Archinect - News

Four landmark tall towers by AS+GG: Your Next Employer?

2024-02-05T12:55:00-05:00

Following last week’s visit to San Francisco-based JENSEN Architects, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to Chicago this week to explore the work of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture.

From their studios across Chicago and Beijing, the firm operates along an ethos “dedicated to the design of high-performance, energy-efficient and sustainable architecture on an international scale.” Among the firm’s varied portfolio across mixed-use complexes, corporate offices, and cultural architecture, are a series of significant tall and super-tall towers across the world; projects which recently formed the basis of a book by the firm titled Supertall | Megatall: How High Can We Go?

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for several positions to join their Chicago office. For candidates interested in applying for a position, or anybody interested in learning about the firm’s output, we have rounded up four landmark tall towers by AS+GG that exemplify the studio’s...

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."

One Vanderbilt. Image © Raimund Koch.

“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 Vanderbilt. Image © Raimund Koch.

One Va...

PLP Architecture wins bid to design Holland's tallest timber and concrete tower

2020-01-02T21:20:00-05:00

The London-based architecture firm, PLP Architecture, recently won the international Delftseplein competition for its hybrid tower project known as "Tree House." The $177m (£137m/€160m) project will stand at 459 feet (140 meters) and will be constructed using mass timber and concrete materials.

Said to be the tallest hybrid structure in Holland, the tower will house 275 apartments in addition to other offerings such as office/co-working spaces, cafes, shops, and a restaurant that will sit on the tower's seventh floor.

"Tree House" project in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.. Image courtesy of PLP Architecture

The 37-story building was one of three competition finalists (along with UN Studio and Group A). According to PLP's project statement, "The building is being designed to stand at the forefront of architectural sustainability and will feature a part-timber structure with a concrete core, significant reused and recycled materials, rainwater collection and reuse and CO2 storage. Exter...

Denmark may soon have its own remotely located tall tower in new mixed-use HQ, designed by Dorte Mandrup

2017-08-18T15:31:00-04:00

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter was appointed as advisor and architect for the new mixed-use headquarters of fashion company Bestseller in Brande, Denmark. Located in the company's hometown of Brande, the project will accommodate retail spaces for up to 30 shops, areas for offices, education, and public events, and even hotel facilities for traveling business guests.

Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter.

But the centerpiece of the mixed-use will be a slender tower that Bestseller says will stand at over 200 meters tall. (Anyone else thinking about Morphosis' proposed 381-meter luxury hotel tower in Vals?) More architectural details about the tower are yet to be released. But with Dorte Mandrup's current renderings, the tower will surely stick out in the small railway town of Brande (Population: 7,065 as of 2014). The architects say the building will be Denmark's tallest tower, once built.

Courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter.

According to project leader Anders Krogh Vogdrup, the mixed-use pr...

Meet “The Link”, a new office tower for Paris' business district

2017-05-25T17:35:00-04:00

Philippe Chiambaretta's architecture practice PCA-STREAM unveiled the scheme for The Link, a new office tower in Paris' La Défense business district. At 244 meters tall, The Link will be the district's tallest tower, PCA says. In 2018, a 6,500 square-meter plot will be cleared out for its construction.

© PCA-STREAM

PCA-Stream designed The Link as two towers interconnected by thirty platforms, addressing the lack of horizontality and connectivity in the typical office tower. Each of these “links” will be at least 8 meters wide with terraces and hanging gardens on each floor, and will serve as collaborative working and meeting spaces for employees. “They act as real ‘village squares’ within the high-rise tower,” the architects describe.

© PCA-STREAM

The 52-floor building will comprise a total of 120,000 m2 of floor space, and can accommodate up to 10,000 employees. The scheme also includes two sky lobbies, three auditoriums, restaurants and cafes, and recreational sports facilities. Con...

Ping An Finance Center surpasses One WTC as world's fourth tallest building, CTBUH reports

2017-03-29T15:12:00-04:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat officially declared the Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen as the world's fourth tallest building — knocking One World Trade Center down to Number 5 in the CTBUH's ten tallest buildings in the world. Rising above Futian District at 599 meters, the Ping An tower is Shenzhen's tallest building and China's second tallest.

As of March 2017, the CTBUH's top three tallest buildings are the Burj Khalifa, the Shanghai Tower (which recently pushed Chicago's Willis Tower out of the CTBUH's top 10 tallest buildings), and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower.

Developed by Ping An Finance Center Construction & Development, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates designed the tower like a “taut steel cable” with a public atrium at the base and floors of office space for the Ping An group and other tenants. Its streamlined shape reduces baseline wind loads by 35 percent and comprises eight composite megacolumns. Most notably, the Ping An...

World's tallest elevator tower is going up

2016-05-12T12:37:00-04:00

Elevator manufacturer Otis will build the world’s tallest elevator test tower in Shanghai, as part of the company’s bid to develop lifts for skyscrapers in China and around the world. The elevator test tower will be 270 metres high and it is an anticipated to be the tallest above-ground test tower in the world upon completion, Otis said on Tuesday.

In addition to being the home of the tallest building in the world with Gensler's Shanghai Tower, in 2018 Shanghai will also have the distinction of having the globe's tallest elevator test tower, which, to judge from Otis' renderings, could be described generously as occupying the extreme end of functionalism.

Meanwhile, in other sky-is-the-limit project news: