Journal2016 Issueiii Low-Rise

CTBUH Journal
International Journal on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Tall buildings: design, construction, and operation | 2016 Issue III
Case Study: Evolution Tower, Moscow

High-Rises, High Seismicity
A Car-Free, Polycentric City
Skyscraper Energy Calculator
Tall Buildings in Numbers:
Twisting Tall Buildings
Ask the Expert: How Fast
Should Elevators Go?
Talking Tall: Engineering Chinas Skylines
This Issue
Editor
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
dsafarik@ctbuh.org
Associate Editors
Steven Henry, CTBUH
shenry@ctbuh.org
Antony Wood, CTBUH/IIT/Tongji University
awood@ctbuh.org
Board of Trustees
Chairman: David Malott, Kohn Pedersen Fox, USA
Vice-Chairman: Timothy Johnson, NBBJ, USA
Executive Director: Antony Wood, CTBUH / Illinois Institute
of Technology, USA / Tongji University, China
Treasurer: Steve Watts, Alinea Consulting LLP, UK
Secretary: Tim Neal, Arcadis, UK
Trustee: Mounib Hammoud, Jeddah Economic Company,
Saudi Arabia
Trustee: Dennis Poon, Thornton Tomasetti, USA
Trustee: Abrar Sheri, Turner Construction, USA
Trustee: Kam-Chuen (Vincent) Tse, WSP | Parsons
Brinckerho, Hong Kong
CTBUH Expert Peer Review Committee
All papers published in the CTBUH Journal are peerreviewed by an international panel of multi-disciplinary
experts from within the CTBUH membership. For more on
this panel, see www.ctbuh.org/PeerReview.
Design & Layout
Tansri Muliani
tmuliani@ctbuh.org
Published by
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
CTBUH 2016
ISSN: 1946-1186
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
104 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 620
Chicago, IL 60603, USA
+1 (312) 283-5599
info@ctbuh.org
www.ctbuh.org
www.skyscrapercenter.com
Copyright
2016 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing
from the publisher.
Image Copyright
CTBUH Journal has endeavored to determine the copyright holders of all images. Those uncredited have been
sourced from listed authors or from within CTBUH.
Print
This Journal is printed by The Mail House, Chicago.
Front cover: Evolution Tower, Moscow overall view.
GORPROJECT.
Back cover: Evolution Tower twisted faade detail.
Igor Butyrskii
Just as the fundamental

motivations for
building skyscrapers
can be both coolly
rational and highly
emotional, much of the
content of this issue
raises questions of balance and equilibrium.
While originally conceived as a symbol of the
harmony and balance of marriage, the case
study subject, the twisting Evolution Tower,
Moscow, somewhat ironically went through a
soap opera seasons worth of turmoil, before
nally rising as a kind of monument to change
and adaptation, while maintaining its core
essence. As similar designs leapt o the page
into 3D fruition, Evolution Tower continued
incorporating new technologies, eventually
emerging with its audacious vision intact.
Inspired by Evolution Tower and its spiraling
compatriots, our Tall Buildings in Numbers data
research study examines the human ambition
to build twisting towers, expressing our
ingenuity by mimicking one of natures most
perfect shapes.
As we race skywards, the human need for
pressure equilibrium is one key limitation of
elevator speed, and thus, practical building
height. In Ask a CTBUH Expert, the question is,
How fast should tall building elevators go?
Another question of balance, between
ambition and integrity, environment and
ethics asks: is it worth tearing down a building
just to make a point? A recent wave of
demolition orders, especially in developing
countries where most of the worlds
urbanization is happening, prompted us to
ask in Debating Tall, Should a tall building be
demolished solely for legal reasons even if
there is no safety risk?
Designers of the future skyline must balance a
penchant for progressive thinking against
practical reality. In the forward-looking papers
Skyscraper Energy Calculator and A Car-Free,
Polycentric City, with Multi-Level Skybridges and
Inter-Building Atria, ingenuity is put to the
theoretical test. As laudable a goal as a
self-powering skyscraper might be, would it
have enough usable oor space to be
economically justiable? Would the tradeo of
living under a giant dome be a price worth

paying for a safe, ecologically sound urban
life?
Even when designing for a nearer and more
tangible future, the question of balance
persists. Recognizing a growing trend toward
composite construction, in which the
strengths and weaknesses of concrete and
steel are cross-optimized, the authors of A
Software Tool for the Analysis of TimeDependent Eects in High-Rise Buildings attack
the inevitability of dierential material
degradation with advanced computer
models. In High-Rises, High Seismicity: New
Materials and Design Approaches, the
demands of cost and schedule targets are
pitted against the need to satisfy demanding
seismic requirements, with the constraints of
concrete reinforcement forming the crux of
the issue.
In our Talking Tall interview, Dasui Wang of
ECADI, the winner of the inaugural China Tall
Building Outstanding Achievement Award,
oers his reections on a career of assuring
balance, stability and grace in tall structures,
no matter how signicantly the priorities,
techniques and the economic landscape of
his country have changed over four decades.
And, for the many stakeholders who struggle
with balancing the maxim to build tall
buildings that reect both global standards
and Chinese characteristics, the CTBUH
Report on the China Tall Building Awards can
perhaps shed a little light on how some of
the industrys best practitioners have
resolved this quandary, and how many more
might do so in the future.
No matter your role in this broadly multidisciplinary industry, I hope that you nd the
features presented here complement each
other and your own understanding of this
fast-moving world and leave you feeling a
little more grounded.
All the best,
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH Editor

2 | This Issue
CTBUH Journal | 2016 Issue III
Inside
News and Events
02 This Issue
Daniel Safarik,
CTBUH Editor
04 CTBUH Latest
Antony Wood,
Executive Director
05 Debating Tall:
Should Tall Buildings be
Demolished For Non-Safety
Reasons?
06 Global News
Highlights from the CTBUH
Global News archive
Case Study
12 Evolution Tower, Moscow
Philip Nikandrov
Research
20 High-Rises, High Seismicity:
New Materials and Design
Approaches
Cary Kopczynski & Mark
Whiteley
28 A Car-Free, Polycentric City,
with Multi-Level Skybridges
and Inter-Building Atria
Richard J. Balling
34 Skyscraper Energy Calculator
Mark Weisgerber
40 A Software Tool for the
Analysis of Time-Dependent
Effects in High-Rise
Buildings
Carlo Casalegno, Mario
Alberto Chiorino, Taehun Ha &
Sungho Lee
Features
20
46 Tall Buildings in Numbers

48 Talking Tall: Dasui Wang
Engineering Chinas Skylines
51 Ask a CTBUH Expert:
James Fortune
How Fast Should Elevators Go?
34
CTBUH
52 CTBUH Report
Inaugural China Tall Building
Awards Highlight Critical
Achievements
55 CTBUH on the Road
CTBUH events around the world
55 Diary
Upcoming tall building events
56 Reviews
Reviews of tall-building related
books and events
46
57 Comments
Feedback
58 Meet the CTBUH
Murilo Bonilha
58 CTBUH Organizational
Member Listing
There was a period of time in which many

strange or even ugly buildings were built. But, I
think that time has passed, and China has come to
a more rational stage.
Dasui Wang, page 48
Inside | 3
CTBUH Latest
I am delighted to report
that the majority of
CTBUH sta have now
settled into our new
home in the Monroe
Building overlooking
Chicagos Millennium
Park. This classic skyscraper is proving to be an
excellent base to coordinate our eorts around
the world not least to our other three oces,
which all retain their academic-research avor;
at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago;
Tongji University, Shanghai; and the IUAV
University Venice, Italy.
I have just returned from a trip to Southeast
Asia, during which I gave event presentations
at newly-formed CTBUH Chapters in Jakarta
and Singapore. Hosted by developer-members
in those cities, both events were
enthusiastically attended by local colleagues,
which bodes well for future initiatives in the
region. I also took time out to discuss potential
collaboration with the National University
Singapore, whose leadership is keen to be part
of the new initiatives in Singapore. We were
also recently visited here in Chicago by the
head of the Korean government-funded
SuperTEC research center at Dankook
University in Seoul who, again, is keen to
collaborate with the Council. I mention this as
evidence of not only the growth in the

Councils global presence, but also its increasing
collaboration with academic institutions.
We are now in the midst of CTBUH Awards
season here at HQ, and it was with great
pleasure that we delivered the inaugural China
Tall Building Awards program at Shanghai
Tower in May. Delivered in collaboration with
the China International Exchange Committee
for Tall Buildings (CITAB), the inaugural China
awards saw some fantastic projects recognized,
including the overall China winner, Bund SOHO,
Shanghai. Similarly, this years Global Awards
program has now passed its rst round of
judging, highlighting four Best Tall Building
regional projects that will vie for the title of
Best Overall at the Awards events in Chicago
on 3 November (see page 39). Join us for that
event if you can.
Without a doubt, the initiative that is occupying
most of our time currently is this years
conference, which will take place 16-21
October, on the theme of Cities to Megacities:
Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism, across
Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, China.
With most of the 150+ speakers conrmed, all
sponsorship packages fullled and close to 800
people already registered, it now only remains
to actually deliver the event, which is no mean
Cities to
Ping An Finance Center
VIP Networking Reception
Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism

Pearl River Tower
Hosted Program and Technical Tour:
Harnessing Energy in Tall Buildings
International Commerce Centre

Hong Kong Conference Venue +
Networking Reception
Two International
Finance Centre
Hosted Program: Transit
Oriented Development in
a Super High Rise Context
Poly Real Estate

Headquarters
Hosted Program:
Tall Buildings and
the Ground Plane
Urban Habitat
Guangzhou Huacheng Square, Hong
Kong Victoria Harbour, and others
Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre

Guangzhou Conference Venue
+ Networking Reception
Tencent Seafront Towers

Hosted Program:
The Vertical Campus
Register Now!
Urban Infrastructure
Travel between cities with CTBUH
Regular Registration Deadline - 31 August
With
h 800 people
l already
l d registered,
d space is running
out at Octobers conference. Register now at
www.ctbuh2016.com
feat. Not only is this our annual gathering for

both information sharing and networking, it is
where many of our annual programs come
together, including the annual research seed
funding, international student competition,
new publication launches, leader and
committee meetings, and several more. It is
thus going to be an exciting ve days and, if
you are not currently registered but want to
join us in one, two or all three cities, please nd
out more at www.ctbuh2016.com
I hope to see you at the Conference in October!
All the best,
Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director
Recent New Organizational Members

We would like to welcome the following new organizational members who joined during AprilJune 2016
Patron
Donor
Participant
Daewoo E&C, South Korea
Fly Service Engineering,

Milan
Swire Properties, Hong Kong
China State Construction

Technical Center, Beijing
PEC Group, Germany
Great Gulf, Toronto

Art & Build SA, Brussels
Jangho Group, Beijing
Kier Construction, Sandy, UK
ATAD Steel Structure

Corporation, Ho Chi Minh City
Contributor
Tencent Holdings Limited,
Shenzhen
Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel

and Partners, Milan
Smart Building LLC, Moscow
Kawneer, Norcross, USA
Capacite Infraprojects Ltd,

Mumbai
SECURISTYLE, Cheltenham,
UK
Construction Industry
Council, Hong Kong
Vertical Transportation
Studio, Basildon, UK
PT. Quadratura Indonesia,

Jakarta
Academic
RBS Architectural Engineering
Design Associates, Guangzhou
University of New South
Wales, Sydney
Shwe Taung Development,
Yangon
Supporting Contributors are those who contribute $10,000; Patrons: $6,000; Donors: $3,000; Contributors: $1,500; Participants: $750; Academic Institute: $500.
4 | CTBUH Latest
Debating Tall
Should Tall Buildings be Demolished

For Non-Safety Reasons?
In several developing nations recently, skyscrapers were found to have been constructed in violation of local laws, and
have been ordered demolished. In some cases, these are safety-related violations; in others not. Considering the
expense, safety implications, and environmental waste associated with demolition, we ask the question, Should tall
buildings be demolished purely for legal violations, even if there is no safety risk?
YES
Arthur Wellington
Counsel, Thornton Tomasetti, Chicago
As a preliminary matter, every such
situation must be evaluated on its own
facts, so Ill simply present some
considerations weighing in favor of
answering Yes to this question. Each may
be more or less applicable to any specic,
real-world example.
First: The legal regulation that the building
violates is presumably there for a reason
that is, when the relevant legal regulation
was passed, it was intended to benet the
public in some manner. Perhaps this benet
was in the form of open space, or improved
light and air circulation, or to prevent
overcrowding of the streets or local transit
stations. Therefore, with the building in
place, the public is worse o. To leave the
building standing would imply that the
benets it provides outweigh the
determent it imposes, and the regulation it
violates should be repealed. In short if it
was a good idea to make the rule, its a
good idea to enforce it!
Second: The miscreant builder who ignored
the rules should not benet. That sounds
like an easy bar to meet, but in practice it
may not be. If the builder got away with
breaking the rules once, it may be trivial for
them to do it again and dodge the
sanctions imposed. For example, if the
penalty is dispossession of their building, it
is easy to imagine a corrupt builder
arranging for a sham transfer to a related
party. In other cases, the builder may derive
totally intangible benets from its construction for example pride, personal preservation for posterity, or more immediate
notoriety. In these cases, it would be
impossible to truly take away the benets to
the builder while the building still stands.
To conclude: The demolition of rule breaking
buildings may be necessary for a greater
good. And any city plan would be in serious
jeopardy if the precedent is set that It is
better to ask forgiveness than permission.
NO
Girish Dravid
Director, Sterling Engineering, Mumbai
Tremendous energy and eorts go into planning,
designing and constructing tall buildings, which
are ecient engineering solutions to the
increasing demand for usable space on
ever-diminishing land. The resources used are
precious. We cannot ignore the immediate and
sustained benets of high-rise buildings.
Though errant developers should be held
accountable, its worth noting that the development rules for tall buildings in emerging
economies are not fully evolved. Often, the
existing rules for squat, low-density, and mid-rise
development are imposed on tall buildings.
Occasionally developers, in their enthusiasm for
creating an outstanding towering monument,
hope to convince the authorities of their
sophistication while construction is already
underway, and go on incorporating the resulting
afterthoughts as the construction progresses
not an ideal scenario, but not one that justies
demolition, either.
Inexperienced authorities tend to look with

distrust upon unique tall-building provisions
such as interspersed public and green spaces
at height, re refuge areas, public retail
spaces within a residential building,
outrigger and service oors, viewing
galleries, spaces for devices such as dampers,
solar, and wind energy collectors, etc.
Developers should not be punished for
pushing innovation in tall building construction and certainly not confronted with the
demolition of their projects.
Of course, there are unscrupulous builders
who seek undue gains, usually by constructing more space than is allowed on the given
plot, at the expense of competing developers who follow the rules. Such opportunists
should be punished, by way of denying
them the benets of their purposeful
deviations. Punishment can be achieved by
the government taking over the disputed
areas and using them for public amenities,
without compensating the developer for the
cost of construction and the revenue that
would have been generated, or by forcing
developers to maintain the space and
transfer revenue to the local authority.
But demolition should be avoided as a form
of legal sanction. Instead, preserving and
appropriating the oending construction for
the public benet respects the human
intelligence, technological achievement, and
investment of precious natural resources and
invaluable creative human eort that goes
into our tall buildings.
Global News
Visit the daily-updated online resource for all the latest news on tall buildings, urban development,
and sustainable construction from around the world at: http://news.ctbuh.org
Americas
High-rises in New York City continue to
break construction and design barriers while
expanding beyond the traditional highdensity node of Manhattan. In Brooklyn,
SHoP Architects 461 Dean Street the
tallest volumetric modular building in the
world topped out at the Pacic Park
complex. The 32-story structure will become
the rst residential building to open at the
nine-hectare development. Meanwhile, in
the Bronx, a proposal has been submitted for
the citys largest residential passive house
high-rise project. The Mott Haven Passive
House at 425 Grand Concourse is designed
to use 70% less energy than conventional
buildings. The mixed-use building will
feature housing for low- and moderateincome households.
While New York continues to lead the way in
the Americas with innovative design
strategies, a number of other cities in the
United States are embracing the growing
transit-oriented development trend. In
Boston, an oce and residential tower has
Mott Haven Passive House, New York. Dattner Architects

Clients: Trinity Financial and MBD Housing Corporation
Oceanwide Center, San Fransisco.

Foster+Partners & Heller Manus Architects
been proposed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

as part of the redevelopment of the citys
South Station transportation complex. The
proposed tower would be the tallest in the
citys nancial district, rising directly from the
train station, thereby integrating with the
larger urban network.
been sold to the Liquor Control Board of

Ontario (LCBO). In accordance with a
multi-phase master plan developed by B+H
Architects, the provincial agency intends to
transform the 4.7-hectare property into a
new headquarters space that will include an
outlet store, commercial retail space, and
oces across several high-rises.
Similarly, in San Francisco, Foster + Partners

and Heller Manus Architects Oceanwide
Center has been approved for construction.
The two-tower development, which includes
the future-second-tallest tower in the city, is
part of the massive Transbay Transit Center
redevelopment scheme that is set to diversify
the largely commercial South of Market (SoMa)
neighborhood through increased density and
transportation links across the city.
While these mega-developments across

North America reect Daniel Burnhams
famous maxim make no little plans,
Concepts for mixed-use mega developments

go far beyond traditional transit-anchored
schemes. The city of Detroit has teamed up
with developers and Major League Soccer
(MLS) to propose a four-tower development
linked to a new soccer stadium. The extensive
master plan is intended to transform the area
into a destination for sports, entertainment,
and retail.
Down the road on Ontario Highway 401, a
piece of waterfront property in Toronto has
461 Dean Street, New York. Marshall Gerometta
6 | Global News
Rosewood So Paulo Tower/Citade Materazzo, So Paulo.

Design Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel,
Client: Groupe Allard
by vertically continuing the greenery of the

local landscape. And in Rio de Janeiro,
architects have overhauled a 1970s-era oce
block to incorporate energy-reducing design
strategies. The updated RB12 tower features a
bioclimatic faade that helps reduce sun
exposure, while PV panels were added to the
north-facing wall along with a number of
other environmentally-minded additions.
Asia and Oceania
RB12, Rio de Janeiro. Tryptique
architects in South America are grappling

with the big plans of previous generations.
In So Paulo, Ateliers Jean Nouvel has
proposed a hotel and residential tower on
the former site of a 27,000-square-meter
maternity hospital complex. Dubbed
Rosewood So Paulo Tower, the project
builds on the existing development, which
contains a park and several historic buildings,
Perhaps no tall building project yet has

sought to integrate itself with its natural
environment more so than Stefano Boeri
Architettis proposed development in Xingyi,
southwest China. Building on the architecture
rms aesthetic of tree-clad structures, this
new proposal will also be sited on and
partially built into a reconstructed hill in order
to fully blend into the areas mountainous
topography.
Although this project will certainly bring
attention to what is still a rather remote part
of China, for now all eyes remain xed on the
countrys largest city, Shanghai. Having
recently completed and opened to the public,
ocials at Genslers Shanghai Tower
celebrated the historic structure with the
Wanfeng Valley Resort, Xingyi.

Stefano Boeri Architetti
inauguration of a CTBUH-designed signboard

commemorating its status as the countrys
tallest building and the worlds second-tallest.
Another record-setting tower could be built in
Shanghai. Otis Elevator plans to build the
worlds tallest elevator test tower outside the
city. At 270 meters, the Otis Test Tower would
be capable of researching and testing
elevators for the worlds tallest structures.
This theme of record-breaking
accomplishments continues in Southeast Asia.
The 314-meter MahaNakhon by OMA / Ole
Scheeren ocially completed in April to
become Bangkoks tallest building, surpassing
THEY SAID
Although physical
disconnection is softened by
ubiquitous social media and
the internet, the occupant of
an 84th-floor 360-degree
apartment in a needle tower
in Manhattan, or its
equivalent in the Burj, is
simultaneously truly urban
and truly isolated.
Paul Finch, Editorial Director for The

Architectural Review, explores architectures
role in tackling inequality. From Pipe-Dream
or Target, The Architectural Review, World
Architecture Festival Special Issue, 2016.
Shanghai Tower, Shanghai. Baycrest
MahaNakhon, Bangkok. PACE

Global News | 7
to the area, becoming some of the tallest

structures in the world in the process.
While certainly not the tallest building in
the area, Ho Chi Minh Citys proposed River
City residential development could feature
up to 4,800 residential units, making it one
of the largest apartment towers towers in
the world, as measured by total number of
ats. The towers elliptical structure is
designed to curve through heights
between 12 and 37 stories.
Thai Boon Rong Twin Trade Center, Phnom Penh.

ThaiBoonRoongGroup
the Baiyoke Tower II. Meaning Great

Metropolis, the tower seeks to integrate itself
with its local context and with the wider city
by introducing a new public gathering space
and connecting directly to the citys
extensive transportation network.
While MahaNakhon has set a new standard
in an established, high-density, skyscraper
city, the Thai Boon Roong Twin Trade
Center seeks to do the same for Phnom
Penh, which is only just beginning to
embrace the skyscraper typology. Recently
approved by city ocials, the twin 133-story
skyscrapers will bring unprecedented height
Such a massive residential structure would

likely be welcomed in Dhaka, which is one
of the most densely populated cities in the
world, despite a relatively small number of
high-rises. The 30-story Banani DCC-Unique
Complex, currently under construction,
oers mixed-use programming that aims to
add retail and commercial space to the citys
growing urban core.
As Southeast Asia continues to expand its
skyscraper typologies, one particular type of
high-rise has found popularity in Australia:
the student dormitory. In Melbourne, a
proposed 47-story tower, called Blue Sky
Melbourne, would provide 793 student
beds in a prime downtown location near
RMIT University. The joint venture behind
the tower seeks to eventually ll a portfolio
of 5,00010,000 beds across Australia and
New Zealand.
Meanwhile, in Brisbane, the recently

completed Iglu Brisbane City by Bates Smart
has opened its doors to more than 250
students from 20 countries. The project is the
fourth student accommodation facility under
the Iglu brand, further underscoring the rise
of this popular housing typology.
Europe
The student high-rise housing trend is not
conned to Oceania; it is also gaining in
popularity in Europe. Most recently, the
Campus Kollegiet has completed in
Odense, Denmark. Reecting local cultural
traditions, the design for the 15-story
building focuses on communal living, with
signicant amounts of shared living spaces,
including community kitchens.
Across the resund in Stockholm, a
conceptual, 40-story wooden tower named
Trtoppen (Swedish for treetop) has been
proposed in the city center on the site of a
1960s parking garage. Though unlikely to be
built, the tower advances the concepts of
cross-laminated timber while advocating for
higher-density living in a rapidly growing city.
Another conceptual project with similar aims
has been put forward in London. The
Oakwood Tower by PLP Architecture would
be an 80-story, wood-framed supertall
skyscraper. Like its Scandinavian counterpart,
THEY SAID
Achieving an urban renaissance is about

creating the quality of life and vitality that
make urban living desirable. The compact city
is the only environmentally sustainable way
to live in an urbanizing world.
Lord Richard Rogers, Founder of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, on

density and sustainability. From Lord Richard Rogers Is the 2015 ULI
Nichols Prize Recipient, Urban Land, January/February 2016.
Banani DCC-Unique Complex, Dhaka. Borak Real Estate
8 | Global News
Iglu Brisbane City, Brisbane.

iglu/Brett Boardman Photography
Campus Kollegiet, Odense. C. F. Mller, photo by

Torbon Eskerod
Trtoppen, Stockholm. Anders Berensson Architects
it has been designed to prove the durability

and sustainability of cross-laminated timber,
while making a point about the need for
higher density in a city sorely lacking
aordable living spaces.
A number of other record-breaking

proposals made news across the continent.
Planning approval has been granted for The
EXO, which will become Dublins tallest
oce building at just 73 meters. The tower is
part of the long-term redevelopment of the
citys docklands.
Chamartin, could become the tallest

building in Europe.
Though not quite a supertall and certainly

not made from wood, plans have been
submitted for what would be Manchesters
future tallest building: the 66-story tower will
be part of the Great Jackson Street complex,
which will feature four towers dedicated to
residential programming.
Oakwood Tower, London PLP Architecture

Additionally, in Madrid, the developer of a

long-planned skyscraper complex announced additional funding for the
proposal. Twenty years in the making, the
agship tower in the complex, Torre
And in Frankfurt, construction has begun on

what is set to become the tallest residential
building in Germany. The 47-story Grand
Tower will also incorporate technology that
the developers claim will not only allow the
tower to fully generate its own heat and
power, but also produce surplus energy that
can be returned to the grid.
Since relaxing strict height limit stipulations
Grand Tower, Frankfurt. Design: Magnus Kaminiarz & Cie Architekten

Global News | 9
UNIC, Paris. Image Courtesy of MAD Architects
in 2010 to allow buildings of up to 180

meters, developers in Paris have been
cautiously reintroducing the skyscraper to
the City of Lights. Though by no means a
record-breaker, the 50-meter UNIC building
is a reminder that skyscrapers can be an
elegant addition to any skyline; the
residential tower features oor plates with
undulating edges that create a sinuous,
wave-like eect.
Finally, construction has begun on the Kula
Belgrade, a new waterfront master planned
community for the eponymous city. Planned
by SOM, the mixed-use complex is designed
Kula Belgrade, Belgrade. SOM
to introduce new concepts of urban

engineering to the Serbian construction
sector, while remodeling 1.8 kilometers of
waterfront along the Sava River to include
better access to the river, incorporating
mixed-use programming.
has several established skyscraper nodes;

however, a new business district is being
constructed north of Johannesburg in the
city of Midrand. Central to that development
is the under-construction PwC Tower by LYT
Architecture Concepts, which is designed as
a focal point for the area with its distinctive
twisting prole.
Middle East and Africa

A number of skyscrapers are rising across the
eastern and southern regions of Africa,
reecting the booming economies and
growing populations of many of the areas
most dynamic countries. South Africa already
In Nairobi, new oce construction is rising to

meet the needs of international corporations
with regional headquarters in the growing
capital. The 34-story Kings Prism Tower is
currently under construction on the outskirts
of the central business district. The visually
striking tower incorporates high standards of
amenities to attract top-level companies.
Meanwhile, in Lusaka, a Turkish construction
rm has announced plans to develop and
build Zambias tallest skyscraper. Though
early in the planning process, the rm has
conrmed that the mixed-use 35-story tower
would include oces, retail shops, and
luxury penthouses.
As stakeholders in Zambia grapple with the
challenges of building the countrys tallest
tower, they may take some lessons from their
counterparts in Jeddah. There, construction
is progressing on Jeddah Tower, destined to
be the tallest building in the world. Although
the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecturedesigned megatall tower reached a
construction milestone when developers
PwC Tower, Midrand. LYT Architecture

10 | Global News
Kings Prism Tower, Nairobi. Kings Developers

Subscribe to the CTBUH RSS News Feed,

visit the Global News Archive
at: http://news.ctbuh.org
THEY SAID
Have you seen the standard of New York rental real estate? Its
the least interesting architecture on the planet! And whats wrong
with taking conditions that generate mediocrity to create
something extraordinary?
Bjarke Ingels on VIA West 57s typology breaking from local norms.
From Reason in Madness, RIBA Journal, April 2016.
Jeddah Tower, Jeddah copyright 2016 by Jeddah

Economic Company
announced that 20 percent of its structure

had been completed. Its completition date
has been set to December 2019, a reminder
of the immense diculty of building such a
signicant structure.
Though the city of Jeddah continues to

expand its business oerings, Dubai remains
the undisputed commercial capital in the
region. Perhaps feeling the heat of the rising
Jeddah Tower, the developers of the Burj
Khalifa, the current tallest building in the
world, have announced a structure that will
surpass it. Simply known as The Tower, the
new structure would be classied as an
observation tower rather than a skyscraper,
but if built before Jeddah Tower, it would be
the tallest man-made object in the world.
While progress on Jeddah Tower slowly

advances, another project in the city utilizes
a unique design tailored to the desert
environment. The Aedas-designed Abdul
Latif Jameel Headquarters features a
protective plaster faade to limit the
penetration of western sun exposure, while
massing is shifted to the more forgiving
eastern side of the structure.
Another major project in Dubai was

launched with the announcement of Aykon
City, a six-tower mixed-use complex to be
located along Sheikh Zayed Road in the
citys central business district. The tallest
tower in the project will rise to 80 stories,
where a glass-bottomed viewing capsule
will oer thrill-seekers yet another way to
Abdul Latif Jameel Headquarters, Jeddah. Aedas
Aykon City, Dubai. Damac Properties
experience the extreme height associated

with the desert city.
As Dubai continues to ex its economic
might, Beirut is in the midst of a minor
skyscraper renaissance, with the citys two
future tallest buildings currently under
construction (and the current tallest having
recently completed). The 50-story Sama
Beirut is the more developed of the two, as it
is architecturally topped out and nearly fully
clad. When completed, it will be the secondtallest building in the city at 193 meters.
For all the latest news on tall buildings,
urban development, and sustainable
construction from around the world, go to:
http://news.ctbuh.org
Sama Beirut, Beirut. Sama Beirut

Global News | 11
Evolution Tower, Moscow
Upward Spiral: The Story of the Evolution Tower
Philip Nikandrov
Author
Philip Nikandrov, Chief Architect
GORPROJECT
Nab. Academika Tupoleva 15
Building 15, 5th Floor
Moscow 105005, Russia
t: +7 495 500 5571
e: p.nikandrov@gorproject.ru
www.gorproject.ru
Philip Nikandrov
With 25 years of international experience in
architecture, Philip Nikandrov is a leading architect
specializing in large-scale, complex and unique
projects in the high-rise typology. His design
approach shows a route between contextualism and
minimalism, achieving complexity through simplicity.
On joining RMJM in 1997, Nikandrov served as senior
designer and project architect on some of the most
prestigious projects, working in the firms offices in
the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Russia.
In 2011, Nikandrov joined GORPROJECT as its chief
architect and continued delivering his designs,
including the Evolution Tower, Moscow, and Lakhta
Center, St. Petersburg (currently under construction),
set to become Europes next tallest skyscraper.
The Evolution Tower, Moscow, set off a wave of imitators when its design was
first revealed in 2004, but it took another 12 years for it to come to fruition.
Through the economic crisis and many subsequent design team iterations,
the essential twisting form has endured. The appropriately named final
product demonstrates the persistent value of a strong concept. The tower,
against many odds, has definitively spiraled upward and taken its place in the
citys skyline.
Introduction
The spiraling 246-meter Evolution Tower is
located in the Moscow-City high-rise
business district on the Presnenskaya
Embankment along the Moscow River. The
new multi-function center occupies a
2.5-hectare area, 80% of which is a
landscaped terraced civic plaza. The plaza is
an integral part of the development, forming
its central open public space. It includes a
10-meter-high ceremonial staircase, leading
from the embankment and the pedestrian
Bagration Bridge over the Moscow River to
the higher terraced levels, as well as
landscaped areas with green lawns, trees,
water features, travelators, and feature light
boxes (see Figure 1).
Under the plaza, a two-story retail mall

connects the Evolution Tower with a metro
station and the lower level of the Bagration
Bridge, thus integrating the new development
into the larger Moscow-City district, where 7
of the 10 highest European skyscrapers are
located, housing more than four million
square meters of oce and retail areas, with
associated transport and engineering
infrastructure.
Part of Phase 1 of the project, the Evolution
Gallery Mall within the podium houses a food
court and a 6,000-square-meter family
entertainment and educational center, where
kids can learn about various professions to
earn points and spend them on the rides (the
rst such center of that format in Moscow).
The 82,000-square-meter oce tower has 52
levels, with each level rotated three degrees
from the previous and the overall twist
reaching 156 degrees clockwise. With the
worlds largest cold-bent glazing, the tower
faade provides a seamless oating reection
that rotates the panoramas of the Moscow
skyline vertically. The reected clouds moving
up the surface enhance the dynamic visual
impact of the twisted tower, an
unprecedented optical eect on this scale
(see Figure 2). The towers crown, with a
supporting steel structure made of two
twisted arches, provides a helipad at the very
top, as well as an open observation roof deck
at level 52 featuring the best panoramas of
the Moscow riverside, with views towards the
historic city center (see Figure 1).
From the very beginning, the developer and
architects set an ambitious goal: to create a
recognizable and symbolic building that
would be a new icon of contemporary
Figure 1. Evolution Tower, Moscow aerial view

12 | Evolution Tower, Moscow
Moscow. From the onion domes of St. Basils

Cathedral to the iconic Tatlin Tower concept,
Russian architecture has long been obsessed
with spirals. At the most basic level, the
twisting, sculptural DNA-shaped Evolution
Tower symbolizes the progress of humankind
through its achievements in construction.
However, the original concept of the spiral
tower on this site, City Palace Tower,
conceived in 2005, was inspired by quite a
dierent metaphor. In 2004, Moscow city
authorities had planned the construction of
the Wedding Palace: a registry oce and
ceremonial space within a 16-story,
30,000-square-meter building. The winning
entry of the international competition held by
the developer Snegiri Group in 2004 proposed
a balanced composition of twisting crystals
two fully glazed towers of dierent height,
with a slight twist in the geometry of the
opposite faades.
A Design Evolution
The original concept, developed by the author
in collaboration with RMJM, secured the
contract and later led to a series of iterations
and design alternatives, combining the city
authorities ambitions to impress the world
with an iconic wedding palace building and
the developers intentions to increase the total
gross and rentable areas to make the project
nancially viable. Finally, both parties united
around a sketch of two twisted ribbons elevated from the Yin and Yang symbols, where
black and white represented the groom and
bride embracing each other in dance.
The original manifestation of the duality and
union symbolized by Yin and Yang as groom
and bride was overly literal and, rendered in
black and white, looked a bit like a penguin.
So after a few further distillations, a more
restrained and stylish sculptural composition
emerged, with the wedding palace housed
under the curved atrium glazing of the brides
skirt (see Figure 3).
The design of the tower crown was further
improved by separating two ribbons with the
Figure 2. Evolution Tower, Moscow. Igor Butyrskii
Evolution Tower, Moscow | 13
perimeter diaphragm wall was built back in

1997 for a completely dierent project on
the same plot. This gave the team a certain
heritage to deal with, including the
obligations imposed by the municipality to
provide the link between the metro station
and pedestrian bridge over Moscow River.
This was done with a temporary structure
before the nal construction
documentation was approved by the
State Building Control.
Figure 3. The City Palace Tower concept developed by

RMJM showing the brides skirt.
veil of the bride above the sky bar. The

Wedding Palace was a 2,000-square-meter
socially orientated locomotive, hiding
behind its atrium glazing the 80,000-squaremeter oce tower rising above it.
In 2006 the updated concept received
planning permission, and in 2008 the tower
construction permit was nally granted.
Construction on the Phase 1 podium
structure had started in 2005, and the
trac jams can ruin wedding processions,

and the City Palace Tower subsequently lost
its title and core function.
In 2011 the revised, now 100% oce
building was rebranded as Evolution Tower,
together with the elimination of the
Malls
Circulation,
Lift lobbies, toilets
In late 2008, the entire investment plan

collapsed under the wave of the world
economic crisis, construction was
frozen, and the project was suspended until the market revived in 2011.
The developer managed to change the
pool of investors and realign the
nancing. The credit line provided by
the bank required extremely fast
construction speed, so the scheme
underwent a number of optimizations,
aiming to build a unique and complex
tower at the cost and within the
construction program of a conventional
extruded-rectangle tower.
Utility area (MEP)

Underground
car parking
Entrance and Foyer
Restaurant
Retail area
Rental space
The project team changed, adding a

new lead architecture rm and a new
contractor, and drastic design changes
followed the new functional program
and revised design brief. City authorities had by this time lost their interest
in developing the Wedding Palace in
the middle of a business center, where
From the onion domes of St. Basils

Cathedral to the iconic Tatlin Tower
concept, Russian architecture has long
been obsessed with spirals. At the most
basic level, the sculptural DNA-shaped
twisting Evolution Tower symbolizes the
progress of humankind through its
achievements in construction.
Figure 4. Typical section

Figure 5 . Evolution Tower geometric transformation concept.
Wedding Palace component and top spaces

for post-ceremonial celebrations. The lower
atriu -skirt and the crown were lost; the
faceted faade was totally redesigned as a
smooth glass surface. A decentralized
services-engineering concept was
eliminated in favor of a more conventional
centralized system, which required the
addition of an additional three plant levels.
The vertical transportation system that had
been based on double-decker elevator cabs
was replaced by a dierent system, which
required the redesign of the core layout.
The New Design Concept and Challenges

for Structural Engineering
All of this resulted in the addition of ve
more oors (from level 47 to 52), leaving
Figure 6 . Evolution Tower structural scheme.
practically none of original concept intact,

except for the spiraling shape and a structural
scheme with gridlines. The fully reconsidered
design concept, based on a metaphor of an
evolutionary spiral, features the white faade
ribbon wrapping over the roof in a form of
90-degree twisted innity symbol, which
speaks of the scientic concept of evolution
and celebrates the development of human
civilization.
This simple and innovative design was based
on principles of twisting square-shaped oor
plates with a vertical reinforced-concrete
frame, supported by a central core and eight
columns in an octagonal arrangement, with
continuous beams and four spiraling columns
at the corners (see Figure 5). The proposed
structural scheme, with its cantilevered
continuous concrete beams and cantilevered
oor slabs, appeared to be simple, ecient

and economical (see Figure 6). The simplicity
of a fully concrete tower structure with no
outrigger levels saved a lot of time and
money on the construction budget. But
even if the structural concept was simple,
the requirement that the oor slab layout
change 52 times made pouring the concrete
a logistical challenge.
The solution was found in an innovative
formwork system that could create core walls
and oor slabs in one pour, with each oor
divided into three sections. Four hydraulic
self-climbing system units were used to
make large working platforms, where the top
three oors under construction are tightly
enclosed with a rail-climbing protection
panel, which also provides wind protection
and formwork for the four twisting corner
Figure 7. RCS protection panel unit enclosing the

top three floors under construction. PERI GmbH
Figure 8. Inclined positioned RCS protection panel. PERI

GmbH
columns (see Figure 7). The units, propelled by

hydraulics, climbed the constant twist of the
building where the installed rail-guided
system (with inclined rails connected to the
building frame by slab shoes) ensured a fast
and safe ascent (see Figure 8). Landing
platforms climb on rails hydraulically with the
help of mobile climbing devices, and without
a crane. On the sides of the building,
rail-climbing system (RCS) platforms provide
temporary storage areas and move loads (see
Figure 9). This bespoke self-climbing formwork
system achieved an impressive maximum
framing speed of six days per oor, with an
average speed of seven days per oor.
The 12 concrete columns and central core

are supported by the 3.5-meter-thick raft
over piled foundations. It took 48 hours to
pour 8,000 cubic meters of concrete for the
raft. Eight circular columns at 15-meter
intervals vary in diameter from 2.1 meters at
the bottom to 1.2 meters at the top.
Safety
The tower has signicant safeguards against
potential re or terrorist attacks. Its passive
protection consists of a four-hour re rating
on all bearing structures and staircase walls,
The projects new credit line provided by

the bank required extremely fast construction
speed, so the scheme underwent a number of
optimizations, aiming to build a unique and
complex tower at the cost of and within the
construction program of a conventional
extruded-rectangle tower.
Figure 9. RCS landing platform. PERI GmbH
which signicantly exceeds the time needed

to evacuate the building.
Active protection consists of re engineering
equipment, including a sprinkler system
throughout, as well as local powder- and
gas-based re suppression systems,
mechanical smoke extraction from the core,
pressurized stairwells, public address and
egress management systems, re and smoke
detectors, and the permanent monitoring of
the structural frame elements and building
services as part of its building management
system (BMS). Category 1 electrical supply
from two independent sources is supported
additionally by diesel generators and
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) batteries.
The water supply and district heating are also
supported by redundant incoming lines.
Ventilation and air-conditioning are designed
based on a generous ratio of 60 square meters
per person. Most of the buildings engineering
systems and telecommunications
specications not only comply with class A
standards, but exceed them.
A Unique Envelope
The unique tower envelope emphasizes the
lightness and dynamics of the form, as it
appears to defy gravity. The idea of a

200-meter sculpture, crafted of materials
traditionally believed to be fragile and
inexible, symbolizes the evolutionary spiral
as the pinnacle of progress and the power of
human intellect, challenging the forces of
nature and the laws of physics. The original
faade concept and innovative construction
technologies allowed the team to create a
visually organic and owing 3D form.
The double-curved tower envelope is
provided by cold-bending reective glass
units. The curtain wall uses at, doubleglazed units cold-formed in 3D within the
aluminum frame to avoid the visual eect of
stepping in the geometry. This approach
appeared to be both a more energy-ecient
and cost-eective solution than the stepped
curtain wall units previously applied in some
twisted, unitized faades. During factory
fabrication, the glass unit is placed in the
twisted aluminum frame horizontally and
then takes its curved shape as a
consequence of its own weight, without any
Figure 11. Evolution Tower faade panels.

Igor Butyrskii
thermal treatment. Maximum corner

deformation does not exceed 50 millimeters
relative to the opposite corner of the unit.
Finally, the faade looks like a continuously
twisted spiral glass surface. Currently, this
curtain wall is the worlds largest cold-bent
faade in terms of the area in one building.
The glazed ribbon, with a constant leaning
angle of 14 vertical degrees at the corners,
creates a stunning optical illusion, reecting
the surrounding cityscape vertically, with a
90-degree twist (see Figure 10).
Evolution Towers total faade area is 40,500
square meters, including 34,500 square
meters of the typical faade areas from level
3 to level 51. On each oor, the curtain wall
consists of 108 parallelogram faade panels
4.3 meters high and 1.5 meters wide. Twentyseven of the panels have two dierent sizes
that vary with the twist angle, from +14 to
-14 degrees, which complicated the
construction logistics (see Figure 11).
However, the implementation of this faade
structure was successful due to the selection
of a skilled design-build contractor for the
production of the curtain wall, atrium
Figure 10. The towers twisting curtain wall creates an

optical illusion.
glazing, and canopies/entrances. The

aluminum proles were extruded in Russia at
a specially arranged production line. Despite
the glass units fabrication in Germany, with
all associated delivery costs and customs
duties, the overall faade cost per square
meter remained within the budget of a
Figure 12. The tower crown, during construction. Denis Lukyanov
standard benchmark high-rise tower.

Double-glazed units with energy-ecient
multi-functional glass provide the energy
eciency and thermal insulation parameters
(U-values) similar to those of standard
triple-glazed units, as are normally used to
withstand Moscows harsh winters, but with
less weight than would be typical for a
panoramic oor-to-ceiling application.
The glass unit formula, with a heatstrengthened triplex exterior and tempered
glass interior, allows bending of the unit in
the installation position to achieve the
required faade geometry, while providing
additional safety to the envelope. In case of
damage, the tempered glass, ve times the
standard strength, is designed to facture into
small pieces, and the triplex lamination lm
prevents shards from falling out.
The Crowning Achievement

The tower crown, representing the bent of a
striped ribbon faade, consists of two
41-meter-span twisted-steel arches, with
interim steel supports cantilevered from the
central cylindrical concrete core walls, and
four smaller arched supports beneath the
white steel ribbon stripes (tubular frames
lled with perforated steel sheets) (see
Figure 12). The twisted steel arches were
designed and manufactured in Piedmont,
Figure 13. A terraced podium provides a transition from river level and contains a two-level
mall with access to metro lines and the pedestrian bridge. Gorproject
Italy, delivered to Moscow in pieces for easy

transportation by trucks, and then nally
assembled on the roof by being bolted from
the inside.
The parapet glazing surrounding the rooftop
open-air observation deck on level 52 is
made of cold-bent (tempered triplex) glass
with motorized foldable top elements. This
allows easy access for the Building
Maintenance Unit (BMU) cradle over the
parapet. The bespoke BMU system, with
three articulated crane arms and a
300-kilogram auxiliary hoist, follows the
complex twisting form of the faade in order
to guarantee proper access for maintenance
and cleaning of the curtain wall. The special
cradle has been designed to reach all the
positions along the faade without physical
impact on the curtain wall. This is achieved
via safety straps, push locks and sockets
incorporated in each curtain wall unit,
special sticks, and soft rubber rollers that
prevent any scratches or other damage from
the cradles contact with the fragile envelope
of glass, and with pressure caps and soft
aluminum cladding.
The Podium
The podiums terraced and landscaped roof,
part of a new civic plaza, provides public
space for recreation activities, greenery,
fountains/water features, open outdoor

cafs, and more (see Figure 13). The podium
retail mall skylights and entrance porticos/
canopies that rise above the plaza as accents
also serve as light boxes for the plazas
architectural lighting. Fritted glazing captures
the light from LED wall-wash lamps that
change colors. Skylights and entrance
canopies are built as whole-glass structures
consisting of planar glazing on spiders with
the bearing structures (beam-ns and
vertical mullion ns) made of triplex glass
with stainless-steel ttings (see Figure 14).
To improve the stiness of the structural
glass ns, a triplex lamination interlayer lm
was used. Skylights and canopy roofs are
made of triplex glass with electrical heating,
preventing ice and snow cover on the
exterior and water condensation on the
interior of the glass. The glass is covered with
an energy-saving frit pattern, decreasing
solar radiation gain while preserving
transparency and sucient light penetration.
Vegetated green roofs over the retail mall
and integrated coil oor heating under the
landscape plaza levels use grey water in
winter to melt the snow and ice for the
safety of pedestrians. Four outdoor
travelators move people between terrace
levels of the plaza (a 10-meter height
change) and operate through extreme
winter conditions.
Vertical Transportation
The original towers vertical transportation
(VT) concept had 12 lift shafts with standard
double-decker elevators. However, during
the construction stage tender the VT scheme
was replaced by the TWIN system, the rst
elevator system to have two cabs running
independently, one above the other, in the
same shaft. This technology has many
advantages over conventional elevator
systems, including reducing waiting and
travel times to a minimum due to an
intelligent destination selection control
system monitored by a computer set to
optimize the travel logistics between calls.
The use of TWIN elevators saved two shafts
within the core. The ultimate deployment
consisted of 10 TWINs traveling at up to
seven meters per second, instead of 12
double-decker cars as specied in the
original concept, freeing up additional useful
MEP shaft space across all oors. TWIN
technology also contributed to the overall
project sustainability with lowered power
consumption per passenger. The separated
cabs in the TWIN system are much lighter
than double-decker cabs, hence requiring
lower wattage and resulting in less power
consumption. The cabs are in fact similar to
single-cab elevators, so the maintenance
cost is less than that of the bespoke
double-deckers, due to availability of
cheaper standard spare parts.
Conclusion
The organic twisting silhouette stands out
against the background of extruded glass
towers, greatly contributing to the overall
composition of the Moscow-City high-rise
cluster. The Evolution development delivered
a signicant open public space on the
landscaped roof of the retail mall. The
synergy of that mix, combined with a large
underground carpark complemented by the
direct link to the metro station and
pedestrian bridge, secured the projects
successful completion.
The bold shape and timeless aesthetics

brought commercial success for this project,
with the tower being fully acquired for a
corporate headquarters even in the context of
poor demand in the Moscow oce market.
Before its completion, the sculptural spiral of
Evolution Tower, often appearing in
commercials, posters and magazines, became
a new icon for modern Moscow as the symbol
of its business ambitions and fast
development. The Evolution Tower also
became a monument to the courage of its
developer and investors, who placed a great
deal of trust in their architects, engineers and
contractors. Together, all undertook the
challenging adventure of designing and
building this unique and innovative
skyscraper for the capital of Russia.
Unless otherwise noted, all photography credits
in this paper are to the author.
Figure 14. Podium retail mall skylights.
Project Data
Completion Date: 2015
Height: 246 meters
Stories: 55
Total Area: 82,000 square meters
Use: oce
Owners: City-Palace LLC; ZAO Snegiri
Development; Transneft
Developer: ZAO Snegiri Development
Architects: GORPROJECT (design); RMJM
(design)
Structural Engineers: GK-Techstroy (design);
Gorproject (engineer of record)
MEP Engineers: Renaissance Construction
Company (design); Metropolis (engineer of

record); Gorproject (engineer of record)
Main Contractor: Renaissance Construction
Company
Other CTBUH Member Companies:
Permasteelisa Group (cladding); Sika Services
AG (sealants); thyssenkrupp (elevator)
*The design of Evolution Tower was the result of a unique
partnership between the design architects and an artist,
Karen Forbes, a Scottish based artist and Head of Drawing
and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art.
The parapet glazing surrounding the open-air

rooftop observation deck is made of cold-bent
(tempered triplex) glass with motorized foldable
top elements. This allows easy access for the
Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) cradle over
the parapet.
Structural Engineering
High-Rises, High Seismicity:

New Materials and Design Approaches
Cary Kopczynski
Mark Whiteley
Authors
Cary Kopczynski, Senior Principal
Mark Whiteley, Principal
Cary Kopczynski & Company (CKC)
10500 NE 8th Street, Suite 800
Bellevue, WA 98004
United States
t: +1 425 455 2144
f: +1 425 455 2091
e: caryk@ckcps.com; markw@ckcps.com
www.ckcps.com
Cary Kopczynski
Cary Kopczynski is senior principal and CEO of
Cary Kopczynski & Company (CKC), a structural
engineering firm with offices in Seattle, San
Francisco, and Chicago. CKC designs major urban
buildings throughout the United States and
internationally. Kopczynski serves on the American
Concrete Institutes (ACI) Board of Directors, is a past
president of ACI Washington State Chapter, and
served for many years on ACI Committees 318 and
352. He serves on the Post-Tensioning Institutes (PTI)
Board of Directors and Executive Committee, and
chaired the PTIs Technical Advisory Board (TAB) for
six years. Kopczynski is a Fellow of both ACI and PTI,
and an Honorary Member of the Wire Reinforcement
Institute. He is the current president of the Structural
Engineers Association of Washington.
When construction completes in 2017, the Lincoln Square Expansion (LSE) will
add two 135-meter towers to downtown Bellevue, Washington. The nearly
275,000-square-meter development serves as an excellent example of how
innovative structural design can respond to demanding seismic requirements
while still meeting cost and schedule targets. LSEs most significant and unique
design feature is the use of steel-fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) in the
concrete shear wall coupling beams. This is the first major use of this type of
material throughout a project as a part of the lateral system in a region of high
seismicity.
Project Description
Lincoln Square Expansion (LSE) is the newest
high-rise addition to Bellevue, which
continues its growth into a vibrant, worldclass city in the Pacic Northwest of the
United States (see Figure 1). The LSE broke
ground in June of 2014 and is scheduled to
complete in 2017. The mixed-use project will
include a 41-story tower featuring an upscale
hotel and luxury apartments, as well as a
31-story oce tower providing 66,000 square
meters of Class A oce space (see Figure 2).
Both towers integrate with a four-level retail
podium structure and six levels of
subterranean parking, which includes 2,200
new parking spaces and will connect to
adjacent existing underground parking via

tunnels (see Figure 3).
The hotel/residential tower is cast-in-place
concrete with a mix of one-way and two-way
post-tensioned concrete slabs. The oce
tower and retail podium frame are structural
steel. Special reinforced-concrete shear walls
resist wind and seismic loads throughout the
project. The subterranean parking structure
utilizes one-way post-tensioned slabs with
wide, shallow post-tensioned beams to create
large open space for user-friendly parking.
LSE is the rst major use of SFRC in shear wall
coupling beams. This is a new method of
designing and constructing coupling beams,
Mark Whiteley
Mark Whiteley is a principal at CKC and the senior
project manager for Lincoln Square Expansion (LSE).
Whiteley has more than 20 years of experience
designing a wide variety of significant high-rise
projects throughout the United States. He took the
lead in developing design procedures and detailing
for implementation of steel-fiber reinforced concrete
(SFRC) for shear wall coupling beams at LSE.
Figure 1. Lincoln Square Expansion, Bellevue. Neoscape

20 | Structural Engineering
which can signicantly reduce reinforcing bar

quantity and improve constructability. The
following is a discussion on the process and
implementation of SFRC coupling beams in
the LSE project, including a description of
how performance-based seismic design
provided the means for implementation of
SFRC coupling beams (see Figure 4).
Performance-Based Design
Since the selected lateral system of special
reinforced concrete shear walls is limited to a
maximum structural height of 73.2 meters
according to a reference standard in Minimum
Design Loads for Buildings and Other
Structures (ASCE 2010), a peer-reviewed
performance-based design (PBD) approach
was necessary for both towers and the
below-grade structure. PBD is a methodology
for creating acceptable alternates to
prescriptive building code requirements,
contingent upon explicitly demonstrating
that the proposed design meets codeintended seismic performance. This is
accomplished by generating a mathematical
structural analysis model that is more
sophisticated than what would typically be
used in a code-prescribed design. The model
is used to perform non-linear analyses while
considering the stiness, ductility, and
strength of critical structural elements.
Figure 3. LSE configuration.

Although a more common linear analysis

assumes that the stiness and material
properties of the modeled members remain
constant throughout the duration of a
seismic event regardless of the level of force,
utilizing a nonlinear model allows engineers
to more realistically dene how the various
parts of the building move, elongate
(stretch), and degrade during an earthquake.
The coupling beams and shear wall exural
components have the greatest potential to
experience deformations that could lead to
strength loss, so nonlinear properties and
material denitions were generated for these
critical elements.
Figure 2. LSE Office tower.
Walls were modeled using composite

vertical ber elements, which combine both
nonlinear concrete and steel reinforcing
materials. For the reinforcing steel, a trilinear
backbone curve was assumed for both the
A706 Grade 60 and Grade 80 materials, using
expected material properties in lieu of the
specied minimum properties to better
approximate in-place behavior. Since the
model exhibited limited nonlinear behavior
in the vertical concrete elements, a simplied
concrete material denition was used in
order to reduce computer run time without
compromising the analysis results. Capacityprotected elements, such as gravity columns,
slab shell elements, slab-column
connections, and shear-in-shear and
basement walls, were modeled with linear

properties to capture the intended behavior
and detailed to remain elastic.
Seven pairs of site-specic ground motions
were developed by the project geotechnical
engineer for the location by matching the
source, magnitude, frequency, and duration
of the risk-targeted maximum considered
earthquake (MCEr) spectra, which
corresponds to an earthquake with an
approximately 2,000-year return period for
the project location. Earthquakes from Chile
(2010); Tohoku, Japan (2011); and Olympia,
USA (1949) were among the base ground
motions used. Typically, a building in the
Figure 4. Steel-fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) coupling beams.

Structural Engineering | 21
Seattle area with a code-prescribed seismic

design approach would consider a design
earthquake (DE) with a roughly 475-year
return period. The performance goals for the
project were to evaluate collapse prevention
at the larger MCEr ground motion and life
safety at DE-level forces, and to remain
essentially elastic during a service-level
earthquake (SLE) event with a 43-year return
period (see Figure 5).
Since LSE consists of various framing systems
for the two towers and retail podium above
the shared below-grade parking, careful
attention was given to the seismic interaction
between these structures. A series of seismic
joints was implemented at the above-grade
levels separating the two towers and retail
podium down to level P1 of the garage, where
the tower shear wall cores and podium shear
walls are locked into basement walls at one
common level (backstay diaphragm). There is
considerable uncertainty in predicting how
seismic forces will transfer from the core walls
to the basement walls at the backstay
diaphragm. The stiness assumptions of the
slabs and basement walls at this location were
important considerations, since these
assumptions determined the eective
rotational restraint at the base of the towers
and determined the distribution of forces
across multiple potential load paths. A
bracketed approach of varying the stiness of
the oor slabs, basement walls, and soil
supports, using both relatively exible and
relatively sti assumptions, was utilized.
Figure 5. Seismic building performance matrix.
For the more exible solution, the slabs and

basement walls were set to be highly
cracked, with 20% of gross uncracked
properties, and the mat foundation springs
below the tower cores were set to be quite
sti, at 200% of the design spring stiness.
The goal of these assumptions was to allow
more force transmission to the foundation
via the core walls. For the stier solution, the
slabs and basement walls were set to be
moderately cracked, using 50% gross
section properties, and the foundation
springs below the tower cores were assumed
to be softer, set to only 50% of the design
spring stiness. This solution attracts more
force through the transfer slabs and
basement walls to the foundation.
Steel-fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) can

be used for designs in regions of high
seismicity, providing improved strength and
added ductility. Further, it saves significant
labor and material, because steel fibers replace
the tedious process of placing and tying much
of the rebar in what are typically the most
heavily congested zones.
Figure 6. Office tower core.
Results from early nonlinear runs led to

adjustments in the amount of reinforcing in
the shear walls near the step-back in the
dual-cell core that occurs at level 21 of the
oce tower (see Figure 6). This adjustment
eliminated the wall plastic hinge that would
have otherwise formed where the core
transition occurs. Early runs also indicated
several coupling beams exceeded rotational
limits in initial design iterations, a condition
that was corrected by increasing the exural
capacity in order to reduce the total rotation.
This level of ne-tuned detail was achieved via
nonlinear modeling and PBD, and would not
have been possible using code-prescribed
linear analyses. The nonlinear PBD approach
provided a better understanding of the
structural response to seismic excitation.
The rotation in the coupling beams was kept
below the target of 0.05 Radians, the
test-determined threshold at which the
beams could accommodate rotation with
minimal damage and loss of strength. Mean
values of the seven ground motions were
used to evaluate deformation-controlled
actions. The tensile strains in the shear walls
were veried to remain in the elastic range
Figure 7. Linear analysis model.
outside of the specied hinge zones, and

compressive strains were shown to be well
within the useable limits as noted in ASCE/
SEI 4113, which was used as a reference
document for this alternate design approach
(ASCE 2014). The maximum story drift ratio
was increased from a code-prescribed 2% to
3% to account for the larger MCEr demands,
and the structure demonstrated adequate
stiness to meet this limit. Shear in the shear
walls was evaluated by calculating 1.5 times
the mean shear force of the seven ground
motions to account for dispersion in the
results. The shear capacity was determined
using expected material strengths, a strength
reduction factor equal to 1.0, and a risk
reduction factor according to the Los
Angeles Tall Buildings Structural Design
Council (LATBSDC 2015). This risk reduction
factor was set to 0.80, the inverse of the
code-based seismic importance factor of
1.25 per ASCE/SEI 710, which amplies the
demand in structures with large occupancies
and further reduces the calculated capacity
in order to account for the importance of
avoiding shear limit states in the core wall.
Figure 8. Nonlinear analysis model.
The PBD design process and detailed analysis

already planned for the LSE project created an
opportunity to incorporate the rst large-scale
implementation of SFRC coupling beams. The
PBD approach gave greater understanding of
how the building would perform using SFRC
coupling beams and provided the assurance
that this project was an ideal application of
SFRC coupling beam design for highly seismic
regions (see Figures 7 and 8).
Steel-Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Reinforcing congestion has long been the
bane of concrete construction in high-seismic
regions. Some of the most dicult and
congested reinforcing is found in shear wall
coupling beams. Traditionally, diagonal bars
are used to reinforce these beams, combined
with tightly spaced stirrups and ties. This
creates signicant congestion and conict
between the diagonal bars and adjacent
shear-wall boundary element reinforcing.
While steel bers are commonly used in
tunnel linings, industrial oors, and other
applications where high toughness is
required, their use in building structures has

