Compendium of researched high rise buildings

COMPENDIUM OF RESEARCHED CONTEMPORARY HIGH-RISE BUILDING TYPES VOLUME 2 J U L I A N SUPERVISION:

S E F I R O W ___ PROFESSOR PETER

A N D R E LAND _

L I N D N E R IIT Chicago

INTRODUCTION

These two encyclopedias are researched international compilations of outstanding, innovative contemporary and pioneering projects in wide-span and high-rise projects. Andre Lindner and Julian SeďŹ row from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany prepared the volumes. Both came to the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology as Research Associates for the Fall Semester, from August to December 2005, to work under my guidance. The encyclopaedias incorporate the listings developed by me over past several years , which form the basis of my own project design development work at IIT. The criteria for project selection include innovation in the areas of structure, skin/façade, materials and products, energy concepts and performance and sustainability concepts.

These volumes constitute a unique and needed reference database for other pursuing work in these two important areas. Andre and Julian are to be congratulated on this work executed with thoroughness and excellence in a short period of time.

Professor Peter Land

INTRODUCTION

These two encyclopedias are researched international compilations of outstanding, innovative contemporary and pioneering projects in wide-span and high-rise projects. Andre Lindner and Julian SeďŹ row from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany prepared the volumes. Both came to the College of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology as Research Associates for the Fall Semester, from August to December 2005, to work under my guidance. The encyclopaedias incorporate the listings developed by me over past several years , which form the basis of my own project design development work at IIT. The criteria for project selection include innovation in the areas of structure, skin/façade, materials and products, energy concepts and performance and sustainability concepts.

These volumes constitute a unique and needed reference database for other pursuing work in these two important areas. Andre and Julian are to be congratulated on this work executed with thoroughness and excellence in a short period of time.

Peter Land Professor

CONTENTS

01. WIND TOWER _ UK _ Sinisa Stankovic _ 2001 02. SKYRISE TOWER _ New York _ Buckminster Fuller _ 1972 03. TURNING TORSO _ Malmรถ _ Santiago Calatrava _ 2004 04. NEW YORK TOWER _ New York _ Santiago Calatrava _ 2006 05. BUSINESS PROMOTION CENTER _ Duisburg _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1993 06. CENTURY TOWER _ Tokyo _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1991 07. COMMERZBANK TOWER _ Frankfurt _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1997 08. HUMANA COMPETITION TOWER _ Louisville _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1982 09. HONG KONG BANK _ Hong Kong _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1985 10.MILLENNIUM TOWER _ Tokyo _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 1989 11. SWISS RE TOWER _ London _ Norman Foster & Partners _ 2003 12. PROJECT 112 _ London _ Future Systems _ 1984 13. GREEN BUILDING _ London _ Future Systems _ 1990 14. ZED TOWER _ London _ Future Systems _ 1995 15. MARINA CITY _ Chicago _ Bertrand Goldberg Associates _ 1962 16. CHONGQUING TOWER _ Chongquing _ Haines Lundberg Waehler _ 1994 17. POST TOWER _ Bonn _ Murphy / Jahn Architects _ 2003 18. HOOKER BUILDING _ New York _ Cannon Design Inc. _ 1980 19. WING TOWER _ Glasgow _ Richard Horden _ 1993 20. UMEDA SKY BUILDING _ Osaka _ Hiroshi Hara Atelier _ 1993 21. RWE HEADQUARTERS _ Essen _ Ingenhoven, Overdiek, Kahlen & Partners _ 1996 22. KAJIMA COMPANY HEADQUARTERS _ Tokyo _ Kajima Corporation _ 1990 23. GLASS SKYSCRAPERS _ Berlin _ Mies Van Der Rohe _ 1921 24. TOUR SANS FINS _ Paris _ Jean Nouvel _ 1989 25. BANK OF CHINA _ Hong Kong _ I. M. Pei & Partners _ 1990 26. PETRONAS TOWERS _ Kuala Lumpur _ Cesar Pelli & Associates _ 1997 27. POTSDAMER PLATZ _ Berlin _ Renzo Piano _ 1999 28. PIRELLI TOWER _ Milan _ Gio Ponti _ 1956 29. FORD FOUNDATION _ New York _ Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates _ 1963 30. LLOYDS BUILDING _ London _ Richard Rogers Partnership _ 1986 31. LLOYDS REGISTER OF SHIPPINGS _ London _ Richard Rogers Partnership _ 2000 32. KABUKI - CHO TOWER _ Tokyo _ Richard Rogers Partnership _ 1993 33. DAIWA FINANCE HEADQUARTERS _ London _ Richard Rogers Partnership _ 1999 34. TURBINE TOWER _ Tokyo _ Richard Rogers Partnership _ 1992 35. SINO LAND TOWER _ Hong Kong _ Paul Rudolph _ 1989

CONTENTS

36. GROLLO TOWER _ Melburne _ Harry Seidler & Associates _ 2000 37. AUSTRALIA SQUARE _ Sydney _ Harry Seidler & Associates _ 1967 38. MLC CENTER _ Sydney _ Harry Seidler & Associates _ 1978 39. SOLAR CHIMNEY _ Mildura _ Schlaich, Bergermann & Partner _ 2008 40. LAKE POINT TOWER _ Chicago _ Schipporeit & Heinrich _ 1968 41. ALCOA BUILDING _ San Francisco _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1967 42. INLAND STEEL BUILDING _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1957 43. JOHN HANCOCK BUILDING _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1969 44. NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK _ Jeddah _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1983 45. ONE MAGNIFICENT MILE _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1983 46. SEARS TOWER _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1974 47. SEVEN SOUTH DEARBORN _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 2004 48. SHELL PLAZA _ Houston _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1971 49. THREE FIRST NATIONAL PLAZA _ Chicago _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 1981 50. 500 STOREY TOWER _ Houston _ Robert Sobel _ 1975 51. CITYCORP CENTER _ New York _ Hugh Stubbins & Associates _ 1977 52. TREASURY BUILDING _ Singapore _ Hugh Stubbins & Associates _ 1986 53. WORLD TRADE CENTER _ New York _ Minoru Yamasaki _ 1973 54. MENARA MESINGA TOWER _ Selangor _ Dr. Ken Yeang _ 1993 55. NARA TOWER _ Tokyo _ Dr. Ken Yeang _ 1993 56. 1000 FEET TOWER / 1500 FEET TOWER _ Milwaukee / New York _ Lev Zetlin 57. TAIPEE 101 _ Taipee _ C. Y. Lee _ 2004 58. WFC SHANGHAI _ Shanghai _ Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates _ 2007 59. BURJ DUBAI _ Dubai _ Skidmore, Owings & Merrill _ 2008 60. SEAGRAM BUILDING _ New York _ Mies Van Der Rohe _ 1958 61. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING _ New York _ Shreve, Lamb & Harmon _ 1931 62. FORDHAM SPIRE _ Chicago _ Santiago Calatrava _ 2009 63. ONE-MILE-HIGH SKYSCRAPER _ Illinois _ Frank Lloyd Wright _ 1956

DESCRIPTION

A group of architecture students at Stuttgart University, led by Professor Stefan Behling, has produced a series of experimental designs for tall buildings with built-in wind turbines, using the extra wind power gained by height. The designs include floating towers that exploit the high winds across open water, and linked towers with several wind turbines placed in between. Buildings with integrated wind turbines could generate at least 20 percent of their own energy needs, and perhaps all. They would be more power efficient than ordinary wind farms or solar powered constructions, say UK researchers.

Curved towers would funnel wind towards the turbines and improve efficiency, the researchers say. Preliminary testing on a seven-metre prototype, designed by Mecal Applied Mechanics in the Netherlands and erected at the UK’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, indicates that the design could be twice as efficient as a stand-alone wind power generator, despite the fact that it does not move to face the wind. Wind speeds in urban areas are typically about two thirds of those in rural areas, so the extra efficiency is vital, says the team. Wind power is in general more cost effective and takes up less space than solar power. A typical mast generator is around five times less expensive than photovoltaic solar panels that produce the same power. These panels would also be likely to occupy 10 times as much space.

“We are talking about a huge potential,” says Sinisa Stankovic of project coordinators BDSP Partnership. “Twenty percent should be a minimum.” Other experts are impressed. “At face value the potential would seem to be enormous,” says Marcus Lee, an architect with the Richard Rogers Partnership in London. “Integrating turbines into buildings could be a new paradigm.”

Wind turbines in rural areas are often criticised for detracting from the landscape and for generating noise pollution. Stankovic says noise insulation around the turbines could dampen sound. Traffic in cities would also drown out most of the noise, he suggests. Architects at the University of Stuttgart have created a prototype design for a two-tower 200-metre tall building with three integrated turbines. Each turbine would need to be 30 metres in diameter to generate a minimum of 20 percent of the energy needed by a building of this size.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Sinisa Stankovic

United Kingdom

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2001

BDSP

200 m (656 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 48

structure would have to be carefully considered, as the turbines could have a dramatic cooling effect on the building.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

1. WIND TOWER

Stankovic says it is hard to put a price on the design. Integrating wind turbines into a building would be expensive but still a small fraction of overall building costs, he says. However Lee says the unusual curved shape could prove very costly. “It’s going to take time, and capital investment is always a problem,” he says. Lee adds that the thermal dynamics of the

PLANS

Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: curved towers would funnel wind towards the turbines and improve efficiency

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material:

ENERGY CONCEPT: integrated wind turbines generate at least 20 percent ofconcept: their own energy needs; Structure turbine diameter: 30 m (98.4 ft) MATERIAL: Skin concept: steel, glass

Energy concept:

1. WIND TOWER

Function:

FUNCTION: offices

DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Buckminter Fuller

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

1972

Buckminter Fuller

HEIGHT: STORYS:

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

2. SKYRISE TOWER

You’ve got to be impressed by Buckminster Fuller. Here was a man who could take a basic idea like his geodesic dome and wring every last drop out of it. He was also a great enough genius not to allow anything as petty as reality to get in his way. Take his Harlem River Project. Anybody can make a plan for brogadignagian towers linked by ridiculous sky bridges, but it takes a man of true inspiration to come up with a design that totally ignores the entire community they glower over.

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

2. SKYRISE TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Visible for miles around, this extraordinary, high-rise building, located in the city’s Western Harbour, is quickly becoming one of the city’s landmarks. The Turning Torso was designed by renowned Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. It is based on one of his sculptures which was inspired by the human form in motion.

The entire building turns 90° as it climbs upwards over nine blocks or cubes, each of which consists of five floors. This very impressive structure contains 54 storeys and reaches a dizzying height of 190 meters. Office facilities have been installed in the first two cubes and, from the third cube up, 150 apartments totaling 15,000 m² are available. As the building increases in height, the wall thickness of the circular core tapers from a maximum 2.00 m in the ground plan to 40 cm at the top.

The framework consists of the core, shaped like a concrete pipe. Inside the core a concrete construction houses lift shafts and staircases. The structural slabs, shaped like slices of a pie that are fitted together to form an entire floor, are anchored in the core. Each floor is rotated to create the characteristic twist of the building. All formwork elements are suspended on a distribution frame via a crane crab. Slabs and walls are cast in one pour. Through the use of PERI Uniportal slab tables for two standard floors and one intermediate arched floor, pre-determined concrete cycles can easily be maintained. Construction crews need nine days to complete a standard floor which means work is progressing exactly according to plan. The contractors are very satisfied with the formwork technology from Weissenhorn as site manager, Jörgen Holm, commented: “We received the best solution from PERI. All work could be carried out on safe and spacious levels. Shuttering and striking as well as climbing functioned extremely well.”

The façade is curved aluminium panels, with windows leaning either inwards or outwards, in order to follow the twist of the building. An exoskeleton around the building’s front face is made of tapered white steel tubes. Following the concrete perimeter column, the exoskeleton’s single upright is fixed to the tower between each module with horizontal and inclined tubes. These tubes reach back to steel anchors embedded in shear walls at the building’s back corners. While the spine column takes perimeter vertical loads, the exoskeleton around it provides wind resistance and dampens the building’s vibrations.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Santiago Calatrava

Malmö, Sweden

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2004

Santiago Calatrava

190 m (623 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 54

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

energy through an innovative energy concept provided by Sydkraft. Electricity is available via wind-power parks and heating is supplied by solar cells and underground water reservoirs.

The non-hazardous building materials, especially windows and exterior walls, maximize the building’s efficiency. All kitchens are equipped with a waste disposal unit for grinding organic waste. The waste is transported to a collection tank for decomposition plants that produce biogas, an alternative to cooking gas and vehicle fuel. Recycling is also made convenient for all occupants, as it was also strictly implemented during the construction process where sorting of building materials is often times neglected. Turning Torso was developed in conjunction with housing development organization HSB.

3. TURNING TORSO

Turning Torso utilizes ecologically minded construction methods and materials, energy sources, and lifestyle options. The tower is supplied with 100% locally produced renewable

Function: FUNCTION: appartments, commercial area Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: consists of nine elements twisting 90 degrees from bottom to top

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE central core shaped like a concrete pipe; exoskeleton concept: Structure ENERGY CONCEPT: electricity is available via wind-power parks, Skin concept: heating is supplied by solar cells; underground water reservoirs

Energy concept:

3. TURNING TORSO

PLANS

PLANS

Hight floor – floor: thickness:

VOLUME: Hight floor 90,000 m³

Material: SKIN CONCEPT: curved aluminium panels Structure concept: MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass, aluminium

Skin concept: HEIGHT FLOOR - FLOOR: Floorspan: 3.18 m – 3.89 m (10.43 ft – 12.76 ft) Leasspan:

Energy concept:

3. TURNING TORSO

Function: AREA: 27,000 m²

DESCRIPTION

Renowned Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava is normally associated with public places on a grand scale. The Athens Olympic Sports Complex, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center Transport Hub, plus dozens of the most beautiful buildings in major cities around the world - airports, opera houses, bridges, train stations. Calatrava creates landmarks. Now he has teamed with one of New York’s leading construction companies to design a visually striking, 835-foot-tall residential tower to be developed on the East River waterfront, just blocks from the World Trade Center site. Calatrava’s residential design is important - almost certainly he will go down in history as one of the great architects, though his career is still yet young, the opportunity to buy a Calatrava-designed apartment will come at a great price.

Inspired by Mr. Calatrava’s own works of sculpture and based on his formidable knowledge of structural engineering, the slender, soaring tower will be the architect’s first residential project in the U.S. At present, the building is named after its address, 80 South Street Tower.

The tower’s residences, described as “Townhouses in the Skyy,” will consist of modular, 45foot cubes. Twelve cubes, each containing four floors, will be cantilevered from, and stacked along, the tower’s vertical axis. The tower’s base is envisioned as the new home for a cultural or other institutional user.

The design of 80 South Street Tower is a new idea within this theme. Twelve glazed cubes are cantilevered in ladder-like steps up the building’s slender vertical core. The core and a pair of slim vertical spines stabilize the structure.

The tower will contain 175,000 square feet of public cultural and private living space. As envisioned by the architect, each of the townhouse cubes may contain its own individual elevator.

Original plans call for two-story living rooms, but Mr. Calatrava said that he would be willing to design interior spaces according to the new residents’ requirements. Fronting each cube’s exterior, an expansive terrace garden will be formed by the roof of the cube directly below it.

Mr. Sciame said, “This terrace will generate the visual effect of having, literally, a townhouse in the sky. If one wanted even more of a townhouse feeling, the design could incorporate a grand exterior stair leading from the apartment’s terrace to an entrance at the cube’s first level.”

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Santiago Calatrava

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2006

Santiago Calatrava

255 m (835 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 48

or suspended in space, held in place by taut wires. Mr. Calatrava has varied the number of cubes and their arrangement, creating different sculptural expressions out of the same basic elements. Watercolor drawings of the human body have also contributed to the series.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

4. NEW YORK TOWER

The design of 80 South Street Tower evolved from a theme that Mr. Calatrava began investigating some 20 years ago through a series of sculptures, in which marble cubes are stacked

Function: FUNCTION: museum, restaurant, residential building Hight floor – floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE vertical core; in plan a slender concrete rectangle Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: 12 cubed-shaped glass townhouses attached to a central core

SKIN CONCEPT: doubleconcept: glazed façade Skin

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 16,300 m² VOLUME: 86,000 m³

MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass Energy concept:

4. NEW YORK TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

In Germany, where the issues of energy and pollution are taken more seriously than elsewhere, the practice has demonstrated the financial case for going beyond even the standards set by legislation. The Business Promotion Centre demonstrates that sensible energy systems can, in some cases, help to reduce the first cost of a building; it is a landmark in the quest to revive business and promote social change in the Ruhr area.

The seven-storey building is lens-shaped on plan with a steel roof curving down over its three terraced upper floors. At ground level, the entrance extends into a doubleheight banking and exhibition hall. The intermediate floors are a combination of cellular offices and meeting spaces, culminating in the grand internal three-storey terrace.

The outer skin is multi-layered and so efficient that no heating is required, even in the coldest northern winter. Cooling systems, rather than occupying a huge floor or ceiling void, have been miniaturised and integrated within the fabric of the building. Instead of using chilled air, dramatic drops in temperature can be achieved by moving chilled water through pipes, distributed through a system similar to the fins on a car radiator.

The curved, double-skin façade of the lens-shaped building at the edge of the complex consists of clear single glazing situated 20cm in front of the full-height insulating glass façade.

The single glazing consists of 1.50 x 3.30 m toughened, 12 mm thick panes suspended in vertical aluminium profiles by means of Planar bolts. The profiles are suspended from the edge of the roof and attached to the intermediate floors for transfer of horizontal loading.

The inner façade skin consists of storey-height side-hung windows with thermally broken aluminium profiles and insulating glass units; outside is a 6mm float glass, inside is an 8 mm laminated glass with low-E coating and the cavity between is filled with argon gas. The Uvalue of the whole double-skin façade is around 1.4 W/m²K. Perforated, computer-controlled aluminium blinds are incorporated into the cavity between the two skins. Air is injected at slightly higher than ambient pressure into the lower part of this cavity and through the effects of warming a natural stack effect results. This air rises and removes heat from the louvre blinds and continues upwards to be expelled into the open air through small openings by the roof edge.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Duisburg, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993

Norman Foster & Partners

30 m (98 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 7

The building generates and harvests its own energy. It burns natural gas and, by means of a co-generator, makes its own electricity. The by-product of that process - heat that would normally be wasted - is put through an absorption cooling plant to produce chilled water. This is not only an ecologically responsible solution: the developer makes a significant annual profit from energy management.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

5. BUSINESS PROMOTION CENTER

The idea of combining a suspension structure with the double glass facade is adopted. By applying a double glass façade, this building used a displacement ventilation system; The proposed addition to Cowgill Hall achieves the same result of saving energy by reducing cooling load.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, exhibition area

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel truss

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: lens-shaped building with a steel roof curving down over its three terraced upper floors

ENERGY CONCEPT: Photovoltaic cells (sun’s enery into electric power); solar panels (heat water) Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 4,000 m²

SKIN CONCEPT: fully glazed double skin facade (200 mm depth) Energy concept:

VOLUME: 17,000 m³

MATERIAL: steel, glass

5. BUSINESS PROMOTION CENTER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Century Tower is located near a main arterial road and a railway line running through Tokyo’s Bunkyo-Ku district, a historical area with primarily low-level buildings. The entire plot was used for the building, whose underground plinth contains a museum, restaurant, sports club and swimming pool. Great importance was attached to giving the Century Tower a unique appearance. Transparency and stratification are used to evoke the spirit of Japan.

The two towers are formed by two storey blocks and are connected throughout by an impressive 71.3-m high central atrium. The mezzanine floor is suspended from the principal loadbearing framework. In their use of the atrium, Foster & Partners have been able to create a completely open office building without the restrictions imposed by fixed interior installations or supports.

