Highlighting the best tall building construction from 2014, Best Tall Buildings: A Global Overview of 2014 Skyscrapers chronicles the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s (CTBUH) annual awards process, which recognizes outstanding tall buildings and design innovations that advance the potential of integrated sustainability in cities across the world.
Each year, one winner is chosen from each of four geographical regions (Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa). The title of overall Best Tall Building Worldwide is then presented to one of the four regional winners.
The steel-framed Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Ore., received the honor of Best Tall Building in the Americas. The building is a renovation of an existing 1970s office tower -- transforming a banal, concrete-encased “energy hog” into a high-performing, attractive building that seems more lightweight by an order of magnitude, yet affords more floor space than the previous version.
Sydney, Australia’s One Central Park was named the Best Tall Building Worldwide. The 75-story steel and concrete luxury apartment building’s striking helical shape turns 90 degrees over the course of its 1,000-ft height. Each floor is identical in plan, but is set 1.2 degrees clockwise from the floor below, giving the tower a distinctive form by way of an innovative, efficient, repeatable structure.
Additionally, the book features the winners for a number of other prestigious awards including the Urban Habitat Award, The CTBUH Innovation Award, The Performance Award and the Lifetime Achievement awards, all in an attempt to recognize and celebrate the greatest achievements in large scale architecture and construction.
The book is published by CTBUH in conjunction with IIT, Tongji University, and Routledge / Taylor and Francis Group, and is distributed internationally each year. For more information and purchasing details, visit the CTBUH store.