes, textured and flat, to add a more distinct aesthetic to the structure's color and reflectivity. The glass in the main tower is flat, but at the top and bottom the facade folds inwards to create pockets of green space, widen the public offering at the ground level, and ...

Kohn Pedersen Fox breaks ground on terraced Silicon Valley office development

2020-05-18T15:44:00-04:00

Global architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has broken ground on Platform 16, a new 1.2 million-square-foot office and commercial complex slated for a site next door to Google's forthcoming Transit-oriented village in Downtown San Jose, California.

According to a press release published by the firm, "Platform 16 offers access to outdoor space on each floor, and will include active pedestrian plazas, expansive floorplates, and 15-foot floor-to-floor heights, prioritizing the experiences of diverse occupants."

Overall and interior views of Platform 16. Renderings courtesy Plompmozes for KPF.

Additionally, the building's highly articulated facades are crafted to "create a sense of depth and texture with a faceted expression that modulates their scale and evokes an organic composition," a design that, according to the architects, reflects "a nod to the project’s sustainability" attributes. Those sustainability approaches add up, and the project is slated to outperform current AIA 2...

Construction on NYC’s One Vanderbilt supertall tower continues

2020-04-15T13:36:00-04:00

Despite the state-wide shutdown of all non-essential construction projects, work on the 77-story One Vanderbilt tower in New York City designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) is marching forward.

New York YIMBY reports that construction crews are currently hard at work installing the finishing touches on the 1,401-foot tower’s angled crown. The project, developed by SL Green, features sheer blue-glass walls and is topped by a stepped cap marked by angled roof lines. The building will include a 100-foot spire at the very top that has yet to be lifted into place. Additionally, a three-story observation deck, dubbed “The Summit,” designed by Snøhetta, is also included in the project. Gensler is providing interior architecture services for the development.

A rendering for One Vanderbilt. Image courtesy of SL Green.

When the tower is completed, it will rise as the fourth tallest in the city, behind the SOM-designed One World Trade Center, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill’s Central Park Tower, and...

Over 1,100 foot-high observation deck to open in Hudson Yards, will be highest in Western Hemisphere

2020-03-10T11:46:00-04:00

The KPF-designed 30 Hudson Yards has long been deemed the tallest building of the Hudson Yards development, and due to open this month is the anticipated observation deck Edge, which, floating right at 1,131 feet high, will be the tallest observation deck in the Western Hemisphere. Located on the 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards, it will take visitors a 52 second elevator ride to reach the platform's 7,500 square foot viewing area.

Nine-foot tall glass walls of angled glass allow viewers to "lean out over Manhattan." The sky deck also includes a glass floor to further exaggerate the intensity of the observation experience as the deck extends almost 80 feet from the face of the tower.

KPF unveils new mixed-use Boston Harbor Tower

2020-02-05T11:46:00-05:00

A city review of design for The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, a high performance mixed-use tower on the Boston waterfront, is underway. Led by developer The Chiofaro Compant and architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), the new tower will replace a 7-story parking garage that currently sits on the site in question.

“For The Pinnacle at Central Wharf, we worked hard to create a form that responds to the city of Boston,” said KPF Design Principal Trent Tesch in a statement. “The building’s elegant rounded composition steps back in a series of scaled stacked volumes. Its massing is emphasized by the façade’s simple vertical expression, which also diffuses sunlight and wind for a more comfortable experience at the ground plane. Dramatic openings at the base activate the area’s newfound public space...”

The building is anticipated to achieve a LEED Gold rating, which is projected to be achieved through a comprehensive approach to sustainability. A "high-performance envelope" will be introduced...

NYC's architect-led Climate Advisory Board takes shape

2020-01-07T13:34:00-05:00

Jill Lerner, Managing Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), Stas Zakrzewski of Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects, and Arup Principal Fiona Cousins have been appointed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to the city's 16-member Climate Advisory Board to help steer the city's implementation of an ambitious climate agenda for new and existing buildings.

The board helped to enact Local Law 97, the emissions reduction-focused Climate Mobilization Act (CMA) passed in 2019 that was initially billed as banning all-glass skyscrapers in conjunction with the city's "Green New Deal" plan. de Blasio has since walked back from those aspects of the plan, but the initiative's potential to reshape the city's built environment remains.

Local Law 97 creates, for example, a new Office of Building Energy and Emissions Performance (OBEEP) housed within a new Office of Sustainability at the city's Department of Buildings. The OBEEP, according to the legislative text, will be directed by a yet-t-be-named "r...

Alloy Development pushes Brooklyn’s skyline higher with new tower proposal

2019-10-21T12:50:00-04:00

100 Flatbush, a proposed 482-foot-tall mixed-use development, is headed for downtown Brooklyn, where developer-architects Alloy Development have filed permits for for a skyscraper that will add to the borough’s growing skyline.

The 374,336-square-foot development will rise 40-stories and will contain 262 residences, according to New York YIMBY. The tower is also set to include 111,000 square feet of commercial spaces and over 100,000 square feet of community functions.

The tower joins a growing cluster of sky-piercing developments slated for the borough, including SHoP's 9 DeKalb, set to rise 1,066-feet, KPF's 745-foot Brooklyn Point tower, and Studio Gang's 620-foot 11 Hoyt, among many others.

Alloy is also developing 80 Flatbush, a 74-story tower set to rise 986-feet on an adjacent site.

CITIC Tower, Beijing's new tallest building, opens just in time for China's national celebrations

2019-10-04T16:17:00-04:00

Beijing is seeing the completion of two high-profile, record-setting skyscrapers this fall: while the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO Tower with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) will open to the public in November, the 1,732-foot supertall CITIC Tower already opened this week and officially took the crown as the city's new tallest building.

CITIC (China Zun) Tower. Photo: Li Lei

"CITIC Tower’s design draws inspiration from the 'zun', a ritual vessel originating in Bronze Age China," explains the project description from the architects behind the structure's design, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.

"In profile, the tower abstracts and refines the zun’s vase-like form, balancing composition and articulation with structural requirements and leasing depth needs. In plan, the building is square with rounded corners; its width transforms vertically from its 78-meter-wide base to its 54-meter-wide 'waist' to its 69-meter-wide top. Broader at its base than ...