Servicing and sewed areas are distinctly separated. Fire escapes, service lifts and shafts, toilets and air-conditioning are all located in the east section. The elevators for office employees and visitors are located in the west façade. The centrally open atrium requires special fire prevention measures, and in the atrium itself there is constant excess pressure so the smoke can be extracted in case of fire.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Tokyo, Japan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1991

Ove Arup & Partners

136 m (446 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 19 / 21

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

6. CENTURY TOWER

The Century Tower’s façade is dominated by the load-bearing framework. The form is the result of intensive research to develop a structure able to withstand both earthquakes and typhoons. The same requirement applied to the 2-storey-high windows, which, in addition to coping with normal wind loads, must be able to withstand much greater thrusts.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, museum, sports club, restaurant, apartments Hight floor – floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE principal load-bearing framework

Hight floor thickness:

SKIN CONCEPT: dominated by the framework

CONCEPTION: two towers connected by an impressive 71.3 m high central atrium Floorspan:

Leasspan: AREA: 26,600 m² VOLUME: 100,000 m³

Structure concept: Skin concept: MATERIAL: glass, reinforced concrete

Energy concept:

6. CENTURY TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The city was in favour of having the building set back from the street, but the architect wanted to show that the tower was rooted to the ground. Finally, as a compromise, the conventional block edge facing Kaiserplatz was left completely sealed. Only a small passage leads to the raised gallery at the foot of the tower whose 29-m shaft can be seen in its full majesty from Zur Grossen Gallusstrasse. The confined urban space on this side of the street has created a density hitherto unknown to Frankfurt, but no longer so far removed from the Manhattan model of a street lined by skyscrapers.

The plan of the building is triangular, comprising three ‘petals’ - the office floors - and a ‘stem’ formed by a full-height central atrium. Pairs of vertical masts enclose services and circulation cores in the corners of the plan and support eight-storey Vierendeel beams, which in turn support clear-span office floors. Four-storey gardens are set at different levels on each side of the tower, forming a spiral of landscaping around the building, and visually establishing a social focus for village-like offices clusters. These gardens play an ecological role, bringing daylight and fresh air into the central atrium, which acts as a natural ventilation chimney for the inward-facing offices. The gardens are also places to relax during refreshment breaks, bringing richness and humanity to the workplace, and from the outside they give the building a sense of transparency and lightness. Depending on their orientation, planting is from one of three regions: North America, Asia or the Mediterranean.

The reinforced principal bearing structure is situated behind the façade. Together with the 8-storey Vierendeel beams, the two reinforced composite columns at each of the rounded corners create a rigid frame. Firmly held in a 3-storey reinforced concrete box in the groundfloor and basement area, it forms a rigid tube. This structure and the girders at the sides of the atrium support the continuous steel beams on which the floors rest. These beams, in turn, are fixed to the concrete floors by means of headed studs and profiled sheet to form a reinforced connecting slab at every fourth storey. Being light in comparison with reinforced concrete, the steel structure allows clear-span offices with flexible floor areas.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Frankfurt, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1991 - 1997

Ove Arup & Partners

259 m (850 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 60

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

operating costs are relatively low, since the heating, mechanical ventilation and waste-air extraction as well as the chilled-water ceiling panels need only be switched on to supplement natural sources when weather conditions are adverse. Vertical shafts containing the lifts and emergency staircases provide access to the rest of the building; these shafts, which also contain the installations, are located in the rounded corners of the triangular plan. The building owes its striking appearance to the solid, rounded corners as well as the multistorey stacks of offices suspended between them and separated vertically by glazed garden terraces, which were originally intended to be open. The façade’s technoid appearance is created by a surface composed entirely of glass, steel and aluminium.

7. COMMERZBANK TOWER

The building has a double façade with adjustable solar shading. The gardens and the atrium create well-aired room zones around the office areas, thus keeping out disturbing environmental influences such as traffic noise, dazzle and overheating due to direct sunlight, as well as excluding the wintry cold, winds and the weather. They thus create a healthy climate within the building and permit natural, individually adjustable ventilation and illumination of all the interior rooms. Energy loss is kept to a minimum. The utility

Function: FUNCTION: bank, offices, restaurant, shops Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: triangular building, comprising three ‘petals’ AREA: Floorspan: 86,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 500,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced principal bearing structure (situated behind façade) Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: surface composed entirely of glass, steel and Skin concept: aluminium.

MATERIAL: Energy concept: reinforced concrete, steel, glass, aluminium

7. COMMERZBANK TOWER

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

7. COMMERZBANK TOWER

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

7. COMMERZBANK TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

A six-story atrium and an outdoor sculpture garden afford multi-use public space at the base of a 32-story cylindrical tower. Triangulation of the circular shaft’s perimeter structure transmits floor and wind loads to the foundation, minimizing vertical columns. Rectangular service towers are propped against the curved outer wall, and a communication spire is mounted above a rooftop helipad.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Louisville, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

1982

Norman Foster & Partners

HEIGHT: STORYS: STORYS: 32

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

8. HUMANA COMPETITION TOWER

Besides displaying an electrographic sky-sign that flashes local news, weather, time, and the Humana logo, this electronic mast would be equipped with satellite antennas, a three-way video link to hospitals, and a local microwave hookup.

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material:

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: cylindrical tower with six-story atrium and outdoor sculpture garden

Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

8. HUMANA COMPETITION TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank is located on one of the most splendid sites in Hong Kong’s business centre and stands in a direct line with the Star Ferry Terminal. Between the bank and the harbour, there is a park and a multi-storey car park. The classical style of the existing law-court building (directly neighbouring the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank) offers the most striking contrast to the bank. The bank tower emphasises the importance of both the Chinese-British territory of Hong Kong and the company itself - the foremost bank in the Far East and Hong Kong’s central bank within the international financial world. As an institution and symbol, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank expresses the confidence placed in the future of Hong Kong. The ground-floor access area to the bank is interesting in terms of urban context: a public space has been created by allowing the public to traverse the building. From lower level, escalators lead to the bank’s enormous, internal atrium.

The vertical loads are transferred by a total of eight columns of cantilever transfer structures in combination with hangers. Together with the diagonals and verticals providing reinforcement tension, they form the dominant features of the façade. Horizontal loads are absorbed by reinforcing storeys.

The requirement to build in excess of one million square feet in a short timescale suggested a high degree of prefabrication, including factory-finished modules, while the need to build downwards and upwards simultaneously led to the adoption of a suspension structure, with pairs of steel masts arranged in three bays. As a result, the building form is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces.

The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter so as to create deep-plan floors around a ten-storey atrium. A mirrored ‘sunscoop’ reflects sunlight down through the atrium to the floor of a public plaza below – a sheltered space that at weekends has become a lively picnic spot. From the plaza, escalators rise up to the main banking hall, which with its glass underbelly was conceived as a ‘shop window for banking’.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Hong Kong, China

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1985

Ove Arup & Partners

180 m (590 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 44

Foster’s magnificent building represents a new aesthetic, which no longer distinguishes between the science of engineering and the “art” of architecture. The façade design demonstrates how the structure itself can become ornamentation and the structural principle a stylistic device. In designing the building, Foster drew on the principles underlying suspension bridges, which make an internal supporting structure superfluous.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

9. HONG KONG BANK

In designing this building, the aim was to create extensive unified areas and thus achieve transparency and maximum flexibility. For this reason, nearly all the vertical structural elements, as well as the circulation and service shafts, are arranged on the building’s external skins. The cores are located in the east and west façades. Vertical movement is provided by a combination of express lifts, with central escalators for local circulation. The form of the building reflects the circulation density, which decreases towards the top.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE bracing system that reinforces the glass curtain wall

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: eight columns of cantilever transfer structures

MATERIAL: steel, glass

Skin concept: AREA: Floorspan: 99,000 m² Leasspan:

Energy concept: VOLUME: 300,000 m³

9. HONG KONG BANK

Function: FUNCTION: bank, offices

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

9. HONG KONG BANK

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

9. HONG KONG BANK

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Foster was commissioned by the Japanese Obayashi group of companies to carry out a study into the possibilities and effects of a building complex standing alone in the sea, or more specifically: in Tokyo Bay. The complex was to have its own independent urban statics as a vertical city of 50000 inhabitants.

Foster’s design envisaged a causeway and a mole around the base of the tower. They were to establish a visual relationship between the verticality of the skyscraper and the horizontal expanse of the ocean, whilst the sudden change in the character of the natural surroundings would surprise visitors approaching by car, train or boat. Formally, the tower is a free-standing structure without an axial relationship to the mole.

The Millennium Tower is a tube-in-tube, structure consisting of an outer cone and a slender supply core. In trials made with various structural forms to test wind bracing and earthquake resistance, the conical form proved to be the most favourable, especially with regard to building costs and construction time.

Inside the tower, there is a central supply core providing technical services and access, which is either by express lift or slower local lifts. The upper two-sevenths of the tower are open and designed to accommodate solar and wind energy collectors, among other things.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

Tokyo, Japan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1989

Obayashi Corporation

840 m (2,754 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 170

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

10. MILLENNIUM TOWER

At first glance, the tower seems very compact. Its conical form flattens the lattice of the external bearing structure at the lower levels, whilst intensifying it towards the top. This use of dynamic lines adds emphasis to the shape of the building. When approaching the tower, one notices the “sinews” of the external structure with their alternating closed and open surfaces.

The transparent cladding reveals the heterogeneous space within the tower, thus dispelling all notions of an “isolated island” from the very start.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE tube-in-tube structure

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: conical tower with helical steel cage (woven like a basket)

ENERGY CONCEPT: generating its own energy (solar and wind energy collectors) and processing its own waste Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 1,040,000 m² VOLUME: 3,700,000 m³

MATERIAL: steel, glass Energy concept:

10. MILLENNIUM TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: multifunctional skyscraper

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

10. MILLENNIUM TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The 1.4-acre property lies in the heart of London’s insurance district. The site benefits from a great choice of public transport links, many of the train connections being only a short distance on foot. Apart from the fact that only the badly damaged remains for the Baltic Exchange once stood on the site, a number of other considerations led to the decision to build a skyscraper just here. The location is exempt from height restrictions imposed by the city administration in view of the strategic views corridors of St. Paul’s Heights and the Monument view corridors. Furthermore, it is situated within the perimeter for high buildings around Tower 42, the International Finance Centre, and does not have to observe any of the regulations of a conservation area.

Finally, there are no restrictions due to underground railway lines. The building itself is a freestanding tower standing in an open space bordered by a surrounding group of buildings. The location is upgraded by public squares and meeting places.

The star-shaped core is a standard reinforced concrete structure transferring the inner loads and providing horizontal stiffening. An interesting feature is the diagonally braced structure along the curved façade skin, which transfers the external forces and absorbs wind loads.

A corridor situated within the core provides access to the office areas on three sides. A total of sixteen lift units, as well as various service lifts and two fire-escape staircases, link the forty storeys to one another. By rotating each successive floor, voids at the edge of each floor plate form a series of spiral atria. The aerodynamic form thus created has the advantage of generating natural ventilation, thanks to the immense difference in pressure arising within the building. The slats in the exterior cladding provide the rooms with additional air-conditioning.

For the greater part of the year, the artificial cooling and ventilation systems can be switched off. On each floor, the atriums create a very comfortable micro-environment as well as vertical spatial continuity.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Norman Foster & Partners

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2003

Ove Arup & Partners

180 m (590 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 41

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

11. SWISS RE TOWER

The external glazed skin of the building not only allows daylight to enter the building, but also provides for natural ventilation and acts as an acoustic buffer. Diagonal bands, triangular in shape, lend the Swiss Re Tower a unique appearance. According to Norman Foster, it is “a proposal which is radical-socially, technically, architecturally and spatially.”

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete structure (star-shaped core)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: free-standing tower with star-shaped core

ENERGY CONCEPT: aerodynamic, glazed shape minimizes wind loads and maximizes natural light and ventilation, Skin concept: reducing the building’s energy consumption to 50 percent of that of a traditional large office building.

AREA: Floorspan: 76,400 m² Leasspan:

Energy concept: VOLUME: 200,000 m³

11. SWISS RE TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Function: Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Material: SKIN CONCEPT: diagonally braced structure along the curved façade skin; external glazed skin (triangular shaped) Structure concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

11. SWISS RE TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

This 150-story mega-highrise-project containing 672 apartments and 285.000 m² office space was developed with the advancement of Graham Foundation.

This highrise project is supposed to point out the necassary benchmark in urbanistic and architectural planning as a response to the UN-prognosis concerning the explosive expansion rate of the urban population in the 21st century.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Future Systems

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1984

BDSP

650 m (2,133 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 150

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

12. PROJECT 112

“Coexistence” consists of seven air-conditioned islands with a service core and an exoteric geodetical structure stacked on top of each other. Each island contains living space, working areas and a south orientated “skypark”, you can cover with transparent elements. Up to 10,000 people would share such a “coexistence”-type during the day.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, apartments

Material:

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: seven “islands” stacked on a central service core

Skin concept: AREA: Floorspan: 285,000 m² Leasspan:

Energy concept:

12. PROJECT 112

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The “Green Building” research project represents one of the first attempts to reduce artificial air conditioning and to replace it with natural measures. The design was developed in 1990

by Future Systems, Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete, together with the environmental engineers Tom Baker, Andy Sedgwick and Mike Beaven (Ove Arup and Partners, London). The support frame consists of a three-legged structure like a tripod, from which the floor slabs are suspended; in the core of the building is a triangular atrium. Although the double skin façade also offers protection from street noise and vehicle exhaust fumes, it was primarily developed to enable natural ventilation.

The egg-shaped form of the building arose from tests in a wind tunnel, and the air flows in the façade cavity and in the atrium were investigated using the CFD method. Air rises in the atrium as it warms through radiation from the offices, and as it rises fresh air is drawn in through vents on the lower part of the building. At the same time warmed air also rises in the façade cavity and escapes through openings at the top of the building. As a result negative pressure is caused in the façade cavity, and when the office windows are opened the air is drawn in from the atrium this providing natural ventilation in the offices. These air flows are additionally supported by low pressure at the top of the building. In colder seasons the outside air drawn in at the bottom is preheated using the thermal energy reclaimed from the exhaust air.

Adjustable light-shelves in the inner façade and specially shaped ceiling component ensure natural lighting into the depths of the offices. Additional daylight reaches the inside of the building via the atrium. Solar control and glare protection can be regulated by means of individually adjustable louvres. Floor slabs which act as thermal stores are intended to take up excess heat in the daytime and to be cooled down again at night through natural ventilation.

Although the design is experimental in character, and its extremely “organic” for raises basic questions in architecture as well as town planning, it is nevertheless a model of what can be done in integrated planning of low-energy buildings.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Future Systems

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1990

Ove Arup & Partners

59 m (194 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 10

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

13. GREEN BUILDING

This design was influential in the development of many interesting solutions with single and multiple-skin façades, with the aim of creating an environmentally-friendly architecture.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: building on a tripod mega-structure

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE tripod mega-structure, props and ties support external and internal skin Structure concept: ENERGY CONCEPT: naturalconcept: ventilation, streamlined form, “daylight-mirrors”,...

Skin SKIN CONCEPT: double-skin façade (optimizes natural ventilation) Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel (floors), glass

13. GREEN BUILDING

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

13. GREEN BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Project Zed, London is one of three speculative mixed-used developments designed by Future Systems in collaboration with the Martin Centre at Cambridge University and a team of engineering consultants. The three projects were all developed with funding from the European Commission. The ambition here is to make a building containing offices, apartments and shops which is both energy-efficient and architecturally inspiring.

On a site just off Tottenham Court Road, the team proposed an elegant 26-storey building with retail spaces on the lower floors, offices above and three floors of apartments and a swimming pool at the top. ‘The building is set in a park, so we went high to give as much public space at the bottom as possible,’ explains Kaplicky.

Cut through the centre of the steel-framed building is a giant turbine which generates free electricity by harnessing the power of the wind. Photovoltaic cells located in the louvers generate power from the sun. The idea is that the building should be almost entirely self-sufficient in terms of energy. The curved façade, composed of triangulated glass panels, is designed to reduce the impact of the wind at the edges and to drive it through the turbine at the centre.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Future Systems

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1995

BDSP

107 m (351 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 26

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

14. ZED TOWER

Inside the building the butterfly-shaped plan allows for unusual and exhilarating office space which are naturally ventilated and daylit on each side. Services such as lifts and WCs are located along the walls facing the turbine. The apartments at the top of the building vary in size, to take advantage of views out with living areas placed along the glazed façades and bathrooms contained in prefabricated pods at the rear.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame structure

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: energy-efficient high-rise with 2 vertical generators

ENERGY CONCEPT: giant turbine which generates free electricity by harnessing the power of the wind, photovoltaic cells Skin concept:

AREA: Floorspan: 27,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 100,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: curved façade, composed of triangulated glass panels Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass

14. ZED TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, residential

DESCRIPTION

Marina City stands directly next to the Chicago River. It consists of a sunken base element for public use – providing access to the river and the boat mooring facilities - two residential towers and an office building, which forms the spatial boundary of the complex. The two circular towers are slightly offset. In this way, they avoid using the strict grid pattern and simultaneously allow an open view to the river. Marina City was initially the first mixed-use center city complex in the United States to include residential apartments. With 896 apartments it is also the most densely inhabited building complex in Chicago, yet despite its density it does not lose any of its light and translucent character. The exterior form is to be interpreted as Goldberg’s critique of the prevalent contemporary block skyscraper. The organic form he has chosen represents a revolt against an era of static space, straight-lined contours, and a vision of humankind understood in terms of the machine.

The liberating form of the 65-storey “twin corn cobs” is borne by homogeneous reinforced steel structures. The tube-like lift shaft - the inner spine of the building - allows maximum use of the structural qualities of reinforced concrete. From the supports around the inner core, lamella-shaped segmental arches stretch to the outer supports of the structure. Such a circular skeleton structure, ensuring better streamlining, allows considerable savings on materials.

Thus, each tower cost 10% less than it would have done using a standard construction.

In this radially structured building, the tube-shaped core zone lies in the centre of the circular ground plan. The core contains five lifts and an emergency stairwell. The exits needed to be positioned differently on each storey to stabilise the building, thus making two alternately used core floor plans necessary.

The towers have been designed as a central core which contains the elevator shafts, the stairways, all of the utilities, and out from which radiate all of the apartments. The central core is 35’ in diameter. The overall is approximately 105’ in diameter.

The central core is a structural concrete cylinder. It resists the wind and it helps support the building. The shape of the core means that the buildings have only 30% of the wind resistance that they would otherwise have with the same dimension, but in a rectilinear form.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Bertrand Goldberg Associates

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1962

Perrone Fischer

179 m (588 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 65

concrete structure dominates the entire complex and, at first glance, makes the towers appear unfinished, as if awaiting completion. This impression is reinforced by the 20-storeyhigh ramp construction of the parking area. Nevertheless, with their external form reduced to a basic structural principle, the two towers reveal a highly radical approach in skyscraper construction. In 1965, the building was awarded a silver medal by the Architectural League of New York.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

15. MARINA CITY

The semicircular balcony elements define the exterior border of the façade and make the interior structure recognisable from outside. The glass inner skin serves as a climatic shield, although transparency is considerably restricted by some of the installations. The reinforced

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete structure with central core

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: two circular concrete towers with organic form

MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, glass

Skin concept: AREA: Floorspan: 17 000 m² commercial offices Leasspan: 900 housing units VOLUME: 350,000 m³

Energy concept:

15. MARINA CITY

Function: FUNCTION: offices, residential

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Haines Lundberg Waehler

Chongquing, China

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1994

Haines Lundberg Waehler

516 m (1,693 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 114

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

16. CHONGQUING TOWER

DESCRIPTION

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

16. CHONGQUING TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The design for the headquarters of the German Post Office in Bonn is based on an international competition which was won by architects Murphy/Jahn of Chicago. This 160 meter high, forty floor tower with base building stands at the edge of the city adjacent to the Rhein River. Its base completes the upper terrace of a river park. A series of grand ramps and stairs connect to the lower terrace near the Rhine.

The tower, which in plan view is approx. 85 metres long by 40 metres wide, consists of two segments of a circle offset against each other; with its 44 stories it reaches a height of 160 metres. Each circle segment has two concrete stiffening cores with a wall thickness of up to 80 centimetres, and 19 steel composite pivoted columns of diameters varying between 762 and 406 mm, depending on the altitude at which they are installed. The grade of concrete used for the cores varies over the height of the tower. The concrete cores are linked at five levels by means of diagonal stiffening crosses. Further stiffening is provided halfway up the building, on the technical installations level, by additional diagonal outriggers linking the cores with the external support columns.

Within the office areas the reinforced concrete ceilings are of coffered design and have a total height of 30 centimetres. They are supported by a suspender beam running between the columns. The two halves of the building are linked at four levels by winter gardens, and at each level by glass-floored corridors. The roof area of the tower is enclosed by a 11 metre high glass façade which contains the roof garden and the penthouse, the latter being clad in a steel grid of double curvature.

The tower is enveloped by means of a second-skin façade which allows windows to be opened even on the upper levels and forms an integral part of the energy concept of the building which is based on minimal energy inputs. Part of this concept is also the water cooling built into the reinforced concrete ceilings. The foot of the tower is formed by the base building which houses a conference centre.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Murphy / Jahn Architects Helmut Jahn

Bonn, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1997 - 2003

Werner Sobek Engineers

160 m (525 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 44

enabling natural ventilation, especially in the spring and fall. The glass outer shell protects from rain, wind and noise and allows for placement of the sunshades. Glass from floor to ceiling optimizes daylight. The concrete structure has an integral hydronic heating and cooling system, which takes advantage of the low energy characteristics of water and the thermal storage capacity of concrete. If comfortable temperatures cannot be achieved at extreme temperatures in the summer or winter, a displacement system fed by a convector, which cools or heats the supply air along the façade, mechanically assists in the generation of a comfortable environment.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

17. POST TOWER

The split, shifted oval tower is oriented to the Rhine and the city, facilitating views from the city and minimizing negative wind effects through its aerodynamic shape.

In plan the split oval wedges are separated by a 7.40 m wide space. The connecting glass floors at 9-story intervals form skygardens, which serve as communication floors and elevator crossovers. The glass elevators of the low and high zones run in the center of the skygarden and providing views to the outside and aiding orientation. The tower has a twin-shell façade,

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel grid of double curvature

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: split, shifted oval tower minimizing negative wind effects through its aerodynamic shape

ENERGY CONCEPT: twin-shell façade, enabling natural ventilation

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan:

SKIN CONCEPT: twin-shell glass façade

65,000 m² VOLUME: 236,000 m³

Skin concept: Energy concept: MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, steel, glass

17. POST TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices

DESCRIPTION

The Occidental Chemical Center (or Hooker Building) in Niagara Falls, New York was the first building in North America to be constructed with a Double-Skin Façade. The Hooker Building is touted as being “one of the most energy efficient commercial buildings in the world” In order to best exploit the views of the Gorge offered by the North, West and South sides of the building, Cannon Design Inc. elected for floor to ceiling glazing on this otherwise conventional nine-storey cube with central service core surrounded by office and retail space. In order to meet the other design criteria of the client, the architects decided to explore the use of a Buffer Façade with an undivided air space continuous over the entire building with motorized dampers for air intake at grade and vents at the top. The building is comprised of two different air-handling systems: one for the façade and the second for the conditioning of the interior spaces. Due to the energy conscious mindset at the time, this system was selected because it does not allow for the occupants to have direct access or control over natural ventilation (hence less variable incoming cold air to heat, the less energy spent heating it), but instead it is controlled as part of the air intake of the ambient HVAC system. This design also allows the warm air within the wall cavity to temper the outside air on the exterior skin and act as a “buffer” for the interior layer of glass.

The building envelope is comprised of two layers of green-tinted insulating glass that allow for 80% solar penetration as the exterior skin, a 1200mm air space containing hollow metal, air-foil shaped, white louvers - spanning fifteen feet and vertically spaced eight inches a part - with service grilles (originally covered with beige carpeting to give the appearance that the floor continued from within the offices through to the exterior glass), and one layer of clear glass as the interior skin. As a means of being economical, the architects made sure that all the components of the façade - save the control and monitoring equipment - were “off the shelf.” The louvers in the air cavity are controlled by an “intelligent” light sensor system that responds according to weather, time of day and season. The sensors are placed in pairs to discount mullion shadows and a delay response cancels the effect of passing clouds. The façade is separated into four different “zones” according to the North, South, East and West exposures so that each of the four walls may respond according to the amount of daylight being admitted according to the particular time of day. The louvers are capable of fully closing as means of providing additional “insulation” during the winter months.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Cannon Design Inc., Principal, Mark R. Mendell

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1980

Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum

34 m (112 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 9

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

be occupied by research facilities with hours that extended into the evening as well.

According to the architects, the original design of the wall system cut the mechanical systems requirements in half, thereby offsetting the cost of the second skin. However, with the changes in occupational requirements, the cooling loads increased significantly and the gas-fired boilers that were installed were never required to heat the building, not even during extreme winter weather. Originally the louvers were to be painted with a highly reflective coating to minimize solar heat gain and allow for sunlight to be refracted deeper into the space. However, the glare created from the coating was blinding motorists as they crossed the bridge, so the louvers had to be repainted with a matte white finish.

18. HOOKER BUILDING

The occupational needs of the building changed as construction neared completion. Instead of the anticipated cooling load for day time office workers, the building was now to

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame, (central core, suspended ceilings)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: transparent energy efficient commercial building

ENERGY CONCEPT: solar cells louvers, natural ventilation, two different air-handling systems, double-skin “buffer” façade Skin concept:

AREA: Floorspan: 20,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 76,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: buffer façade with undivided, full height air space Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass

18. HOOKER BUILDING

Function: FUNCTION: offices, commercial space

DESCRIPTION

At 100m, the Glasgow Science Centre Tower is the tallest free-standing structure in Scotland, and the world’s first tower to rotate through 360 degrees in response to the wind. Visitors ride by lift to a cabin at the top of the tower, affording spectacular views. With a width to height ratio of 1:13, the tower is 60% more slender than conventional structures.

With such a slender tower aerodynamic effects could cause strong movements at the top which would be very uncomfortable for visitors. Careful aerodynamic design was critical in order to transform the aesthetically pleasing architectural design into structural reality. The tower is effectively a vertically mounted wing, which is turned into wind to reduce its drag. The design needed to achieve a steady wake when oriented into wind.

Hence the challenge facing Peter Heppel and architect Richard Horden Associates, working in partnership with the project engineer Buro Happold, became clear. They needed to design aerofoil profiles for the tower which would meet the structural constraints whilst providing attached flow, low drag and a small lift curve slope to minimise transverse buffeting.

Flow Solutions’ NEWPAN2D aerofoil design software, and its forerunner known as ADAP, was used to provide solutions to these requirements. The profiles of the various components were developed using the two-dimensional panel-method program in order to design profiles with minimal flow separation at low incidence.

The significant elements involved are the size and shape of the stair tower and the profiles of the outriggers. The stair enclosure chord was made as short as possible in order to reduce the overall lift-incidence slope. The chord, in isolation, would be too thick to allow unseparated flow. However, by using two supplementary foils it was possible to change the recovery profile on the tower. These outriggers generate a lift coefficient of about 1.3 inwards, which reduces the base pressure on the stair enclosure and significantly retards separation. The outriggers have thick, highly cambered profiles, and their thickness is determined by structural requirements. The mean line was chosen to give a lift coefficient of about 0.9 and an external profile that met the architectural requirements.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Horden

Glasgow, Scotland

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993

Peter Heppel

125 m (409 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 1 cabin (capacity: 40 people)

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

19. WING TOWER

About 50 forms and configurations were evaluated. Detailed design was performed using the inverse design mode of ADAP/NEWPAN2D, in which the program calculates the shape required to achieve a user-specified pressure distribution. The result was a design achieving attached flow on a 48% thick aerofoil.

Function: FUNCTION: look-out Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: free-standing tower (cabine in the height of 100 m) to rotate through 360 degrees in response to the wind; Floorspan:

Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel structural frame, staircase and turntable; flush rivetted concept: aluminium cladding to wing Structure leading edge and staircase SKIN SkinCONCEPT: concept: cabin: steel base frame with aluminium and glass cladding

Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, aluminium

19. WING TOWER

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

19. WING TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Umeda Sky Building can be considered a Japanese-style attempt to take up the theme of la Grande Arche in La Defense, Paris. This 40-storey bridge-like building functions as a kind of entrance to, and symbol for, the new Umeda District in Osaka. However, such a comparison is probably somewhat superficial, since the two buildings not only differ in size, but are also located in totally contrasting urban situations. Hiroshi Hara’s building is, above all else, a prototype in a city of verticals, in which all skyscrapers are linked by escalators, lifts, passages, terraces and roof gardens within a network of three-dimensional public spaces.

With his solution, which is reminiscent of a “space odyssey” the architect has thematised the problem of adding yet another urban structure to a location already crowded with buildings.

Without the painstaking development of the materials, the interior spaces, the connections between interior and exterior, and the passages, the building would have remained nothing more than a spectacle. That it turned out otherwise is also the merit of an architectural competition, the selection of this rather unusual project, and the coherent realisation of the architectural design. In addition, the developer commissioned the creation of public areas such as an esplanade, gardens, fountains and ornamental lakes, sculptures and, within the building itself, an art centre, restaurants and a shopping gallery.

The building has a conventional load-bearing structure, with the vertical load-transfer in the external areas and reinforcing core areas on the interior. The bridges are steel frame structures.

Vertical access, such as stairs and lifts, has been arranged inside the two towers, making it possible to construct the office sections as clear-span, open areas within the glazed outer walls. A free-standing lift tower allows passengers to experience the full height of the interspace.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Hiroshi Hara & Atelier

Osaka, Japan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993

Toshihiko Kimura

173 m (568 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 40

The building signals the dawn of a new era of skyscraper architecture, a style born of progress that unites building technologies and the conceptual construction of multifunctional high-rise buildings.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

20. UMEDA SKY BUILDING

The various, almost allegorical, elements that comprise “Mid-Air-City” (the space between the “individual” skyscrapers) are reflected endlessly in the glazed curtain-wall façade. In the reflection of the various materials - glass, aluminium and concrete - the tower walls create illusions of a densely constructed imaginary city that blends with the reflections of the real city all around. At night, the “floating crater” conjures up the image of a space-ship about to land above the immense void below.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, multiple use Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: 40-storey bridge-like building AREA: Floorspan: 147,400 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 600,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE conventional load-bearing structure (vertical loadtransfer in external areas, reinforcing core areas Structure concept: on interior), the bridges are steel frame structures.

SKIN SkinCONCEPT: concept: reflective glazed curtain-wall façade MATERIAL: Energy concept: steel-framed reinforced concrete, glass

20. UMEDA SKY BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The RWE high-rise is situated free behind the realigned boundaries of the block edge.

Through punctual density the inner area is kept free to the benefit of a generously laid out park space. The 127 metres high-rise is the first ecologically orientated building with a double skin overall glass façade for natural ventilation of office areas. The building is classified as the first German ecologically orientated high-rise.

The design of the RWE façade system was influenced by the clients’ desire for optimum use of daylight, natural ventilation, and solar protection. All these demands resulted in a transparent interactive façade system which encompasses the entire building. The exterior layer of the double-skin façade is 10-mm extra-white glass. The interior layer consists of full-height, double-pane glass doors that can be opened 13.5 cm wide by the occupants (and wider for maintenance). The 50-cm wide interstitial space is one-storey (3.59 m) high and one module (1.97 m) wide. Outside air admitted through the 15 cm high ventilation slit at the base of one module is then ventilated to the exterior out the top of the adjacent module. Retractable venetian blinds are positioned just outside the face of the sliding glass doors within the interstitial space. An anti-glare screen is positioned on the interior.

Daylight, direct solar and glare can be controlled with blinds and an interior anti-glare screen.

The extra air cavity acts as a thermal buffer, decreasing the rate of heat loss between outside and inside. Fresh air is supplied through the opening at the bottom and warm air is exhausted through the opening at the top of the façade. During extreme cold conditions, the windows are closed. Warm air is returned to the central plant via risers for heat recovery in the winter.

The façade provides good heat insulation in the winter and with the combination of slatted blinds, effective solar protection in the summer.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Ingenhoven, Overdiek, Kahlen & Partners

Essen, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1994 - 1996

Ingenhoven, Overdiek, Kahlen & Partners

127 m (416 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 30

A thermal-flue curtain wall in which the buffer zone created between two planes of glazing offers an insulating layer in all seasons and permits control of light and air by individuals and by a building-management system. In winter, the buffer zone captures solar heat, which can be admitted to offices by sliding open the inner glass wall. In summer, it exhausts excess heat from internal loads and the sun.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

21. RWE HAEADQUARTERS

With this multi-storied building an innovative façade construction was developed, which does not eliminate some problems of this building form, but defused. Beside the usual glass façade with windows there is an additional, outside front skin, which consists only of a thin glass layer. Thereby white glass the mentioned which does not reflect, acts and de-materialize works.

This double-membranous construction has several advantages: On the one hand one can open the windows (in this case there is sliding windows). On the other hand air between the two fronts, which can be supplied or taken to the interiors, circulates; this warms up or cools down, so that at relatively small expenditure an approximately natural air conditioning system develops, which is also individually adjustable by the windows which can be opened.

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame construction

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: cylindrical office tower

ENERGY CONCEPT: natural ventilation, (optimal use of daylight), twin shell façade Skin concept:

AREA: Floorspan: 35,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 148,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: floor-high concept: twin-shell glass façade Energy MATERIAL: steel, glass

21. RWE HAEADQUARTERS

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

21. RWE HAEADQUARTERS

PLANS

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Kajima Corporation

Tokyo

DATE:

ENGINEER:

1990

Kajima Corporation

HEIGHT: STORYS: 200

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

22. KAJIMA COMPANY HEADQUARTERS

DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION

The years 1918 to 1924 produced little built architecture in Germany – projects, experimentation, new publications and associations generated endless discussion. The city of Berlin became the most feverishly active centre of an and culture in Europe. German Expressionism gained impetus. reached its peak and died away between 1919 and 1923.

Mies van der Rohe would appear to have been isolated from the new developments in architecture until late 1921. His architecture remained neoclassical or vernacular in concept until his first glass skyscraper project.

Office Building (1921) ’The Glass Office Building was Mies’ entry in the Friedrichstrasse Competition of early 1922.

It was a well-supported competition and all the entries were exhibited in Berlin. Mies later complained that no one had paid any attention to his offering and it received no award. In 1968 he said: ’ Because I was using glass. I was anxious to avoid enormous dead surfaces reflecting too much light, so I broke the façades a little in plan so that light could fall on them at different angles: like crystal, like cur-crystal. That was for a competition - it was exhibited in Berlin in the old town hall. They pushed my design into a dark corner, probably because they thought it was a joke.’

Glass Skyscraper (1922) The second glass skyscraper Mies designed was for an imaginary or ideal site. According to Mies, its faceted plan was by no means arbitrary - it was a second experiment to test the reflective quality of glass curtain walls. Mies said: `7 tried to work with small areas of glass and adjusted my strips of glass to the light and then pushed them into the plasticine planes of the floors That gave me the curve . . . I had no expressionist intention. I wanted to show the skeleton and I thought that the best way would be simply to put a glass skin on. ‘

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Mies van der Rohe

Berlin, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

1919 - 1921

Mies van der Rohe

HEIGHT: STORYS: STORYS: 21 / 26

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

23. BERLIN GLASS SKYSCRAPER

Mies asked a sculptor friend to model some typical Berlin houses to the scale of his skyscraper model so that his building could be shown in context.

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material: MATERIAL: steel, glass

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: glass high-rise building with organig base

Skin concept: Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

23. BERLIN GLASS SKYSCRAPER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The triangular plot on which the Tour sans Fin is to be erected is surrounded by three traffic axes. It is located in the La Defence area between La Grande Arche de la Defense and le C.N.I.T. With its simple immateriality, the tower design represents the antithesis of the geometrical style of most of the buildings surrounding it. On the one hand, Nouvel has the foundation disappear, so that the tower seems to rise up out of a crater; on the other hand, the structure appears to become lighter and lighter as it ascends and even to dissolve into nothing at the top. The Tour sans Fin faces the Eiffel Tower as one expression of a vertical conception, whilst refusing to embody anything other than its function as receptacle for offices of various kinds.

As the tower, with a diameter of 43 m, does not allow for any core structure due to the horizontal loads, the load-bearing structure has been shifted to the periphery. The base is constructed of normal concrete. The glazed area only accounts for 50% of the surface on the lowest storeys. Towards the top of the building, the rung-structure becomes lighter, before finally giving way to a fine metal structure on the top floors. In order to reduce the span, a ring of supports has been placed in the centre of the radial plan. On the transfer floors, this ring is replaced by columns integrated into the service shafts. Hence, the structure leaves the entire enclosed space free.

The installations are housed in the periphery to keep the inner core free. The same applies to the circulation: slow lifts ascend and descend on the inner side and express lifts on the outer side of the façade. A strict distinction is made between public and private zones. Some of the transfer floors are equipped with escalators.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Jean Nouvel & Partners

Paris, France

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1989

Ove Arup & Partners

420 m (1,377 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 100

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

24. ENDLESS TOWER (TOUR SANS FINS)

The circular tower is designed be nothing other than a simple, smooth building. The subtle use of materials has allowed the creation of a building that appears to be infinite. Dark at the bottom, the façade becomes brighter towards the top. Rough granite gives way to polished granite followed by grey stone, succeeded in turn by glass, which is screen printed with evergreater intensity towards the top of the building, where it finally creates the impression of total immateriality The transfer and office floors alternate at regular intervals. The visual impact of a graduated change in height is enhanced by the use of different kinds of glass.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: circular tower, structure and material appears to become lighter and lighter to the top

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 143,000 m² (diameter: 43 m / 101 ft) VOLUME: 600,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE base constructed of normal concrete; metal structure (on top floors) Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: different kinds of granite and glass, becomes brighter Skin concept: towards the top of the building MATERIAL: Energy concept: concrete, steel, glass, different kinds of granite

24. ENDLESS TOWER (TOUR SANS FINS)

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Bank of China stands on a small, steeply sloping plot in the middle of the densely populated main commercial district of Hong Kong. The 0.8-hectare plot is almost completely surrounded by a tangled network of motorways, express-ways and motorway exits, making access difficult. Being the tallest building in the district, and occupying the most central location, it dominates the skyline and seems to be China’s answer to what was then still a British colony, especially since the developer was the People’s Republic of China. Inside the monumental granite plinth surrounding the first three floors, one finds courtyards and ornamental waterworks in the midst of this traffic jungle. They constitute a small and almost intimate island very reminiscent of Chinese gardens, providing a constant contrast between the hustle and bustle of the city outside the building and the peaceful atmosphere within.

Critics objected to the triangular ground-plan forms, pointing out that the building neglected Chinese Feng Shui principles and traditions, which avoids acute angles as they disturb the yin-yang balance. However, since the Chinese Government did not recognise these principles, the tower was constructed as planned.

According to Pei, the model for the diagonal load-bearing structure, which is visible from the outside, was a simplified version of traditional Chinese bamboo framework. The horizontal forces are transferred through the reinforced concrete trusses in the façade to the ceilings, where they are absorbed by four solid concrete piers and then transferred vertically. Wind speeds are very high in Hong Kong, and these concrete piers absorb most of these forces, too. The vertical forces and the permanent load of the floors are transferred vertically through the steel skeleton and the concrete lift and circulation shafts.

In addition to bracing against wind, the trusses also support the weight of the building. The structure itself had become the bracing, therefore less steel was required, making the building relatively easy to build. Starting at the top the vertical load s are transferred from triangular pieces all at different heights and at an angle to the rectangular base and then into the ground.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

I.M. Pei & Partners

Hong Kong, China

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1982 - 1990

Robertson, Fowler & Associates

369 m (1,210 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 72

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

Two diagonals divide the quadratic ground plan into four segments, each of which rises to a different height, thus lending the building its diamond like shape. The number of lifts (twenty-four in the plinth section) diminishes towards the top of the building. In the extended sections, the lifts ascend to the top of the building. The stairs and the ducts for the technical installations, which also rise through the centre of the building, form - together with the lifts - the building core proper and link the seventy floors. Smaller shafts, linking a few floors only and located at the periphery of the building, supplement the main shafts. The fields of the reinforced steel truss framework on the outside of the building are filled with a flush steelglass structure.

25. BANK OF CHINA

Instead of stiffening the two dimensional sides of the traditional steel box, Pei used a three dimensional steel truss or “space truss”. Members of the truss penetrate through the building uniting the vertical planes of the four faces of the building. In this way the wind loads are transfered to the four corners which were steadied with reinforced columns.

Function: FUNCTION: bank, offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: diagonal load-bearing structure as a simplified version of traditional Chinese bamboo framework

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 90,000 m² (55,700 m² office; 1,580 m² bank) VOLUME: 500,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE diagonal load-bearing structure, reinforced concrete trusses Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: reinforced steel truss framework filled with a flush Skin concept: steel-glass structure MATERIAL: Energy concept: reinforced concrete, steel, glass

25. BANK OF CHINA

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The 88-storey Petronas Towers are located in a green area in Kuala Lumpur. The centre, owned by the state-owned Petronas mineral-oil company, is used by businesses, offices and residents, as well as for leisure activities. As many as 50000 people travel to there every day.

An underground line provides rapid transport to other parts of the city. The unique height of the two slender towers (which have a diameter of thirty m) and the horizontal axis of the pedestrian bridge linking the forty-second storeys (which induced the architect to speak of a “portal to the skyy”) have made the Petronas Towers into an urban gateway. These features, together with the brightly shining silhouette of the towers, have given Kuala Lumpur a new symbol. The design of the ground plan, which was created through complex repetitions of the basic figure, shows great respect for traditional Islamic culture. This is also reflected in the use of geometric forms in the design as a whole.

The vertical loads are transferred by a central concrete core and round concrete columns.

The supports are inclined to allow for the set-backs at floors sixty, seventy-three and eightytwo, thus rendering load-transferring beams superfluous. Horizontal forces are absorbed by the round concrete girders linking the core and the columns. The structure of the 58-m-long, two-level bridge consists of parallel steel girders.

The 307 parts of the frame for the centre section of the skybridge were fully assembled and bolted. The centre section of the skybridge frame, measuring 41 metres in length, over 5 metres in width and nine metres in height, was assembled at the concourse level.

The centre section’s internal floors and roof at level 41, 42 and 43 were constructed in metal decking. After the roof level concrete slab was placed, the whole assembly was painted and the external building maintenance equipment for the legs installed. The two inclined legs are approximately 42.6 metres long and weigh about 60 tonnes each. The five sections of each set of legs were completely assembled and checks on the whole dimension, camber and alignment were made before bolting. Tuned mass dampers have been engineered for the legs. These dampers have been designed after a complete wind tunnel test to accommodate the comfort level by dampening any effects of unusual wind conditions and possible long term fatigue due to resonance of the legs. These pendulum operated dampers were field tested and inserted to the centre section of the legs just prior to final assembly.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Cesar Pelli & Associates

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1997

Thornton-Tomasetti, Ranhill Bersekutu

452 m (1,482 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 88 (skybridge: level 41 - 42)

to the lower storeys, whilst an express lift ascending to the sky lobby serves the upper storeys. On arrival in the sky lobby, passengers can change to a conventional lift.

The façade was especially designed to shield the rooms from the intense rays of the tropical sun. Room shadow has been created by both setting back the storeys and making certain modifications to the façade, which is composed of glass bands and stainless steel panels.

The use of stainless steel magnifies the reflection of the intense rays of the tropical sun and gives the building a timeless appearance.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

26. PETRONAS TOWERS

The installations are housed in the core of the Petronas Towers to facilitate the allocation of space. Each tower has a lift lobby on the ground floor. Conventional lifts take the passengers

Function: FUNCTION: offices, shops, entertainment Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: twin towers connected by skybridge AREA: Floorspan: 218,000 m² (each tower) Leasspan: VOLUME: 3,000,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE central concrete core and round concrete columns; bridge consists of parallel steel girders Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: glass bands and stainless steel panels Skin concept: MATERIAL: concrete, glass, steel, aluminium Energy concept:

26. PETRONAS TOWERS

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

26. PETRONAS TOWERS

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

26. PETRONAS TOWERS

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Renzo Piano saw each element of the tower -- elevator core, stair towers, the ranges of offices facing east, south, and west -- as a potentially expressive element. He pulled them apart, with the recesses acting as visual membranes. The overall impression is of lapped slabs of solids and glassy membranes -- a kind of contemporary San Gimignano of tower-like elements.

The design of Debis is not all bravura. Building on experience gained on a number of past projects, Piano’s office used glass and terra cotta to make what is among the world’s most sophisticated skin. Like an increasing number of technically advanced German buildings, Debis has a double-wall curtain wall.

The combination of shading (provided by projecting the terra-cotta rod system in from of the window glass), the double wall, and operable windows reduces external warm-weather heat loads, winter cooling loads, and internal heat loads. The concrete floor slab is exposed at the outer edges of the floors, which enhances energy conservation by absorbing excess heat from the office space in the daytime and radiating it at night.

For the building as a whole, this means that air conditioning is supplementary, not mandatory.

Yet office occupants can control their own environments more than those who work in sealed, constantly airconditioned buildings. At Debis, most people sit next to windows that can be opened. External blinds can be lowered to reduce glare.

The high-rise building is full of ample ecological considerations. When we look at the ground plan, we find that the huge atrium in the center reduces the size of the official spaces, but the consumption of both lighting and ventilating is lowered. Furthermore, the double skin design provided on the western and southern parts of the building allows natural ventilation and easy adjustment of sunlight. The tower has a panel cooling system on the ceiling, using cold water with the temperature of 18°C. A 70 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emission is realized by this urban intensive co-generation system, while achieving a 20,000 cubic meter reduction of the drinking water supply by using rainwater for watering the gardens and flushing the toilets.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Architects

Berlin, Germany

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1997 - 1999

Boll & Partner Ingenieurgesellschaft GmbH, (Ove Arup & Partners)

86 m (282 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 20

can be opened for cleaning purposes. The inner part of the facade are fitted with sashes with double glazing which can be opened and closed manually. What’s more, between the terracotta panels and inner facades, there are built-in window shades of the same color, as an added protection against the sun. This structure generates greenhouse effects in the winter and a discharge of hot air in the summer. Finally, the builders achieved natural ventilation at about 60 % of a year, even under strong winds. The mechanical system begins to operate only when the mercury drops below 5 °C or exceeds 20 °C. During the summer nights, the glass-louvers open automatically in an effort to cool down the entire building.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

27. POTSDAMER PLATZ

The outer facade is composed of laminated glass (6bmm+ 6bmm; 1330 x 520 mm) piles like lap sidings. One layer has eight sections, seven of which are sensor-controlled and can be opened to an angle of 70°. A sensor and a spindle motor control the action. The remaining glass panel

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame structure

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: differentiation in outside façade treatments is due to orientation and height

ENERGY CONCEPT: double skin façade allows natural ventilation and easy adjustment of sunlight, using rainwater for Skin concept: watering the gardens and flushing the toilets,...

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Energy concept:

27. POTSDAMER PLATZ

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Function: AREA: 19,800 m² Hight floor – floor: thickness:

VOLUME: Hight floor 90,000 m³

THEATER SPHERE: Floorspan: 36 meters in diameter Leasspan:

Material: SKIN CONCEPT: glass panels and louvers, terra cotta cladding and double curtainconcept: wall, fixed glass fins and curtain wall Structure mixed double sin: terracotta & glass MATERIAL: Skin concept: concrete, glass, aluminium, terra cotta

Energy concept:

27. POTSDAMER PLATZ

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

27. POTSDAMER PLATZ

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The front of the tower faces the Piazza Duca d’Aosta as an architectural rival to Milan central station. Owing to its height, the Torre forms an impressive city landmark, visible from afar.

The tower, which is set back from the piazza on the same plot, is enclosed by low buildings containing the office-tower installations and two bridges linked to the tower. Access to the main lobby is via an inclined drive. This aspect of the design makes the tower appear all the more impressive. Torre Pirelli used to be the head office of the tyre manufacturer from which it took its name. The building is now the seat of the regional administration of Lombardy.

The load-bearing structure – which has two triangles at each end, four central columns and two lift cores - tapers towards the top as the load decreases. The relatively thick floors taper towards the outside, to the advantage of the façade design. The impact of the load-bearing structure on the overall design betrays the masterful hand of Pier-Luigi Nervi, one of the bestknown civil engineers in the 20th century.

The main technical rooms for the building are located in the bottom floor The vertical shafts rise through the triangles, each side of which has a lift and an emergency staircase. The two central shaft zones thus contain a total of six lifts which service every storey of the building.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Gio Ponti

Milan, Italy

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1956

Pier-Luigi Nervi

127 m (416 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 32

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

28. PIRELLI TOWER

The façade clearly reveals the tapering columns and solid triangles of the load-bearing structure. In order to balance the tapering columns and, at the same time, make the load-bearing structure stand out clearly against the façade, a vertical row of windows runs up the entire height of the building, becoming wider in inverse ratio to the tapering of the columns.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, auditorium, canteen, conference rooms Hight floor – floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE load-bearing structure, which has two triangles at each end, four central columns and two lift cores Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: The tower is enclosed by low buildings containing officetower installations and two bridges linked to the tower

SKIN CONCEPT: multiple layer façade Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 40,000 m² (18.5 m deep; 70 m wide) VOLUME: 160,000 m³

MATERIAL: concrete, glass Energy concept:

28. PIRELLI TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

New York’s best building of the 1960s, the Ford Foundation Building was built for the country’s largest philanthropic organization. The form of the building represents a departure from the abstract purity of the International Style.

The building creates an appropriate environment for its occupants, a space that allows members of the Foundation staff to be aware of each other – to share their common aims an purposes, and that assists them in fostering a sense of working family.

The building is as low as possible to observes the line of panels created by other buildings on the surrounding streets. It is twelve stories high (about 160 feet), made of concrete and steel with a granite facing. Most of the space to the east and south is occupied by an atrium while the building’s mass is located along the north and west sides. The structure is a composite one, using concrete for bearing members and steel for spanning. The scale is large on 42nd Street where it terminates the thrust of that street, and is modest on 43rd Street where the street is more residential in character.

The plan is C-shaped which serves both to shelter and to provide a view out. By enclosing the roof and the open proportion of the `C` with glass, a large garden court was created. Each office has a sliding door opening onto this park which further enhances the atmosphere of the office and creates a sense of well being.

Supported by an exposed steel structure, the building takes the form of a glass box enclosing an interior atrium which rises the full height of the building to a skylight. Offices are located around this central court with a view into the atrium garden which also serves as a public space. The humane environment created by this layout reflects the lofty values of the foundation which supports the arts and humanitarian causes.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates LLC

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1963

Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates LLC

49 m (160 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 12

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

29. FORD FOUNDATION

The layout of buildings around atrium spaces or winter gardens would later become popularized in the shopping mall and numerous skyscrapers of the 1980s. Made of Core-ten steel, the structure’s surface resembles wood due to a patina which results from oxidation and gives the steel a rich tone. In the Ford Foundation Building, new materials are incorporated with a unique formal expression making this building a good example of late modern architecture.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: C-shaped building with semi-tropical garden

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE exposed steel structure, concrete for bearing members and steel for spanning Structure concept: MATERIAL: concrete, rust-coloured steel, granite facing Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

29. FORD FOUNDATION

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Richard Rogers found a unique solution to the complex requirements of the insurance company. He designed a structure on a rectangular plan including a central atrium with a completely open ground floor, whilst locating the entire vertical access as well as the service systems and rooms on the exterior of the building in six independent service towers. The complex is six to twelve storeys high and is surrounded by lower buildings of some historical interest. The proportions and finely executed details skilfully help the building blend into its contrasting, medieval, urban surroundings. The Lloyd’s Building is a product of the fashion, then prevalent, for high-tech machine aesthetics.

The structure is a prefabricated double stress system in reinforced concrete, with inverted Ubeams to transfer the floor loads onto the outer cylindrical columns. A separate pre-fabricated strut linked to the cylindrical columns solved the problem of connecting the beams and the cylindrical columns. A second pre-fabricated element transfers the load from the U-beams to the struts. The concrete columns run the entire height of the atrium up to the barrel vault.

They constitute the main supports for the circular steel frame.

The main floor system is predominantly an in-situ concrete raft, supported on beams spanning between the atrium and the façade columns, while the service towers are of pre-cast concrete elements. The great columns, both on the exterior and within the atrium, stand proud of the cladding, increasing the highly articulated vertical quality of the building. External cross braces of steel tube are concrete cased for fire safety and help to maintain an appearance of a spare and elegant slenderness.

The quality of the interior is in contrast with the predominantly light-weight appearance of the steel and glass facade, however the apparent weightiness is counter-balanced by the airy verticality that terminates in the lightness of the glazed atrium roof which sits on the main atrium columns.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Rogers Partnership

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1978 - 1986

Ove Arup & Partners

87 m (285 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 20

The extremely smooth surface of the visible concrete structure was achieved using cast plastic-coated sections. The stairwells, the entire lining, the pipe sleeves and the silver boxes on the towers are clad in stainless steel; aluminium was used for the window frames. The atrium frame is made of stainless steel. The design greatly increases the quality of the internal working environment, with access to natural light and ventilation from the perimeter. The all-glass façade contributes dynamically to the energy efficiency of the building, using the triple glazing as a return air plenum.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

30. LLOYDS BUILDING

Placing the entire functional areas on the exterior of the building is a literal interpretation of the serving and served areas as understood by Louis Kahn. The installations, neatly packed in silver boxes on top of the towers, have an irresistible functional and architectural logic. The glazing serves as a technical wall, not only keeping out wind and rain, but also functioning as both an air-shaft and insulation. Air passes from beneath the ceiling to the ground floor via the space between the double external glazing and the single second skin.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, service Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: office building with “served and servant” concept AREA: Floorspan: 52,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 150,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE double stress system in reinforced concrete, inverted U-beams Structure concept: ENERGY CONCEPT: accessconcept: to natural light, natural ventilation, ...

Skin SKIN CONCEPT: cast plastic-coated sections, clad in stainless steel Energy concept: MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, aluminium, stainless steel

30. LLOYDS BUILDING

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

30. LLOYDS BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The site is predominantly surrounded by existing buildings causing problems of poor aspect and access. It is restricted by 71 Fenchurch Street (a listed building) and by the obligation to retain the façades of Coronation House and 68–70 Fenchurch Street. The development is also obliged to respect the conservation area of Lloyd’s Avenue, the churchyard, the mature existing trees and the peaceful setting. In addition, the existing public right of way passing through the site was to be retained and integrated.

To address the challenge of providing the required amount of new accommodation within the remaining space, three slender, tapered rectangular blocks fan out alongside two dramatic glazed atria, varying in height from six to 14 levels. The atria, central to the design concept, allow light into and views out of the building at all levels, despite the constrictions of the site.

Most of the proposed accommodation is contained in the two taller blocks, while the third block backs up onto the seven-storey retained façade of Coronation House. On the opposite side of the site, a rigorously detailed and uncompromisingly contemporary concrete, steel and glass façade celebrates the only point at which the building makes its presence felt on the street. Within this basic diagram, environmental considerations are optimised. The naturally ventilated atria act as buffers mediating between the internal and external climates, the narrow profile of the offices optimises access to daylight and views, and the building structure and cladding minimise cooling requirements.

The main office towers consist of an exposed pre-cast concrete frame, combined with in-situ concrete infill elements to form a composite structure. This has the advantage of allowing the main structure to act as a braced frame without the need for bracing walls in the cores. The pre-cast system was designed to accommodate the complex geometry, tight tolerances and multiple service penetrations, all of which required meticulous attention to detail during the design and exceptional care in construction.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Rogers Partnership

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993 - 2000

Anthony Hunt Associates

58 m (190 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 14

RRP also supervised the renovation and refurbishment of 71 Fenchurch Street using specialist contractors for the historic restoration work. The entire rear elevation of the building was demolished to allow for an interface with the new building via a core structure tied to the existing building without introducing any additional load onto it.

The design greatly increases the quality of the internal working environment, with access to natural light and ventilation from the perimeter. The all-glass façade contributes dynamically to the energy efficiency of the building, using the triple glazing as a return air plenum.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

31. LLOYDS REGISTER OF SHIPPING

At the front of the main towers are the lift cores and staircases, each housing four external glass lifts. The lift cores are supported on a slender structural steel frame that derives all of its lateral stability from the main concrete structure. The lift motor rooms, which extend an additional three storeys above the top of the main building, have a fully welded steel frame to provide adequate support for the complex combinations of loads caused by the operation of the lifts and exposure to wind.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: rectangular blocks (two dramatic glazed atria) varying in height from six to 14 levels

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 34,000 m²

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE exposed pre-cast concrete frame, combined with insitu concrete infill elements Structure concept: ENERGY CONCEPT: naturally ventilated atria (buffers mediating between Skin concept: internal and external climates), narrow profile optimises access to daylight), building structure and cladding minimise cooling requirements Energy concept:

31. LLOYDS REGISTER OF SHIPPING

PLANS

Function: Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Material: SKIN CONCEPT: doulbe glazed façade Structure concept: MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass

Skin concept: Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

31. LLOYDS REGISTER OF SHIPPING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Kabuki-Cho site was typical of central Tokyo, tightly constrained and overlooking a narrow street - setting the building back from the street, to protect existing rights of light, was an absolute planning requirement from the start In the first scheme, the land along the street frontage was to be laid out as a sunken garden, with a bridge accessing the building. In the revised scheme, the garden was transformed into a basement area, intended to contain restaurants and bars as a social heart for the development and enclosed by a dramatic glazed roof sweeping up four storeys from the pavement. The twelve-storey (two floors are below ground level but daylit from the atrium) office block is set back from the street. To maximize available space on this precious site, four floors are boldly canted out over the atrium, defining the street plane of the building.

Kabuki-Cho was the first Rogers project to be - constructed in Japan, with Soichi Hisaeda of the K-One Corporation as client, and it provided invaluable experience of the Japanese development and construction scene - in Japan, building costs paled alongside the huge cost of land. Rogers found that the craft skills which had made Lloyd’s (for example) possible were hard to come by in Japan, where simple concrete construction was the norm. Supported by the client, however, RRP persisted with the project. The frame, engineered in line with local fire safety and seismic protection regulations, was a composite structure, constructed of steel combined with concrete, and defined the main floor spaces of the office building. A ‘servant’ tower contains lavatories, lifts and other services. The frame supports a filigree of subsidiary elements, including the glazed atrium, which give the building its distinctively lightweight look.

The atrium of Kabuki-Cho provided a particular challenge to the design team. With the client’s backing, it was decided to cut through the problems of steel fabrication by making components in Britain and engaging a British sub-contractor to supervise assembly. Particular attention was given to the design of the glazing, to ensure optimum lightness and transparency – vital in terms of the overall daylighting strategy for the building. The result is a classic social space in the best Rogers tradition, though tailored to the very specific context of Tokyo.

Indeed, the project represents a fascinating instance of the way in which modern design can address the context of a traditional city district.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Rogers Partnership

Tokyo, Japan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1987 - 1993

Umezawa Design Office

59 m (194 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 12

roof over a basement-level atrium. Note the beautifully precise joints in the framework (no welding) and the emergency stairs, which hangs from improbably thin wires.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

32. KABUKI – CHO TOWER

Rogers gives his buildings a hi-tech sensibility by exposing their mechanical parts (ducts, machinery, lifts, and stairs), the extensive use of glass and steel and by using intricate structural systems. Here, a delicate framework of stainless-steel rods supports a slanting glass

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: twelve-storey office block, set back from the street

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE of steel combined with concrete, framework of stainless-steel rods supports a slanting glass roof Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: partly slanting glass Skin concept: MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass Energy concept:

32. KABUKI – CHO TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The conceptual design, developed in response to the new commercial brief exploits the many planning constraints attached to the site to produce a building that addresses the demands of the office market. The site lies at the heart of the City of London, between St Paul’s Cathedral and Moorgate and was subject to complex planning negotiations with the Corporation of London. The building rises in three linked steps of 10, 14 and 18 storeys, responding to the geometries of the site: at its highest it complements the buildings lining London Wall, while the lowest block is sympathetic to the scale of the Wren tower in Wood Street. In between the three blocks, ten metre deep gaps are used for the ‘servant’ zones, such as stairs, lifts, and services. These are expressed as discrete architectural elements in order to maximise views and the space available for tenancies (the ‘served’ zones) within the main floor plates.

The large floor plates allow for maximum flexibility, and can be subdivided into three separate tenancies, with each tenant still having direct access to lift lobbies, toilet facilities and all mechanical and electrical servicing.

Ultra-clear, low-iron glazing has been used for almost all of the buildings many façades.

The glass, called Diamant Extra White Glass has an extraordinary level of transparency compared to standard clear glass. Despite its surprising lack of presence, the glass acts as a robust protective covering for the whole building. Individual components such as lift shafts and staircases are able to be expressed to architectural advantage without compromising the ability of the façade to protect the interior and the inhabitants from the weather.

The glazing system to the office floors also functions as a highly effective environmental control system. The building’s main contribution to environmental efficiency lies in the use of internal blinds, integrated into the glazing system and controlled by photo-cells that automatically adjust the blind settings (fully closed, fully open or half open) and ensure both effective climate control and a neat and uniform external appearance. There is no manual override.

The cavity housing the blinds is also used to extract unwanted solar gain in hot weather, drawing it into the ceiling and expelling it.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Rogers Partnership

London, Great Britain

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993 - 1999

Ove Arup & Partners

75 m (246 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 10 / 14 / 18

The superstructure diagonal bracing is a major architectural feature, appearing on the exterior of the short ends of the three blocks in bays of four storeys high. In contrast, the cores and stairs are stabilised by the building frame but due to the revealing nature of the glazing, again the structural detailing makes a significant contribution to the architecture. Details include pre-tensioned stair flights to stabilise the supporting columns and pre-tensioned rods acting as glazing mullions.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

33. DAIWA FINANCE HEADQUARTERS

The viability of the construction of a large office building on a severely constrained site depended on the resolution of a number of significant structural problems. The resulting structure is closely integrated into the architecture, which unusually for an office building, has columns set well inside the perimeter, and post-tensioned floors. The optimum structural grid of 15 by 6 metres is achieved by setting the columns 1.5 metres inside the perimeter, therefore minimising the number of low level transfer beams.

Function: FUNCTION: bank, offices

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE superstructure: diagonal bracing

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: 88 Wood Street accommodates 3 vertical elements which step up

ENERGY CONCEPT: internal blinds (integrated into glazing system, controlled by photo-cells), solar gain in hot weather Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 33,000 m²

SKIN CONCEPT: inner leaves of the double-glazed unit cladding the Energy concept: active façade are all constructed using laminated glass MATERIAL: steel, glass (double-glazed units, measuring 3 m by 4 m)

33. DAIWA FINANCE HEADQUARTERS

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

In Richard Rogers Partnership’s competition-winning design for the Lloyd’s Register of Shipping in Hampshire the design of internal and external spaces is also integrated to temper the working environment, thereby minimising the use of energy. But it is not just these relatively straightforward, low and discreet buildings that have been the focus for an energy-orientated approach to design.

In Japan, the partnership’s proposals for building a tall slender tower at Tomigaya, a triangular patch of ground close to Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park, would actually use the building’s form as a device to generate energy. With its blade and detached tower form, the structure would act as a wind turbine, accelerating wind speed across its surface, and capable of generating fiftyfive kilowatts per hour, more than enough to service the building and to provide some power as well. The heavy concrete structure would be exposed to absorb heat and moderate the internal environment. The core is separated from the main building block and the building is smooth and shaped in such a way as to encourage the wind to pass through the gap between the building and the services tower to the north. It arts as a chimney under the influence of the sun and wind to extract used air.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richard Rogers Partnership

Tomigaya / Tokyo

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1992

Richard Rogers Partnership

STORYS:

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

34. TURBINE TOWER

The northern façade is patterned with clear, diffuse and opaque panels to allow views and light, while providing insulation where needed. The southern façade, fully glazed at the client’s request, has a variable shading system - tuned according to the time of day, the season and whether the sun is shining. The water pool around the deep basement is used for peak summer cooling and to warm cool air in winter, a total energy system in which each element is tuned to achieve low running costs.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE concrete structure

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: office building

ENERGY CONCEPT: wind turbines

Floorspan: Leasspan:

SKIN CONCEPT: northern façade: patterned with clear, diffuse and opaque panels southern façade: fully glazed Energy concept:

Skin concept:

MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass

34. TURBINE TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices

DESCRIPTION

Paul Rudolph’s winning entry for the Sino Land Company’s skyscraper competition has been described as the realization of his search for a formal expression in a tall building. Taking a cue from the Eiffel Tower, the Sino Tower was framed by four massive columns that sloped upward from a splayed base. The first 150 feet of this 90-story structure was mainly open, though criss-crossed by pedestrian sky bridges and retail shops.

Above this space was a “sky lobby” for a 200-room hotel, and above that were eight blocks of 10 floors each that contained the hotel as well as office space. These eight blocks were separated by open floors that housed mechanical systems and served as areas of refuge, a fire code requirement. A cluster of forms at the building’s apex that contained mechanical systems was to be sheathed in silver leaf.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Paul Rudolph

Hong Kong, China

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1989

Paul Rudolph

420 m (1,378 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 90

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

35. SINO LAND TOWER

During the 1960s, when Rudolph was among the leading proponents of Modern architecture, he experimented with the “plug-in” city—an urban system in which residential, commercial and other uses could be contained in moveable units connected to a central service core. His Sino Tower embodied many of these ideas.

Function: FUNCTION: multiple use Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: Eiffel Tower-like skyscraper

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE four massive columns that sloped upward from a splayed baseconcept: structure Structure MATERIAL: steel, glass Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

35. SINO LAND TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

City centres have become congested in our time with high buildings glued against each other.

There is general public dislike of the resulting oppressive environment.

Rather than extending the present pattern, this 500 m high tower is free- standing, covering little of its 3´ hectare site and built over unused railway tracks. It is surrounded by low buildings, a pedestrian precinct at pedestrian scale.

The upward tapering profile creates stability and rigidity for the tower’s great height, standing on only six expressively shaped exterior columns.

The weight of all floors and the central core is conveyed to them by means of diagonal bracing members visible on the facades.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Harry Seidler & Associates

Melburne, Australia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1995 – 2000

Harry Seidler & Associates

500 m (1,640 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 120

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

36. GROLLO TOWER

City buildings consume huge amounts of energy for lighting and mechanical services, using non- renewable and polluting fossil fuel. This tower will harness the sun’s energy by the use of photovoltaic devices embedded in the facades and North facing projecting apex structure.

Just as plants face the sun to generate energy, so will all surfaces of this tower using silicone cell technology.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE diagonal bracing members (visible on façades)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tower of great height, standing on only six expressively shaped exterior columns

ENERGY CONCEPT: all surfaces of this tower using silicone cell technology; photovoltaic Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 330,000 m²

SKIN CONCEPT: silicone cells Energy concept: MATERIAL: prestressed concrete, steel, glass

36. GROLLO TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, hotel, apartments

DESCRIPTION

Australia Square, which occupies an area of approximately 4000 square metres in the centre of Sidney, unites two office buildings grouped around a spacious pedestrian zone. The partially planted lower pedestrian level passes below the 13-storey office building - which stands on piles - from Pitt Street and gives pedestrians an opportunity to rest in the cafés and on the recessed seats. This zone opens up into the Shopping Circle. From the lower level. stairs take pedestrians to the upper level raised a few steps above Bond Street, the main shopping street. This level has been made into the prestigious platform of the cylindrical 46-storey tower, which contains rentable office space on the first floor, an exhibition area, and a restaurant on the two upper floors. The transparent ground floor, a continuation of the surrounding platform, merely serves as a front zone for the outward-facing lifts. In the words of Harry Seidler: “The essence of a high-rise building is vertical transport. It is the way to get in and therefore the lifts must be obvious.” Australia Square is one of a number of set-back buildings dating from this period in which the desire to bring more light and air into Sidney’s densely built-up city centre was given priority over prestigious appearance. The arrangement of the building elements and surfaces is open to a variety of interpretations. Although there are undoubtedly functional reasons for the form and location of the tower, it is equally possible that Harry Seidler drew his inspiration from closely studying the tracts of classical architecture.

Like Alberti’s ideal church, the tower is white; it stands in the centre of a rectangular area, imposing a radial form on the floor design. The building proper is surrounded by a colonnade, whilst the exposed character of the ground floor manifests itself in an expressively curved rib-structure. Although Harry Seidler fulfils all the demands placed on modern and functional city and architectural planning, he nevertheless follows classical composition in his arrangement of the forms employed. Consequently, Australia Square is an initial expression of the discourse on post-modernism that is now beginning.

The form and organisation of the tower which has a diameter of 42 m called for a tube-intube structure. For the ceilings of the ground and first floors, which have to carry a greater part of the load, the engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi, adopted a system of curved concrete ribs, which meant correspondingly lower ceilings, whilst radial girders joined to the façade piers were employed on the higher floors. The pier depth diminishes towards the top of the building as the static load declines.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Harry Seidler & Associates

Sydney, Australia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1961 - 1967

Pier Luigi Nervi, Civil & Civic Pty Ltd, Lehmann & Talty Pty, DT Broughton Associates

183 m (600 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 50

and an inner zone with high and low ventilation speeds respectively. Of the eighteen lifts sewing the tower, five are arranged in three distinct groups of floors. Two lifts ascend to the restaurant on the top floors. The twenty protruding concrete piers running the entire height of the building determine its outward appearance. Variety is provided by the interplay of light and dark vaulted areas provided by the parapet slabs and the glass fields between the piers. Given rhythm by the set-back equipment storeys, the repetitive stacking terminates in a super-elevated crown which, together with the open plinth area, reflects the principles of classical composition mentioned above.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

37. AUSTRALIA SQUARE

The radial girders on the office floors allow for a flexible arrangement of both the lighting and the installation of the power connection lines. The air is conditioned via an external zone

Function: FUNCTION: offices, exhibition space, services Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: cylindric light weight concrete building AREA: Floorspan: 65,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 241,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE tube-in- tube structure, interlocking rib structure (concrete) supporting heavily loaded exhibition Structure concept: floors and typical radial upper floor beams ENERGY CONCEPT: Skin concept: air is conditioned via external zone SKIN CONCEPT: Energy concept: quartz faced precast façade MATERIAL: concrete, glass

37. AUSTRALIA SQUARE

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

This white, polygonal tower was constructed on a site raised above the adjacent streets. The plan forms a square with trimmed corners; the short edges run parallel to the streets bordering the building. In this way, the 65-storey building respects the course of the underground railway tunnels. Access to the M.L.C. Centre is via two squares leading up to the tower from street level. The Centre is part of a complex which includes restaurants, shops, cinemas, open plazas and the Royal Theatre, and features works by contemporary artists such as Josef Albers and Alexander Calder. The radial floor arrangement further emphasizes the position of the building. The architectural idiom expressed by the M.L.C. Centre also characterizes the other tower by Seidler, located on Sydney’s Australia Square. In addition, both structures greatly recall the programme for an ideal church formulated by Alberti during the Renaissance.

In technical terms, the M.L.C. Centre is a tube-in-tube concrete construction. The vertical load is borne by the central core, which contains the building’s technical installations, and the eight columns at the corners. The required rigidity is achieved through the special form of the vertical supports. Façade and core are connected by ribbed ceilings. The most interesting of these is to be found in the lobby, where the ceiling required special reinforcement and reflects the flow of structural forces. It bears the unmistakable stamp of P.L. Nervi.

The building has twenty-four lifts ascending from the ground floor. Like the other technical installations, they are contained in the core of the tower.

The façade is faced with white quartz and articulates the clear, rationalistic language that typifies this building. During construction, horizontal, prefabricated concrete sections were fixed between the vertical corner columns and then filled with cement. These 11- to 19m beams have a double-T-girder cross section, which makes them extremely resistant to bending. The windows are recessed, so that the horizontal structural elements also provide protection from the sun.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Harry Seidler & Associates

Sydney, Australia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1978

Pier Luigi Nervi

244 m (800 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 65

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

38. MLC CENTER

The tower’s exterior is carried by only eight heavily loaded massive columns which logically change in plan shape and area from bottom to top, as the loads in them decrease. For a structure of this height, there is great need for stiffness against lateral wind loads. This is achieved by turning the columns outward at the base and changing their hyperboloid form to become flush with the building façade at the top.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE eight concrete columns at the corners

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tube-in-tube concrete construction

SKIN CONCEPT: faced with white quartz

AREA: Floorspan: 100,000 m² Leasspan:

MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, glass

Skin concept: Energy concept: VOLUME: 400,000 m³

38. MLC CENTER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, shops

DESCRIPTION

Solar Tower power plants are the only large scale solar electricity generating systems today which can provide electricity 24 h a day from solar energy alone without the need for any additional fuel. In a Solar Tower power plant air is heated by solar radiation under a low circular glass roof open at the circumference; the roof and the natural ground below it form a hot air collector. A vertical tower tube with large air inlets at its base stands in the centre of the glass roof. The joint between the roof and the tower base is airtight. As hot air is lighter than cold air it rises up the tower. Suction from the tower then draws in more hot air from the collector and cold air comes in from the outer perimeter. The energy of the air flow is converted into mechanical energy by pressure-staged wind turbines at the base of the tower, and then into electrical energy by electric generators coupled to the turbines. A single Solar Tower power plant with a collector area of 7 000 m in diameter built and operated in an area with an annual global solar radiation of 2 300 kWh/m² a will generate between 700 and 800 GWh per year.

Thus a small number of Solar Tower power plants can even replace a large nuclear power station.

An Australian power company is planning to build the world’s tallest structure - a solar tower in the middle of the outback. The project is part of a global campaign to encourage the use of more renewable energy. Enviromission says the tower, at a proposed height of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), will be more than twice the size of the world’s current tallest freestanding building, the Canadian National Tower in Toronto. The one billion Australian dollar (US $ 0.56 bn) project is being backed by the Australian Government, and is expected to be completed in 2006 in the remote Buronga district in New South Wales. If successful, the structure could provide enough electricity for 200,000 homes. It will save more than 700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases which may otherwise have been emitted by coal- or oil-fired power stations. Enviromission chief executive officer Roger Davey told Reuters news agency: “Initially people told me ‘you’re a dreamer’, there’s no way anything that high can be built, there’s no way it can work”.

“But now we have got to the point where it’s not if it can be built, but when it can be built.”

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Schlaich, Bergermann & Partner, Stuttgart

Mildura, Australia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2008

Schlaich, Bergermann & Partner, Stuttgart

1,000 m (3,281 ft) STORYS:

The tower proposal has received the support of the Australian and New South Wales governments, which have defined it as a project of national significance. The authorities plan to fit the tower with high intensity obstacle lights to prevent aircraft from crashing into it.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

39. SOLAR CHIMNEY

The proposed structure will have a width similar in size to a football field and will stand in the centre of a huge glass roof spanning 7km (4.3 miles). The sun will heat the air under the glass roof, and as it rises an updraft will be created in the tower, allowing air to be sucked through 32 turbines. The turbines will then spin, generating power 24 hours a day. The tower was developed by German structural engineers Schlaich Bergerman, who built a 200-metre-high demonstration power plant in Manzanares, Spain, in 1982.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, commercial space Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: central solar-tower power plants

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel-reinforced concrete tower and steel/glass solar air collector Structure concept: MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, glass Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

39. SOLAR CHIMNEY

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Lake Point Tower stands alone in splendid isolation on a headland projecting into Lake Michigan, its elegant curved glass façade reflecting the light and the sky.

The whole plot is occupied by a 9.5-m-high base with various leisure facilities on the roof, including a naturally landscaped park, which seeks to establish a balance between the urban environment and the lake. Plans for two further similarly shaped towers were never realised.

The point of reference for the 65-storied, clover-leaf shaped, reinforced concrete tower was the 1922 Mies van der Rohe design for a completely transparent office tower. However, it was impossible to apply van der Rohe’s idea of a translucent skyscraper to an apartment block with 900 flats; such a notion may well only come into question for a truly “transparent administration”. But despite all of these shortcomings, Lake Point Tower remains a prismatic structure of great expressive force and daring. Its wave-shaped curves and almost abstract glass surfaces make it a worthy tribute to the genius of Mies van der Rohe and his ability to make what was actually difficult appear extremely simple.

The horizontal forces are transferred trough the triangular central core, which together with the façade supports, runs through the whole height of the building. The curtain-wall façade itself is not a load-bearing structure.

Supply shafts have been so laid out within each apartment that the size of each apartment can be changed according to the prevailing market demands. Main access is via the triangular central core, which has nine lifts, three staircases, the service shafts and express supply corridors. Lake Point Tower does not have centralised air-conditioning control; each apartment has its own separate heating and air-conditioning units. Fresh air can be regulated manually via the façade.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Schipporeit & Heinrich

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1968

Anderson, Probst and White

197 m (646 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 65

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

40. LAKE POINT TOWER

The bronze-tinted elevation consists of a curved glass curtain-wall. The greatest possible amount of privacy is ensured through the 120-degree angle of the ground plan, which makes it impossible for the neighbours to look into the next-door apartment. Integrated air-supply units for manual use mark the separate storeys and follow the horizontal division of the façade. Since skyscrapers rarely stand alone, they are rarely seen in their totality – and certainly never from as many different perspectives as Lake Point Tower.

Function: FUNCTION: residential, commercial, businesses, restaurants, swimming pool,–fitness club Hight floor floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE triangular central core, steel frame

Hight floor thickness:

SKIN CONCEPT: curved glass curtain-wall

CONCEPTION: clover-leaf shaped, reinforced concrete tower

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 120,000 m² VOLUME: 200,000 m³

Structure concept: Skin concept: MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, glass

Energy concept:

40. LAKE POINT TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Alcoa Building (now known as the Golden Gate Office Building) is situated in a newly developed residential and commercial district not far from the harbour. It stands near a 25storey apartment block. SOM wanted to create a building whose strict forms and dominant appearance made it stand out clearly from the existing towers, thus reducing them visually to the scale of residential blocks.

The building rises up above a 3-storey, publicly used garage designed by the architects Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons. As the substructure is relatively small, it does not really function as a base, so that the building loses contact with the ground and forfeits its dominance.

As the building stands in an earthquake area, the load-bearing structure was designed to absorb any seismic tremors. The load-bearing structure combines the advantages of bracing trusses, which are relatively rigid and keep lateral and other vibrations to a minimum and the moment-stayed outer steel cage, which is capable of absorbing severe earthquake tremors due to its great flexibility. In contrast to customary earthquake-proof structures, this combination increases resistance without causing any additional material costs.

The centre of the building consists of a solid core containing three lifts, two staircases, the sanitation and the entire air-conditioning system.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

San Francisco, CA, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1967

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

116 m (380 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 26

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

41. ALCOA BUILDING

The façade design is determined by the load-bearing structure, whose vertical columns and diagonal bracing recall the lattice girders of the Golden Gate Bridge piers. The curtain wall, which encloses the space, is located 46 cm behind the load-bearing structure. The cladding of the steel structure and the profiles of the curtain wall are made of bronze-coloured anodised aluminium. The spandrels are the same colour as the tinted glass windows.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE diagonal bracing concept, external trusses large x-braces Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: a building whose strict forms and dominant appearance made it stand out clearly from the existing towers

SKIN CONCEPT: curtain-wall, bronze-tinted anodized aluminum Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 48,000 m² VOLUME: 215,000 m³

MATERIAL: steel, glass, aluminium Energy concept:

41. ALCOA BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The complex of buildings stands on a site 58.5 m x 36.5 m in the Loop district, Chicago’s business quarter. Only 66% of the plot has been built on, so the building stands out clearly from the city blocks in the neighbourhood. The complex of a whole consists of a 19-storey office tower whose floors are entirely free of supporting pillars, and a 25-storey service tower housing all the secondary rooms, stairs, lifts and supply shafts. This division of functions in the structural organisation leads to an interesting tension between the part of the building being served and that providing services, between the open, glazed structure and the sealed clad section.

Seven stainless-steel-clad outer columns are situated peripherally along the longitudinal sides of the building. The transverse girders freely span the entire 18-m-depth of the building. The ceiling girders (which have apertures for the service lines and piping) and the cellular-steel floor are supported by the columns. The floor area of the seventeen upper stories is based on a grid of 1.575 m x 1.575 m and can be subdivided with a specially developed system of prefabricated partition walls. Only 66 percent of the land site is occupied by the building itself. The first two floors are set back 20 feet from the lot line free of the exterior columns along Monroe Street. This creates an arcade which opens to the two-story lobby set with a steel sculpture by Seymour Lipton. Upper floors are cantilevered to the lot line.

The entire installations and vertical access are located in the separate service tower, from where connecting passages provide access to each of the storeys.

The exterior appearance is very much defined by the structure of the external columns and the curtain walls. In marked contrast with the smooth steel-plate cladding of the service tower, the frames and glazing bars are made of stainless steel, filled in with laminated glass and sheet steel plates. The plate arrangement corresponds to that of the laminated glass on the office block. Serving as a clear and simple metaphor, the outer appearance reveals the internal processes of a corporate steel group in the 20th century.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1957

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

76 m (250 ft) / 101 m (330 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 19 / 25

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

42. INLAND STEEL BUILDING

Even at the time of its completion, the Inland Steel Building was recognized as innovative and significant architecture receiving an award for outstanding building achievement from the Chicago Building Congress in 1958. The Inland Steel Building was awarded the Chicago Chapter AIA 25 Year Award in 1982. In addition, it was designated a Chicago landmark by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in 1998.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, service

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE seven pairs of columns, 60-foot girders

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: glass-walled office tower, service tower sheathed in stainless steel

SKIN CONCEPT: steel/glass façade, solar-tinted glass windows

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan:

MATERIAL: steel, glass

31,000 m² VOLUME: 97,000 m³

Skin concept: Energy concept:

42. INLAND STEEL BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The design of the John Hancock Center, fondly nicknamed “Big John”, was heavily influenced by the surroundings. The tower stands on Michigan Avenue in the vicinity of the Lake Shore Drive Apartments, located in one of the most attractive pedestrian and shopping areas in Chicago. The tower itself only occupies around fifty per cent of the plot. On the “Magnificent Mile” side of the tower, a sunken street courtyard connects the lower shop levels with the public areas. Towards the rear of the plot, a spiral car ramp leads to the parking levels. When John Hancock commissioned this building, he insisted that the top floors be used for residential accommodation. Consequently architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Kahn had to develop a novel structure, using diagonal tubes, to permit mixed use of the interior and whilst retaining the scale and size of a 100-storey skyscraper. The John Hancock Center is the largest multifunctional skyscraper in the world. The ground floors are given over to commercial use, with parking areas on the sixth to twelfth floors. Above this, there is office space extending - up into the 41-storey. The upper storeys of the building are reserved for 711 apartments, complete with all the necessary infrastructure. At the very top of the tower, there is an observation deck, a restaurant and bar, which, at night offer an incredible view across the sea of lights in Chicago below. In principle. I anyone living and working in the Hancock Center never need leave the building.

The floor area at the top of the tower is less than half the size of the ground floor space. The building’s tapered form guarantees structural stability and efficient use of space. The outer piers sand the horizontal spandrel beams form a steel tube, which is reinforced by diagonal bracing running through the floor slabs to create an extremely simple and structurally efficient system.

The tower’s centrally located core contains fifty lifts and five escalators, which transport up to 12 000 people a day. Express lifts directly link the entrance level with the transfer floors, the observation deck, and the restaurant at the very top of the tower.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Bruce Graham

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1969

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Fazlur R. Khan

343 m (1,127 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 100

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

43. JOHN HANCOCK BUILDING

The façade consists of five sections, each approximately 18-storeys high, defined by the exterior diagonal bracing tubes. In the top section, only half of the pattern is visible. The external cladding is made of anodised aluminium with tinted bronze glass and bronze-coloured aluminium window frames. The two radio and television masts (both nearly 100 m high) on top of the tower form an integral element in the design of the building. At night, these illuminated mast are visible from afar, creating a landmark in Chicago’s skyline.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, multiple use

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE horizontal spandrel beams form a steel tube (X-bracing)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: novel structure, using diagonal tubes

SKIN CONCEPT: exterior diagonal bracing tubes; black aluminum

AREA: Floorspan: 80.77 m x 50.29 m Leasspan:

MATERIAL: steel, glass, aluminium

Skin concept: Energy concept: VOLUME: 1,100,000 m³

43. JOHN HANCOCK BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Although Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a country of low buildings, the shape of the site and the magnificent view of the Red Sea inspired the decision to build a high-rise structure of twenty-seven storeys. Adjacent to the triangular tower is a circular garage with 400 parking spaces. The plot has an area of approximately 11,800 m² and is located between the old town and the sea. In accordance with local building traditions, the structure is turned inwards to shield users from heat and sunlight. All the office areas face the internal triangular courtyards, which have been cut out of the body of the structure. Two of the courtyards are seven storeys high and face the town, while the third, positioned in the middle of the building, is nine storeys high and faces the sea. The integration of these courtyards into the ground plan has created two relatively narrow V-shaped converging wings with floor areas of approximately 1700 m².

The building is constructed of reinforced concrete and stiffened at the triangular corners and the service core on the north-east side of the tower. Due to the eccentric double core, the possibilities for subdividing the office floors are almost unlimited. Furthermore, thanks to this design, the banking hall, which is located on the ground floor and occupies the entire groundplan area of the triangle, has been kept free of any built-in units.

All of the open-plan offices face away from the sun and towards the inner courtyards. The three courtyards over-3 in the centre of the structure, creating a light and ventilation shaft ascending the entire height of the building and directing heat from the courtyards upwards through natural circulation. All lifts, stairwells and sanitary units, together with the installation shafts, are located in a double core on the north-east side of the triangular tower, whose wall is not interrupted by the inner courtyards.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1983

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

126 m (413 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 27

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

44. NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK

The travertine surfacing is extremely modest in appearance. On closer viewing the different storeys can be detected in the arrangement of the façade slabs. Apart from this, every effort has been made not to spoil the prismatic form of the tower. Even with the massive clefts formed by the inner courtyards, the basic form of the structure has been maintained. The large openings on two sides of the building reveal the more fragile glass surfaces on the inner façades.

Function: FUNCTION: bank, offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: triangular tower with a circular garage VOLUME: Floorspan: 220,000 m³ Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete and stiffened at the triangular corners and the service core Structure concept: ENERGY CONCEPT: structure turned inwards, shield users from heat and sunlight Skin concept: SKIN CONCEPT: fragile glass surfaces on the inner façades Energy concept: MATERIAL: concrete, steel, glass (5’ x 9’ panels of honed Roman travertine)

44. NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Site constraints and an exceptional location dominated the development of the form and massing of One Magnificent Mile, a 1,000,000 sf multi-use project in downtown Chicago.

Achieving an image building specifically suited to that location was the most important of the client’s design goals. The difficult L-shaped site dictated a structural solution of bundled tubes which, eliminating structural cores, allowed a higher density and more flexible floor areas.

Rising 21, 49, and 57 stories, the complex’s three hexagonal towers are sited on axis with the corner of Michigan Avenue and Oak Street, and are a distinctive gateway to the famed shopping street and the city beyond.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1983

Barancik Conte & Associates

205 m (673 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 5 / 21 / 49 / 57

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

45. ONE MAGNIFICENT MILE

- The tube heights reach 5, 21, 49 and 57 floors.

- The structure consists of 4 bundled tubes, similar to the Sears Tower except that these are hexagonal instead of square.

- Each of the tubes has a sloping roof. Penthouse units feature greenhouses and outdoor terraces.

- Located at the inside corner of the Gold Coast streetwall where Lake Shore Drive turns east and the “Magnificent Mile” (Michigan Avenue’s glamorous shopping and hotel dis trict) begins.

- The wall and ceiling lamps in the lobby are clusters of hexagonal tubes, like the building’s structure.

- Early plans by the building’s developer called for a six-level retail mall at the base.

- The hexagonal tubes were choses in part because they could be parallel both to the city’s street grid and to Oak Street Beach at the same time.

- The tubes’ heights were calculated to minimize afternoon shadows on the beach.

- In most of the apartments one room is a pentagon, allowing the remaining space in each unit to fit 90° angles.

- In 1984 this building won the Best Structure Award from the Structural Engineers Associa tion of Illinois.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, multiple use

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE 4 bundled tubes

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: three hexagonal towers

Skin concept: AREA: Floorspan: 100,000 m² Leasspan:

Energy concept:

45. ONE MAGNIFICENT MILE

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Until recently, the 100-storey-high Sears Tower was the world’s tallest building. It was constructed to accommodate the 10 000 employees working for the department store giant Sears. Roebuck and Company and 6000 tenants. The tower, with its innovative load-bearing structure, was developed under the direction of the brilliant civil engineer Fazlur Kahn. Soaring above the surrounding buildings in Chicago city centre, it is constantly present as a point of reference.

The building’s height of 443 m was made possible by the development of a load-supporting structure consisting of a system of nine bundled tubes stacked on top of one another in box form. The horizontal edge-length of each of the bundles measures twenty-three metres. Not having any internal supports, the bundles are stabilised by the frame action of their compartments, which are formed by columns positioned at intervals of 4.60 m. The structure is further reinforced by two-storey-high braces positioned at the same height as the equipment rooms, i.e. at regular intervals of 100 m. This load-bearing system is particularly effective since - instead of relying on reinforcing cores - it activates the outside walls and all the other loadbearing structures in transferring the horizontal forces. Furthermore, the service cores - not having to fulfil a load-bearing function - could be planned freely to meet the requirements of both the circulation and the building installations. The number of tubes gradually diminishes towards the top, so that only two are left at the crown of the tower. This set-back structure determines the mono-functional space-allocation programme accordingly: the open-plan offices are located on the tower floors; and as the floor area decreases towards the top of the building, the building’s exclusivity and the sense of remoteness from the earth increase, too.

The prime goal of the design was to accentuate the immense height of the building as well as its superior structure. Because the tube modules are set back, the silhouette of the tower varies according to one´s point of view.

Four huge ventilation systems are housed in floors 106 to 109. The building’s express lifts ascend from the ground floor to the skydeck in less than one minute. Some fifty local lifts link the individual floors and parts of the building via transfer floors.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Bruce Graham

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1974

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Fazlur R. Khan

443 m (1,454 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 100

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

46. SEARS TOWER

In combination with the modest load-bearing structure, the glass-and-metal façade lends the building the appearance of a shining abstract sculpture – designed to be viewed from afar - which seems to rise unexpectedly out of the ground. One has the feeling that it could be built even higher.

PLANS

Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tower with innovative load-bearing structure as world’s tallest building

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 440,000 m² VOLUME: 1,700,000 m³

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE system of nine bundled tubes stacked on top of one another in box form Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: glass-and-metal façade (in combination with the Skin concept: modest load-bearing structure) MATERIAL: Energy concept: steel, glass

46. SEARS TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, observation deck

DESCRIPTION

The site is in downtown Chicago on the south-east comer of Dearborn and Madison streets.

The building as designed occupies less than a third of a block, with a setback of only ten feet from the property line. The design is straightforward and functional. A central sixty-sevenfoot-square hollow mast of reinforced concrete rises from a foundation of straight-shaft caissons ail the way to the base of the antennae. The building envelope tapers upwards from the 185 square-foot parking and office levels in twenty-foot increments four times over the height of the whole. The first forty-eight floors are devoted to parking and office space. Above the fifty-fifth floor are three twenty-story blocks, two of which are residential and one, at the top, dedicated to broadcasting equipment. These blocks are cantilevered around the concrete mast and are separated by notches that cut back to the face of the mast.

The notches reduce the building’s wind-related vibrations by creating local turbulence that impedes the formation and shedding of wind vortices. Vortex formation and shedding are the principal causes of high-wind building vibrations that disturb occupants. With apartments located 1.000 feet high this is a key concern. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill design also includes a tuned liquid column damper at the top to help further decrease these vibrations.

The structure itself is designed as a stayed mast, coupling the concrete core and eight megacolumns aligned with the core walls with fifty-five-foot-tall outrigger trusses located at the fiftieth floor. The mega-columns anchor into a perimeter well around the lower parking levels, which serves as a stiff base. Because of the notches there is no outrigger at the top of the core, since no stays can run continuously. There are separate elevators for low- and high-rise offices (eight and six respectively) and the residential floors (a total of five), all contained in the concrete core. Four mechanical floor service the different program spaces.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Adrian 0. Smith

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2004

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill William F. Baker

478 m (1,567 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 112

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

47. SEVEN SOUTH DEARBORN

The building continues the Chicago tradition of placing high-rise residences over office space. It rises in an absolute line perpendicular to the horizon of the Great Plains and Lake Michigan. The view from the apartments over the wide extension of the Jeffersonian grid is unmatched. With the clarity and innovation of its program - a thin building wrapper wound about an antenna - the building designed for 7 South Dearborn is a direct descendent of the rigorous functionalism of the Chicago School. It also succeeds, to use the literary scholar Harold Bloom’s phrase, in opening a “clear imaginative space” around it.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, residential

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete core (interior is column-free)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: mast-like tower, supporting 3 overhanging blocks

SKIN CONCEPT: stainless steel and aluminium exterior façade

AREA: Floorspan: 190,000 m² Leasspan:

MATERIAL: reinforced concrete, glass

Skin concept: Energy concept:

47. SEVEN SOUTH DEARBORN

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Deceptively simple in appearance, One Shell Plaza has a number of surprises upon closer examination. Outwardly, it looks like any other boring concrete block. But it is the only one in downtown Houston to sport a mast like so many skyscrapers in other cities. Its base has just a slight flare to it, spreading out like a Japanese Fuji.

The neighbouring Two Shell Plaza appears to pay homage to this flare with the windows on its lower levels. They appear in roughly triangle patterns. But in reality, this is a structural element. Back at One Shell Plaza, looking down the sides you will notice that not all of the vertical lines are of the same width. Towards the corners some are wider for added structural strength.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Houston, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1971

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

218 m (714 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 50

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

48. SHELL PLAZA

The transition of the load-bearing base to the rest of the building is particularly smooth -- the columns and the spandrel get gradually thinner as the base rises. The load bearing traits along the building’s base are most visible in the uniquely shaped windows along the bottom few levels, and almost look to be a homage to the base of it’s companion building.

PLANS

Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tallest lightweight concrete building

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE double-tube system, perimeter walls and shear wall core combined Structure concept: SKIN CONCEPT: windows are glazed with bronze coloured glass Skin concept: MATERIAL: reinforcedconcept: concrete, glass Energy

48. SHELL PLAZA

Function: FUNCTION: offices

DESCRIPTION

Three First National Plaza complex occupies a prime location near the financial center and downtown commercial district of Chicago’s Loop. The project consists of a 57-story tower, an 11-story building which houses a private club, and a central 9-story glazed public lobby at ground level, the complex connects with the Loop’s system of all-weather pedestrian passages, with aI1 me connections converging on the atrium lobby. The tower shape, with its sawtooth geometry, provides multiple corner offices while retaining a degree of openness along busy Madison Avenue. At the top six levels, stepped greenhouse offices provide panoramic views of the city and Lake Michigan.

The low-rise section has larger floor areas and maintains a height compatible with its neighbours to the north.. The foundations of the building are reinforced concrete caissons to bedrock for the tower and to hard pan for the low-rise portion. The structural system combines steel and reinforced concrete allowing column-free interior space. The cladding uses cold spring Carnelian granite, making it one of the few all-granite buildings in in the city.

Bronze reflective glass is also employed on the exterior, with aluminium mullions and warm grey spandrels panels. Bay windows, a traditional element of Chicago’s turn-of-the- century architecture, are a central feature of the tower, designed to provide light and views to its tenants within this tight urban setting. These bay windows can be found in landmark Chicago buildings such as the Rookery, Monadnock, and Manhattan and Chicago Stock Exchange.

Office areas and mezzanine balconies look into the sloping atrium serving as a public space sheathed in clear and bronze-tinted glass and containing a variety of retail shops and restaurants.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1981

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill I.A. Naman & Associates, Inc.

234 m (767 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 57

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

49. THREE FIRST NATIONAL PLAZA

The developer felt that a prestigious office building must have an impressive presence, luxurious and appealing spaces, and a dramatic entrance. People come into direct physical and visual contact with these made elements—and thus high priority was allotted to high-quality materials in the atrium lobby and on the exterior and interior of the building. Sumptuous bronze and leather finishes adorn the elevators. Furthermore, the entire project is completely accessible to the handicapped (it was the first office building to be designed in compliance with the new Illinois accessibility standards). The project also incorporated a number of innovative design features to maximize energy conservation, such as a dual-pane window system that reduces energy transfer across the glass, minimizing the expense of heating and air-conditioning.

Function: FUNCTION: offices Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tower rises from a nine storey glass atrium HEIGHT FLOOR - FLOOR: Floorspan: 3.96 m (13 ft) Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE stepped steel truss structure, tubular structural system (allows column-free interior spaces) Structure concept: ENERGY CONCEPT: dual-pane window system, reduces energy transfer Skin concept: across the glass, minimizing the expense of heating and air-conditioninge

Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, granite, bronze reflective glass

49. THREE FIRST NATIONAL PLAZA

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECT: ARCHITECT:

LOCATION: LOCATION:

Robert Sobel (Emery Roth & Sons)

Houston, USA

DATE: DATE:

ENGINEER: ENGINEER:

1975

Robert Sobel

HEIGHT: HIGHT:

STORIES:

STORYS: 500

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

50. 500 STOREY TOWER

The tower is made up of sixteen 60-meter sided triangular tubes, arranged in an equilateral triangle.

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

50. 500 STOREY TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

From its inception, the Citicorp Bank building presented a challenge to the the urban disposition. The site was free for development except for the corner, where St. Peter’s Lutheran Church stood. The church reached an agreement whereby it sold its air rights to Citicorp and received, in return, a new church on the same site, separate from the Citicorp building and with open sky above it. These requirements led to a unique engineering solution - the supports carrying the 55-storey office block were positioned in the middle of the façade.

This allowed the church to be a free-standing structure and permitted the creation of an open public plaza at street level, receiving plenty of daylight. This striking structural solution gives further emphasis to the strategic location of the Citicorp Center. Moreover, the forty-five degree angle of the Citicorp Center roof makes it instantly recognisable from a distance on the Manhattan skyline. At the same time. a very urbane public space has been created in an attempt to establish direct contact to people via the plaza church and subway in the central base support.

Together with the central core, the four 114-feet-high, load-bearing supports carry the entire weight of the skyscraper The tower is divided into six units of eight floors each, defined by diagonal. V-shaped steel buttressing. Within each system of forces, the vertical forces are transferred from the comers into the middle of the sides, where they are then further transferred into the foundations via the four supports. This skyscraper was one of the first tall buildings to be fitted with a tuned-mass-damper (TMD), a 400-ton, computer-controlled concrete block situated on the top of the building and used to equalise the effects of wind sway movements.

The central core, located in the center of the tower, also houses a total of Ground floor twenty-two lifts, which, for the most part, have double-floor cabins to transport passengers from two floors simultaneously, thus saving both space and time. The emergency staircases are also located within the centre core as well as in three of the four façade supports.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Hugh Stubbins & Associates with Emery Roth &Sons

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1977

LeMessurier Associates and the Office of James Ruderman

279 m (915 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 59

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

51. CITICORP CENTER

The façade consists of alternate bands of clear, reflecting glass and shiny aluminium panels.

This smooth, gleaming external skin is intended to underline the distinct external appearance of the tower and make it stand out against the surrounding buildings.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel skeleton

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: the aluminium-clad tower is raised above the sunken plaza on four huge columns

ENERGY CONCEPT: angled (45 degrees) roof, originally planned as a solarconcept: collector Skin

Floorspan: VOLUME: Leasspan: 650,000 m³

MATERIAL: steel, aluminium, reflective glass Energy concept:

51. CITICORP CENTER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, multiple use

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

51. CITICORP CENTER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Singapore Treasury Building is located in the heart of Singapore’s business district. The building is a cylindrical shape with a notch on two opposite ends of the building. One half of the building terminates five stories below the other half, and is cantilevered above the entrance. The Treasury Building is clad in aluminium panels and bronze tinted glass. The entrance is sheltered by a triangular space-frame canopy. Escalators and stairs lead to the shops and café on the lower level.

The 52-story cylindrical office tower provides a new image and office space for government departments and commercial organizations. Located on a prime site within Singapore’s central business district, the 1,431,257-square -foot building comprises office space, retail shops, and an underground garage for 715 cars, and executive office areas.

The tower’s rounded form minimizes the exposed surface area and therefore reduces energy consumption. Clad in painted aluminium spandrel panels and bronze-tinted insulating glass, the building is protected from the intense sun. The tower is notched on both the north and south façades to give the cylindrical form a sense of orientation and to integrate the tower plan configuration with that of the ground-level site development.

The site is bisected diagonally to provide pedestrian access from three corners. The eastern half of the tower is elevated to accommodate a triangular space-frame canopy for weather protection at both the lower entry and the ground -level pedestrian entries. A lower-level courtyard provides pedestrian and vehicular access to the VIP entry and reception, and lower elevator lobby. Seventeen double-deck elevators and two service elevators provide access to all levels. Underground pedestrian connections to adjacent buildings and to a new mass transit station occur at this same level.

Public lobbies, banking facilities, and offices occupy the first two floors. Floors 7 through 48 provide typical office floors of 19,600 GSF per floor, with the exception of the 30th and 31st floors which are given to restaurant/lounge, conference rooms, and kitchen areas. Executive offices are located on the 50th floor.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Hugh Stubbins & Associates

Singapore

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1986

Ove Arup & Partners

235 m (771 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 52

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

52. TREASURY BUILDING

The tower’s structural system optimizes the performance of its cylindrical form. The floor system, supported by radial steel trusses, is cantilevered 38 feet off a cast-in-place concrete core. This system allows wind and gravity loads to be transferred to the core and results in flexible column-free office space. The enclosed radial girders provide three-dimensional coffers that reinforce the circular design and provide high ceilings for indirect or direct lighting.

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel beams cantilevered from a cylindrical concrete core

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: cylindrical shape with notch on two opposite ends of building, one half of building terminates 5 stories below other half (tallest cylindrical building in the Floorspan: world) Leasspan:

ENERGY CONCEPT: rounded form minimizes exposed surface area, double layer façade (bronze-tinted insulating glass),...

Skin concept:

AREA: 130,000 m²

SKIN CONCEPT: clad in aluminium panels and bronze tinted glass Energy concept: MATERIAL: concrete, aluminium, bronze-tinted insulating glass

52. TREASURY BUILDING

Function: FUNCTION: offices, shops, (underground garage)

DESCRIPTION

The twin 110-storey towers of the World Trade Center dominate the Atlantic-side skyline of lower Manhattan and, according to the client, are intended to symbolise the importance of New York to world trade. Approached from the Statue of Liberty, the side of the towers facing the waterfront creates an impressive gateway to New York. Within the World Trade Center super block there is a large plaza, bordered on the Wall Street side by low buildings designed in dark tones, whilst the light Twin Towers mark the boundary towards the harbour The plaza, raised one-storey above street level, is inaccessible to all motorised traffic. There is a large shopping arcade below the plaza, with restaurants and a connection to two of New York’s major subway lines. The earth excavated prior to the construction of the WTC was used as landfill on the Hudson River site for what later became Battery Park.

The columns in the façade form a densely-knit frame, which, together with the girder grid supporting the floors on each storey, create a steel tube structure which absorbs all the horizontal and vertical loads. The only columns within the building itself are located in the core area, thus enabling flexible allocation of usable floor space.

In order to minimise the area taken up by the core, the lift system has been divided into three vertical zones. This required the establishment of so-called sky lobbies on the forty-fourth and seventy-eighth storeys, which are accessed via twenty-three express lifts. Seventy-two local lifts operate from the sky lobbies. The passenger lift system is supplemented by four large goods lifts, which supply the restaurant at the top of the north tower and the viewing platform of the south tower.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Minoru Yamasaki with Emery Roth & Sons

New York. NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1972 - 1973

Skilling, Helle, Christiansen, Robertson

417 m (1,368 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 110

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

53. WORLD TRADE CENTER

The façade design is determined by the vertical load-bearing structure clad in stainless steel.

In daylight, this lends the towers an almost monolithic character, obscuring the division into storeys and making it difficult to judge scale of the buildings. At ground-floor level, the façade opens to form a kind of plinth providing access to the plaza and the lower - street level. This doubling of the façade structure in the manner of the medieval Italian fortress towers avoids any sense of banality and, according on Huxtable, transforms the miniature module into a distinctive landmark.

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE columns in the façade form a densely-knit frame

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: 110-storey twin towers

SKIN CONCEPT: vertical load-bearing structure clad in stainless steel

VOLUME: Floorspan: 5,000,000 m³ Leasspan:

MATERIAL: steel, concrete

Skin concept: Energy concept:

53. WORLD TRADE CENTER

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

53. WORLD TRADE CENTER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Menara Mesiniaga is the headquarters for IBM in Subang Jaya near Kuala Lumpur. It was first conceived of in 1989 and finally completed in 1992. IBM asked the office of T.R. Hamzah & Yeang for a building which was a high-tech corporate showcase for their highly visible site and high-technology industry. Also, Ken Yeang designed this building as an example of his bioclimatic skyscraper practices and principles.

Subang Jaya is near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The climate is considered tropical. The year round temperature, heat and humidity are fairly similar throughout the year. The day and night temperature vary little. Artifical landscape was created to shelter and insulate the lowest three levels from the morning sun. Parking is located below the building and berm. Menara Mesiniaga is located on a major highway from the airport to Kuala Lumpur. It is in a highly visible location with few buildings within the surrounding context.

The building is 15 stories tall and circular in plan. Yeang designed this building to include three items: a sloping landscape base to connect the land with the verticality of the building; a circular spiraling body with landscaped sky courts that allow visual relief for office workers as well as providing continuity of spaces connecting the land through the building; the upper floor provides a swimming pool and gym. The facade is a“sieve-like” filter (instead of a “sealed skin”). The louvers and shades relate to the orientation of the building. They allow or reduce solar gain. The deep garden insets allow full height curtain walls on the north and south sides- as a response to the tropical overhead sun path. The core functions are located on the “hot” side, the east.

“The most powerful effects on the form of the building are from the sky-courts and the sunshaded roof and its facilities, together with the separated cores that in their edge condition boh shield the tower and are naturally ventilated.” The roof is inhabitable. As part of Yeang’s fundamental idea of connecting the building back to land – the roof holds a pool and a gym.

The roof acts as the capping social space of the building as well as an additional buffer between interior and exterior spaces. The sun screen structure is made of steel and holds aluminium panels. The structure is capable of holding solar panels (if ever installed). The screen shades the pool as well as the roof of the building. The rain water collection system is also on the roof.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Dr. Ken Yeang

Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993

T.R. Hamzah & Yeang

63 m (207 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 15

lobbies and lavatories which are not air conditioned and are on the east side to buffer the climate-controlled offices from the sun. The main office spaces are naturally ventilated and air conditioned. The building is equipped with a Building Automated System which controls energy features including air conditioning and is utilized to reduce energy consumption in equipment. Other passive low energy features include: all windows on the east and west have aluminium louvers to reduce solar gain; and the north and south windows have the deep insets acting as a thermal buffer.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

54. MENARA MESINGA TOWER

The main structure of Menara Mesiniaga is exposed steel tubes. The floor plates are concrete over steel trusses. The core functions are located on the “hot” or east side. The elevator

Function: FUNCTION: offices

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete structural frame and brick infill

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tripartite structure consists of a raised “green” base

ENERGY CONCEPT: a number of passive low-energy features, installation of solar panels, building cooled by natural ventilation Skin concept: and sun screens

AREA: Floorspan: 6,500 m² Leasspan:

Energy concept:

54. MENARA MESINGA TOWER

PLANS

Function: Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Material: SKIN CONCEPT: double-glazed with gas infilled Structure concept: MATERIAL: aluminium (cladding), float glass, brick, reinforced concrete

Skin concept: Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

54. MENARA MESINGA TOWER

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

54. MENARA MESINGA TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Originally planned to be 84 stories tall, the project is now 880 meters (2,887 feet) tall, almost 10 times its width, with 210 floors of offices, housing and hotel rooms, community facilities and “skycourt oases” articulated by a system of open air atria where elevators, escalators and walkways meet. On the outside, on a spiral roil, “robot arms” facilitate maintenance to the vegetation and cleaning of the façades, giving the image and technology of science fiction to o laboratory project that draws its inspiration from the abundance of tropical vegetation, the hybrid aesthetic of “architecture without architects” and the universe of a Buckminster Fuller or Archigram type technological utopia. It is a project, forecasts Ken Yeang, which opens a new perspective on skyscraper architecture. “The design of energy efficient enclosures has the potential to transform architectural design From being an uncertain, seemingly whimsical craft, into a confident science.” But make no mistake. Ecology with Yeang excludes neither fantasy nor artistic ambition, “Bio- climatic factors should not be the only design determinants. There are others such as views, site constraints, etc. Therefore, these aspects and principles should remain as guides for interpretation rather than as dogma for form.”

This project proposal utilises vertical landscaping that spirals around and throughout the tower. This is used to cool the building as well as control air movements through strategic planting. The large mass of planting works symbiotically with the mechanical systems.

Mechanical devices would maintain this landscaping, as well as external fixtures, glazing and cladding. The built form of this design allows the displaced radial floor plates to shade themselves as they spiral up. This pattern utilises the advantages of hanging gardens, interfloor bracing and ventilation systems whilst providing variation of form. The vertical spaces are punctuated with private gardens, terraces and internal courts. Large skycourts at regular intervals will provide plenty of oxygen. The floors have atrium spaces that are connected by walkways and stairwells.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Dr. Ken Yeang

Tokyo, Japan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1993

T.R. Hamzah & Yeang

880 m (2,887 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 84

along which ‘cherry-pickers’, moving robot arms, can be used for the maintenance of the gardens, the glass façades and the sunshade panels. The office floors will be interrupted by lengthy open spaces that go from façade to façade and form an, again spiral-like rising, vertical atrium area. These open spaces are in open connection with the outside air and are sectioned by gangways and stairs. Elevators and service areas can be found on the hot eastand west side of the building, so the office spaces at the cooler north- and south façade can be fitted with large glass façades and open outside areas. Sun shading is provided where needed by (moveable) perforated covers and by louvres.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

55. NARA TOWER

Lift and service cores are on the east-west axis and these façades are clad in cast and perforated metal. The cooler north-south façades have glazing louvres and tiered sun shades as well open atrium spaces. As the lungs of the building it muffles/controls the air movement in and around the offices. The growth is a part of the climate managing system that cools the building and has a noise reducing function. The story floors have a mutually deviating, organic form. By the spiral-like twisting of the floors, shades are created for the underlying stories. The shifting of the floors creates double- or triple-high transitional areas creates double- or triple-high transitional areas along the edges, in which the vertical gardens, terraces and loggias are placed. Along the outer edge of the tower spiral conductors are attached

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE central core structure

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: spiral-like (tower in organic form); bio-climatic tower

ENERGY CONCEPT: climate managing system, solar cells, bio-climatic system Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan:

SKIN CONCEPT: clad in cast and perforated metal (east – west), Energy concept: glazing, louvres and tiered sun shades (north-south)

55. NARA TOWER

Function: FUNCTION: offices, housing, hotel rooms

DESCRIPTION

A breakthrough of tall building construction is proposed here in which all the exterior bearing walls are poured on the ground simultaneously with foam lining separating each exterior ring.

This system therefore requires only one set of interior forms and one set of exterior forms to pour all the exterior walls of this 80-story building. Each section poured at ground level is approximately eight stories high. After the concrete has hardened, all the exterior wall sections are post-tensioned vertically. As a first stage in floor construction, all the precast floors are constructed inside the first interior ring of the wall. Then all the remaining exterior walls are pulled up to the top of the first interior ring. At this stage the next group level of eight precast floors is constructed within the second interior ring. This process is continued until the whole building has telescoped to its top level. The proposed system eliminates continuous delivery of small batches of materials floor by floor throughout the height of the building, enables most of the work to be done at one constant level, and saves a tremendous amount of formwork.

Although the examples shown are of a circular building, the system could be adapted to any other geometric form.

In many structures, such as aircraft and machines, many of the problems outlined above have been solved through the use of geometry of the structural system. For example, one type of such development was in large-span structures where a solid beam developed through the years into a truss, then into a space frame, and then into a light-gauge hyperbolic-paraboloid skin. In such an example both the weight of structural material and the labor of putting it up have been successfully and drastically reduced as it has undergone the transformation from a solid beam to hyperbolic paraboloid.

With the present increase in population density and therefore the increasing need for tall buildings, an effort toward more efficient and economical construction is urgent. Introducing the effect of geometric configuration of the structural system into the design of tall buildings could be one of the most successful factors. If one can come up with a structural system whose rigidity is not so sensitive to the modulus of elasticity as a beam-and-post system (for example, if the entire tall building consisted of a honeycombed tube), one could achieve the prescribed goal.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Lev Zetlin

Milwaukee / New York, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1970

Lev Zetlin

305 m (1,000 ft), 80 storeys STORYS: 457 m (1,500 ft), 120 storeys

toward a better architectural solution. However, in every case the final adopted solution for the geometric configuration of the structural system should be one that results in an optimum compromise between the various needs of architectural planning, environmental control, and structural flexibility. The geometry of the structural system, rather than an indiscriminate use of the traditional tier construction, will contribute a great deal to this optimum solution.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

56. 1000 FT TOWER / 1500 FT TOWER

Obviously, as efficient geometric structural systems that are different in form from the conventional ones are devised, the form of the tall building and therefore the architectural expression of the exterior, as well as the configuration of the floor plans, might he affected and be somewhat different from traditional planning concepts. In many cases the change is

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

56. 1000 FT TOWER / 1500 FT TOWER

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Taipei 101 is built in the Hsinyi District of the city, the rapid-growing “Manhattan”of Taipei.

The well planned district is the future center of financial power in Taiwan, and already home to a dynamic collection of retail and entertainment centers. The Taipei Municipal Government awarded development rights by tender for this BOT project, the first ever in Taiwan, to an unprecedented consortium of investors. The mission is to develop a state-of-the-art building that forms an integral part of the infrastructure for advancing Taipei towards becoming one of the Asia Pacific Financial Centers. This project symbolizes the outstanding achievements of Taiwan’s economic development.

The 508 m (1667 ft) Taipei 101 with a 101 story super-structure, a 5 story basement is a structural steel building. The total floor area, including a 6 story retail podium, adds up 370,000 m2. The challenges to design and build a super-tall building in Taipei come from the combination of the height and natural constraints such as typhoon winds, frequent strong earthquakes and weak clayey soils.

The strength and the stiffness requirements of the structure to resist gravity and lateral loads were achieved by base structural members before the common problem of the occupant comfort encountered in tall buildings could be worked out in the structural design of the Taipei 101. A damping system was implemented to reduce the excessive lateral accelerations from wind. This article hereinafter covers the overview of the structural system of the Taipei 101 and analyses as well as the design of the damping system.

Since 1997, when the “Taipei 101”crew was awarded the development rights to this mammoth Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) project and began to plan, design, and construct for this case, our team had spent a total time of about seven and a half years working on it when the office building had been put to use by the end of 2004. In the duration of this time period, problems such as airplane flight safety and the 331 Earthquake have delayed the project. It also took great impact with the occurrence of the 921 Chi-chi Earthquake and the 911 terrorist attack. Despite these impediments, the owner of the building, as well as the design and construction crews were always able to maintain their high spirits and witty intelligence; resolving each problem adeptly.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

C.Y. Lee & Partners

Taipei, Taiwan

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1999 - 2004

Evergreen Consulting Engineering, Inc.

508 m (1,667 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 101

In this show, the “Taipei 101” was critiqued as first place amongst the modern engineering projects: this not only met the purpose of advertising, it also brought world-wide attention to Taiwan. As the structural engineers responsible for structural design and site supervision, we feel extremely honoured to have made this small effort towards the project.

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

57. TAIPEI 101

Finally, we have completed this impossible construction, and for it have attained the 2004 grand award for engineering in the American Popular Science magazine. Also, in May, 2004, the Discovery Channel produced a television documentary called “Seven Wonders of Engineering.”

PLANS

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE concrete and steel megaframe, glass cladding

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: supertall buildings design inspiration comes from traditional Chinese buildings (“8-design”)

MATERIAL: steel, glass

Skin concept:

Floorspan: AREA: Leasspan: 412,500 m²

Energy concept:

57. TAIPEI 101

Function: FUNCTION: offices, restaurant, observation, conference, ...

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

57. TAIPEI 101

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

This is a project, with William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox as the design architect. We call it a 1/2km-high building. Mori Building Company of Japan is the developer. The building, having passed through the hands of three other structural engineers prior to our involvement, was to be 460m high. As the design came to us, the foundation piling had been installed. Our charge was to increase the height of the building from 460 to 492m and to increase the floor area by 15% – all while making use of the existing piling. This could be done only by making use of a lighter and a more efficient structural system. We developed this design, which is reminiscent of a pair of bent leaves, cantilevering from the ground. In need of additional stiffness, the leaves are braced across the top.

The original design, by other engineers, made use of a moment-resistant space frame at the façade, with closely-spaced columns of considerable size. Seeking to improve the views from inside the building, we chose to use not more than three columns on each face, keeping the columns small by making them load-bearing for a maximum of 12 floors.

We made use of three-storey high outrigger trusses. Unlike conventional outrigger truss that pass through the services core, we chose to pass the trusses around the core, burying them in the perimeter walls of concrete – in this way improving the space utilisation of the building, simplifying the architectural layout of the services core, and saving in time and in money.

Outrigger trusses are complicated, difficult to fabricate and time-consuming to erect; hence outrigger trusses are expensive. Even so, their use contributes significantly to the stiffness and to the strength of the structural system. We believe that this building reaches to the highest level in economy, strength, stiffness and robustness. Perhaps of more importance, we believe the architectural design is most elegant.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Shanghai, China

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2007

LERA

492 m (1,614 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 101

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

58. WFC SHANGHAI

LERA’s structural design calls for a megastructure consisting of composite perimeter columns, one at each corner of the rectilinear base and six as the floor plan morphs into a sixsided form at higher elevations. Diagonal perimeter braces zigzag up the faces, connecting mega-columns vertically and connecting steel belt trusses horizontally. The building will have a reinforced concrete services core, which will interact with the exterior framing through outrigger trusses that span from the core to the belt trusses.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, hotel, shops Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: tower with circular aperture at the top of the building represents ‘heaven’ and reduces wind load on the building Floorspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE reinforced concrete services core, which will interact with the exterior framing through outrigger trusses Structure concept: that span from the core to the belt trusses MATERIAL: Skin concept: steel, glass

Leasspan: Energy concept:

58. WFC SHANGHAI

PLANS

Function:

Material:

Hight floor – floor: Hight floor thickness:

Structure concept: Skin concept:

Floorspan: Leasspan: Energy concept:

58. WFC SHANGHAI

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 metres tall - just 5 metres shy of half a mile - once completed in 2008. That will be nearly 300 metres taller than the tallest floored building in the world today, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan.

The tower design is derived from the geometries of an indigenous desert flower, as well as incorporating patterns found within Islamic architecture. The design was originally proposed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill for the Grollo Tower in Melbourne, Australia. Designers shaped the structural concrete Burj Tower - which resembles a fat ‘Y’ in cross section, with a steppedback profile - to dramatically reduce forces on the tower, keeping the structure simple.

The Tower has 15 tiers or groups of commonly-shaped floors over 100 storeys. They are staggered in a spiral stepping pattern as you go up the building. This causes the Tower’s width to change at each setback - designed to ‘confuse the wind’, therefore keeping forces weaker. The new tower’s unique, three-sided design will ascend in a series of stages, around a supportive central core and boast a total of 160 floors, accessible via a series of doubledecker elevators. Its shape will be integral to its impressive size. The design is intended to reduce the impact of wind and to reduce the need for a stronger core - allowing for more space - as it ascends.

“It’s almost like a series of buildings stuck together,” says Mohsen Zikri, a director at UK engineering consultants Arup. “As you go up you need less and less lifts and less core.”

As wind whirls around a tall building it can build into powerful vortices that in turn generate powerful winds on the ground. But the wide base of the Burj Dubai should also prevent wind from causing these disturbances.

Foundation work was recently completed by Turner Construction International, based in New York, US. Above ground construction will now begin under the control of the Samsung Corporation. The contract was awarded by Emaar Properties in Dubai, after an 11-month bidding process.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Adrian D. Smith, FAIA, RIBA Design

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2008

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill William F. Baker

705 m (2,313 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 160

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

59. BURJ DUBAI

The tower will be used for offices, residential apartments, hotels and shops and will be surrounded at its base by a man-made lake. The top of the Tower will contain a public observation deck and a private club will be situated above that.

Function: FUNCTION: hotel, observation deck, private club Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: world tallest tower with triple-lobed footprint based on an abstracted desert flower native to the region

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE building sits on a concrete and steel podium with 192 piles descending to a depth of more than Structure concept: 50 meters (164 ft) SKIN SkinCONCEPT: concept: reflective glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel, spandrel panels with vertical tubular fins of stainless steel Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass

59. BURJ DUBAI

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The 39-storey Seagram Building stands on Park Avenue in the centre of Manhattan’s business district. Set back approximately twenty-seven meters from the street, the skyscraper rises above a surrounding terrace lining the main street and two side streets. Adopting a radically new approach to integrating a building into its urban environment. Mies van der Rohe positioned the Seagram skyscraper in the centre of the site instead of directly alongside Park Avenue. The Seagram Building, which rests on a granite plinth, has a ceremonial entrance created by the two symmetrically arranged fountains. Thanks to this design, the building is a major landmark - both horizontally and vertically - on Park Avenue. Lewis Mumford was impressed that the building was visible from three sides and accessible to pedestrians, creating rather than occupying space. The building itself consists of two overlaid T-shaped volumes, whereby the lower part, hidden by the main structure, fills the entire site.

Philip Johnson designed “The Four Seasons” restaurant and bar on the ground floor.

The Seagram Building is a steel skeleton structure. The offices have a clear-space of nine feet (2.75 m) and an integrated support grid. The space between the columns is divided into six window units with a distance of 28 ft (8.5 m) in each direction. In the offices, partition walls can be installed behind each window support.

There are four lift shafts on the ground floor, arranged within the support grid (the shafts measure 12.7 m x 2.5 m). Each of the two central shafts contains six lifts, a secondary room, and a technical equipment shaft. The exterior shafts each contain three lifts, a secondary room, a technical equipment shaft and a staircase. In the upper storeys, the four shafts, together with the sanitary rooms adjoined where required, make up the entire central infrastructure for the offices.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1958

Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson

157 m (515 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 39

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

60. SEAGRAM BUILDING

Above the 7-m-high ground floor, a curtain wall of brown-tinted solar glass and bronze encloses the building’s steel skeleton construction. The visible use of bronze on the external skin lends the building its unique dignity. The following materials used for the ground floor: granite slabs for the floors and terrace, travertine slabs around the lift shafts, and bronze cladding on the columns.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, restaurant Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: transparent energy efficient commercial building VOLUME: Floorspan: 490,000 m³ Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE the building itself consists of two overlaid T-shaped volumes, the concept: lower part, hidden by the main structure, Structure fills the entire site SKIN SkinCONCEPT: concept: curtain wall of brown-tinted solar glass and bronze MATERIAL: Energy concept: steel, brown-tinted solar glass

60. SEAGRAM BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECT:

DATE:

LOCATION:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT: STORYS:

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

63. FREEDOM TOWER / WTC NEW YORK

RAUS DAMIT

Function: FUNCTION: offices, commercial space

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame, (central core, suspended ceilings)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: transparent energy efficient commercial building

ENERGY CONCEPT: solar cells louvers, natural ventilation, two different air-handling systems, double-skin “buffer” façade Skin concept:

AREA: Floorspan: 20,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 76,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: Buffer Façade with undivided, full height air space Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass

63. FREEDOM TOWER / WTC NEW YORK

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECT:

DATE:

LOCATION:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT: STORYS:

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

64. FREEDOM TOWER / WTC NEW YORK

RAUS DAMIT

Function: FUNCTION: offices, commercial space

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE steel frame, (central core, suspended ceilings)

Hight floor – floor:

Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: transparent energy efficient commercial building

ENERGY CONCEPT: solar cells louvers, natural ventilation, two different air-handling systems, double-skin “buffer” façade Skin concept:

AREA: Floorspan: 20,000 m² Leasspan: VOLUME: 76,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: Buffer Façade with undivided, full height air space Energy concept: MATERIAL: steel, glass

64. FREEDOM TOWER / WTC NEW YORK

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

The Empire State Building stands at the junction of 5th Avenue. 33rd and 34th Street on the site of the former Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Although it was planned only as an object of speculative investment, the building was completed in the incredibly short time of eighteen months and proved to be a successful example of uniting a variety of functions.

The 5-storey plinth occupies the entire plot and forms the boundary to the street. Shops, as well as the striking 3-storey entrance hall to the elevator lobby, are located on the ground floor.

Set back from the plinth the tower rises through set-back floors to the gently rounded tower at the top. For the entire height of the building, the sections were structured in accordance with the zoning rules. The Empire State Building not only became the symbol of the New York skyline, but of the skyscraper per se. A source of marvel to the population during the Thirties, it gradually became rooted in the New Yorkers’ self- awareness. The film King Kong, with the love-crazed gorilla, certainly played its part, too, as did the pictures - later to become classics -taken by photographer Lewis Hine during the construction phase. Last but not least, right up until 1972, the Empire State Building was still the tallest building in the world.

The Empire State Building is a steel-skeleton structure with limestone infills and facing.

Throughout the height of the structure, the columns are arranged on a continuous six- metre structural grid, with two 8-m trimmers at each of the side entrances. On the horizontal plane, the structural grid displays the following subdivisions: 10 m, 6.5 m and 6 m, except for the entrance hall area and the two central lift groups, where the vault bays have a greater span.

The large structural grid in the core zone of the lift lobby is continued up to the top floors. Owing to pressures of time and cost, it was necessary to use prefabricated steel components, which were riveted together on the building itself. The 67-m-high television mast was not added until 1950.

The elevator lobby, with its sixty-four lifts, from the core zone of the building. The shafts for the various media and sanitary facilities are connected to those for the lifts. The optimal solution had to be found for the technical areas of the lifts and the remaining, rentable floor areas, which also meant developing the best lift circulation concept for the greatest ascendable height. Consequently, the lift design played an essential part in determining the form given to the building as a whole.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Richmond Shreve, William Lamb and Arthur Harmon

New York, NY, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1931

H.G. Balcom

381 m (1,250 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 102

building lend rhythm to the line of shop windows. On the upper floors, the darker colour of the windows, whose steel piers and aluminium parapets are set against the lightness of the limestone, draws contrasting strips on the building, lending emphasis to the vertical.

Together, the materials form a unity of grey tones

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

61. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

The shop level, which is clad in black granite, stands out clearly from the light grey of the limestone. Mullions clad in aluminium, a rare instance of art-deco ornamentation on this

Function: FUNCTION: offices, observation deck Hight floor – floor:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE teel-skeleton structure with limestone infills and facing Structure concept:

CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: ower rises through set-back floors to gently rounded tower at the top

clad inconcept: black granite (shop level), light grey of Skin

Floorspan: VOLUME: Leasspan: 930,000 m³

SKIN CONCEPT: the limestone MATERIAL: Energy concept: limestone and granite, trimmed with aluminum and chrome-nickel steel, glass

61. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

This is the first Chicago project for Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, though he has graced the shores of Lake Michigan before with the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Quadracci Pavilion. Its position at the point where the Chicago River drains Lake Michigan puts it in the center of the city’s skyline, and out in front of any of the thousands of photographs taken by tourists cruising the lake each day.

The spire-shape structure would be called the Fordham Spire and is proposed to be built where the Chicago River nearly crosses the shores of Lake Michigan. It would be 115 stories, topping out at 1,458 feet to its roof. A spire on top would reach about 2,000 feet, making the building the country’s tallest.

Calatrava’s design is a tall, slender form whose glass façade seems to ripple downward in waves, like the folds of a cloak swirling around a figure. This effect is achieved by means of a structural innovation. Each floor unit of the tower is built out from the central core like a separate box, with gently curving, concave sides. As these boxes are stacked up, each is rotated by a little more than 2 degrees from the one below. The result is that the floors turn 270 degrees around the core as they rise, giving the façade an impression of movement.

The design not only provides the building with its majestic profile but ingeniously allows for the design of living space with a freedom not normally available in high-rises.

Condominium residences will feature unparalleled views through floor-to-ceiling windows; column-free, unobstructed floor plans; and access to the amenities of the building’s five-star hotel.

The twisting form of the tower provides a structural advantage by reducing the impact of wind turbulence, which affects all tall buildings. The irregularity of the tower’s surface ensures that wind forces are reflected from the façade in multiple directions, rather than building up as a single force. In this way, the design averts extremes of lateral movement.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Santiago Calatrava

Chicago, IL, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

2006 - 2009

Santiago Calatrava

444 m (1,458 ft) STORYS: STORYS: 115

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

62. FORDHAM SPIRE

Both developer and architect said they were mindful of security concerns in designing the tower. Calatrava, in an interview, said he never set out to design the tallest building but instead was drawn to the project by the chance to do something special for the “heroic Chicago skyline.”

“Nobody is saying it has to be the highest building in the country,” Calatrava said. “The idea was to build a very slender, elegant building in this skyline.”

Function: FUNCTION: housing, hotel Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: each floor is rotated about two degrees from the one below, forming a tapered tower which twists 270° from base to roof Floorspan: (if constructed, Fordham Spire will be the tallest Leasspan: building in the United States) AREA: 85,500 m² (base: 1,300 m²)

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE massive concrete core allows column-free spaces, each floor unitconcept: is built out from the central core like Structure a separate box SKIN SkinCONCEPT: concept: concave glass façade deflects lakefront winds MATERIAL: Energy concept: concrete, glass

62. FORDHAM SPIRE

PLANS

DESCRIPTION

Frank Lloyd Wright saw the design of the One-Mile-High Skyscraper as part of his plan, dating from the twenties, for Broadacre City Existing cities were eliminated and replaced by suburban-type settlements with detached houses. Horizontal expansion was to be achieved by the generalised use of motorised transport and a developed road network. Skyscrapers were resewed for “incorrigible” towns and cities. With his One-Mile-High Skyscraper of 1956, he elaborated an urban focal point, a place that would meet societal, social and cultural needs.

He changed his priorities in favour of creating an urban centre.

The load-bearing structure consists of a central tripod-shaped column, deeply anchored in rocky ground, and projecting plates - stabilised by steel ropes - resting on cantilevers. The building attains maximum extension at ground level in the keel-like basement and tapers like a hull at the plinth. Frank Lloyd Wright believed that architecture ought to be organic. Hence, he compared his project with a tree consisting of a trunk, roots and branches. In his opinion, the central support would give the skyscraper a “natural” crown, because of the way the building tapered continuously to the very top.

The technical equipment was to be located in the zone of the longitudinal support as a part of the core, but it was not developed in any detail. Nevertheless, the structure does display some striking features. Thus, in a detail drawing, the tapering cantilevers are depicted as being hollow so that they could be used for the air conditioning system, as well as for the power and water supply. Furthermore Wright planned to install five-storey lifts running along rack rails, transporting up to one hundred passengers and driven by atomic-powered motors.

In this, he was primarily interested in solving the problem of vertical transport and not in the spatial dimension or the crowding that might ensure.

ARCHITECT:

LOCATION:

Frank Lloyd Wright

Illinois, USA

DATE:

ENGINEER:

HEIGHT:

1956

Frank Lloyd Wright

1,600 m (1 mile) STORYS:

RESEARCH:

WIDE - SPAN BUILDINGS

JULIAN S E F I R O W ___ A N D R E LINDNER SUPERVISION: PROFESSOR PETER LAND _ IIT Chicago

63. ONE-MILE-HIGH SKYSCRAPER

The façade shows an interplay of forces between the vertical lines of the lift shafts and the horizontal gradation of the parapets and windows. Wright elaborated a simple design for the façade so that the basic form of the building, with its interrupted triangular surfaces would have a visible impact. Gold-tinted metal was to be used for the cladding and the balcony parapets. For the windows, Wright planned to use Plexiglas, which was employed exclusively for aeroplane construction at the time.

Function: FUNCTION: offices, services, residential Hight floor – floor: CONCEPTION: Hight floor thickness: triangular tower of 1 mile height

Floorspan: Leasspan:

Material: CONCEPT: STRUCTURE central tripod-shaped column, stabilised by steel ropes concept: Structure SKIN CONCEPT: façadeconcept: shows interplay of forces between vertical Skin lines of lift shafts and horizontal gradation of parapets and windows

Energy concept: MATERIAL: concrete, gold-tinted metal, Plexiglas

63. ONE-MILE-HIGH SKYSCRAPER

PLANS

WEB SOURCES

Norman Foster & Partners - http://www.fosterandpartners.com Skidmore, Owings & Merrill - http://www.som.com Nicolas Grimshaw & Partners - http://www.grimshaw-architects.com Toyo Ito - www.toyo-ito.co.jp Michael Hopkins & Partners - http://www.hopkins.co.uk/main.html Von Gerkan, Marg & Partner - http://www.gmp-architekten.de Thomas Herzog & Partners - http://www.herzog-und-partner.de Baruch Givoni - http://bgivoni.bol.ucla.edu Santiago Calatrava - http://www.calatrava.com Jourda & Perraudin - http://www.jourda-architectes.com Richard Rogers Partnership - http://www.richardrogers.co.uk Renzo Piano - http://194.185.232.3/ Alvaro Siza - http://www.alvarosiza.com Chris Wilkinson - http://www.cwal.co.uk Paul Andreau - http://www.paul-andreu.com Ingenhoven, Overdiek, Kahlen & Partner - http://www.ingenhoven-overdiek.de Jauss, Gaupp & Partner - http://www.architekten-jauss-gaupp.de Foreign Office Architects - http://www.f-o-a.net/flash/index.html HOK - http://www.hoksve.com Frank O. Gehry - http://www.foga.com I. M. Pei & Partners - http://www.pcfandp.com Arat, Siegel & Partner - http://www.asp-stuttgart.de/web_1/index.htm Kulla, Herr & Partner - http://kulla-herr-partner.de Finn Geipel - http://www.finn-geipel-lin.com Prof. Ackermann & Partner - http://www.ackermann-partner.com Massimiliano Fuksas - http://www.fuksas.it/html/entrada.html Future Systems - http://www.future-systems.com Haines Lundberg Waehler - http://www.hlw.com Murphy / Jahn Architects - http://www.murphyjahn.com/intro.htm Richard Horden - www.hcla.co.uk Kajima Corporation - http://www.kajimadesign-interiors.co.uk/kajima.html Jean Nouvel - http://www.jeannouvel.com Cesar Pelli & Associates - http://www.cesar-pelli.com Gio Ponti - http://gioponti.com Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates - http://www.krjda.com/flash.html

WEB SOURCES

Paul Rudolph - http://www.paulrudolph.org Harry Seidler & Associates - http://www.seidler.net.au Hugh Stubbins & Associates - http://www.tsa-arch.com/About/History.aspx Minoru Yamasaki - http://www.yamasakiinc.com Dr. Ken Yeang - http://www.trhamzahyeang.com C. Y. Lee - http://www.cylee.com/main/main.htm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates - http://www.kpf.com/main.asp

Schlaich, Bergermann & Partner - http://www.sbp.del Buro Happold -

http://www.burohappold.com

Ove Arup - http://www.arup.com Sailer, Stepan & Partner - http://www.ssp-muc.com LERA - http://www.lera.com/

http://de.structurae.de http://www.hb2.tuwien.ac.at/dbase/ddb/ bdsp

- http://www.bdsp.com/ashindex.html

http://www.skyscraperpage.com http://www.skyscraperpicture.com http://www.skyscraperpage.com http://www.skyscrapercity.com http://www.skyscrapers.com http://www.skyscrapernews.com http://www.wickedtallbuildings.com http://www.die-wolkenkratzer.de http://www.skyscraper.org

WEB SOURCES

http://www.unige.ch http://www.arplus.com http://www.archinoah.de http://www.nrw-architekturdatenbank.uni-dortmund.de http://www.galinsky.com http://www.greatbuildings.com http://archi-guide.com http://www.emporis.com http://www.archiweb.cz http://www.arcspace.com http://archnet.org