thus far been limited. After more than a
decade of research and development, SFRC
for use in shear wall coupling beams is now
available. It involves mixing high-strength
steel bers into the concrete used to
construct coupling beams. SFRC can be used
for designs in regions of high seismicity,
providing improved strength and added
ductility. Further, this innovation saves
signicant labor and material, because steel
bers replace the tedious process of placing
and tying much of the rebar in what are
typically the most heavily congested zones.
Discussions with general contractors have
indicated that the removal of the diagonal
bars can save up to a full day per oor in the
construction schedule. The added cost of the
steel bers in the concrete and the crane
time needed to bucket-place the SFRC were
overcome by the savings in reinforcement
quantity and placing labor as determined by
the contractors pricing studies.
The added steel bers benet the design of
coupling beams in a number of ways.
Typically, in regions of high seismicity, the
concrete is assumed to have no contribution
Figure 9. Diagonally reinforced coupling beam (top)

and SFRC coupling beam (bottom).
Figure 10. Coupling beam testing at the University of Michigan. Rmy D. Lequesne.
to the shear strength of the coupling beam.

However, testing has shown that the
addition of the steel bers can contribute up
60% of the total shear capacity of the beam.
Additionally, the presence of the bers at the
dosages used in the LSE project allow for up
to 15% of the exural (bending) strength of
the coupling beam to be attributed to the
SFRC material. Essentially, coupling beam
strengths can be maintained, or even
enhanced, by adding steel bers and
reducing the quantity of traditional reinforcement. This is useful when the coupling
beams are designed to have adequate shear
and exural strength to resist wind demands,
service-level earthquake (SLE) demands, and
the design earthquake (DE) force demands
of the building code (see Figure 9).
over larger areas of the beam. This can be

partly attributed to the ability of the steel
bers to increase the tensile strength of the
concrete, raising the force threshold at which
spalling occurs (see Figure 10).
The value of the bers extends beyond

strength considerations to increase the
durability and ductility of the coupling beam.
At higher levels of rotation, the SFRC beams
tend to develop many small cracks that are
distributed over larger areas of the concrete.
In a side-by-side test, a traditionally
reinforced coupling beam was shown to
exhibit high levels of localized damage and
concrete spalling, while the SFRC beam at
the same rotation held together better as a
single unit and had less damage distributed
For the LSE seismic system, PBD provided a

means to implement SFRC in the coupling
beams. The only prior use of SFRC in seismic
coupling beams was in a 24-story tower in
Seattle, for which the authors rm was also
the structural engineer, with only 26 (20%) of
the 122 coupling beams using SFRC. This is
contrasted against LSE, where the SFRC
beams were used in 341 (87%) of the 392
coupling beams in both towers throughout
the height of the building.
Modeling of these key elements is critical to
reliably predicting seismic behavior. The
SFRC coupling beams in LSE were of
particular importance. The model considered
initial stiness, strength loss, and cyclic
degradation (the tendency of beams to lose
strength and deteriorate as the earthquake
causes the structure to oscillate back and
forth). The values used in the model were
carefully calibrated against the results from
dynamic lab testing. The nal calibrated
hysteretic behavior assumptions were then
used in the nonlinear analytical models to
predict the response of the beams across

many cycles of movement during the
simulated earthquake motions.
In order to calibrate the element, an
analytical model of the test specimen was
created, and various parameters were
iterated to produce a best-t match of the
lab test results. The best initial stiness match
occurred using 6% of gross section
properties, but the nal assumptions used
approximately 10%, based on equations
suggested by Paulay and Priestly (1992),
which take into account the height-tolength aspect ratio at each coupling beam.
The recommended values in Setkit (2012)
were higher and did not match as closely.
While the peak strength and strength loss
appeared to match well early on, the cyclic
degradation was adjusted to be lower than
initially thought. The rst passes had good
correlation between dissipated energy (the
areas under the curves) at various loops, but
through the peer review process it was
agreed to include higher levels of
degradation in order to produce less
hysteretic area than the testing, but result in
a closer match on the stiness at the higher
rotations (see Figure 11).
Figure 12. Dramix steel fibers.
Figure 11. SFRC hysteresis loop.
A detailed quality assurance and quality

control plan was generated in close
coordination with the contractor to ensure
proper construction of the unique SFRC
coupling beams. The concrete mix designs
were carefully reviewed and the decision
was made to use a self-consolidating
concrete (SCC) to maintain the workability of
the concrete after the steel bers were
added. A step-by-step placement procedure
was developed and distributed to the
contractor and special inspector.
Additionally, samples of the SFRC were
tested to verify that the specied
compressive strengths were reached and
then bisected in order to visually inspect the
dispersion of the bers in the concrete.
Steel Fiber Specifications

Dramix steel bers manufactured with a ber
dosage of 120 kg/m3 of concrete by Bekaert,
a Belgium-based global supplier of steel
bers, were used at LSE. The bers are 0.38
millimeters diameter by 30 millimeters
length cold-drawn steel wire with a tensile
strength of 3,068 MPa, hooked at the ends
for anchorage (see Figure 12). Fibers were
delivered to the producer in subsets of 30.
The subsets were bonded with water-soluble
glue that dissolved when mixed into the

concrete, allowing the bers to separate and
disperse throughout the mix. A selfconsolidating concrete mix was specied for
the SFRC in order to maintain workability at
the site, and a bucketing method was used to
place the coupling beam concrete. Stayform,
a ribbed metal leave-in-place form, was
provided at the shear wall-coupling beam
interfaces to prevent the SFRC from owing
into the adjacent core walls, a similar
condition to the shear wall-coupling beam
interface of the test specimens where the
SFRC beams were precast.
made while still preserving the necessary

strength and ductility. The team also
investigated dierent ber types and
dosages, eventually settling on high-strength
hooked steel bers proportioned to 1.5% of
the total in-place concrete volume
(Lequesne 2011). The SFRC coupling beams
in the LSE project fall within the tested
aspect ratios and use the same steel ber
type and dosage.
SFRC Research and Development

The study of SFRC started at the University of
Michigan with nancial support from the
National Science Foundation. Further research
was funded by the National Science
Foundation Network for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation and Bekaert.
The University of Michigan studied reducing,
and even eliminating, diagonal reinforcement
in SFRC coupling beams. Its researchers tested
beams of varying aspect ratios (length to
depth) from 1.75 to 3.3 concluding that
reductions in the reinforcing steel could be
Figure 13. The Martin, Seattle. Lara Swimmer
With SFRC, the strength and

ductility of coupling beams are
maintained, while significantly
reducing the quantity of
reinforcing steel including
elimination of the diagonal bars
where applicable. Use of SFRC in
coupling beams can result in a
40% reduction in reinforcing,
compared to traditional coupling
beam construction.
Results from this and other structural

applications of ber-reinforced concrete
were presented to an American Concrete
Institute (ACI) 318 sub-committee, where
members were studying new materials,
products, and ideas. One of the authors, a
committee member, became intrigued with
the potential of SFRC for solving seismic
rebar congestion problems, ultimately
resulting in its rst use in The Martin
Apartments, a 24-story multifamily
residential tower in downtown Seattle (see
Figure 13).
The authors worked with Professor James K.
Wight of University of Michigan and
Professor Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos of the
University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop
the SFRC coupling beams. The studies
concluded that SFRC coupling beams
without diagonal bars would achieve equal
or better performance as compared to those
with traditional, prescriptive code-compliant
designs. With SFRC, the strength and ductility
of coupling beams are maintained, while
signicantly reducing the quantity of
reinforcing steel including elimination of
the diagonal bars where applicable. Use of
SFRC in coupling beams can result in a 40%
Figure 14. Current SFRC testing.

Gustavo J. Parra-Montesinos & Angel Perez-Irizarry
reduction in reinforcing, compared to

traditional coupling beam construction.
SFRC provides the structural engineering
profession with a valuable tool for improving
the constructability of reinforced concrete
buildings in high seismic regions. The use of
SFRC in LSE resulted in a coupling beam
design that eased reinforcing congestion,
facilitated faster construction, and reduced
total rebar quantity.
Additional SFRC research is currently
underway at the University of Wisconsin,
funded by the Charles Pankow Foundation
(see Figure 14). Its results are expected to
broaden the range of ber types, dosage
rates, and coupling-beam aspect ratios
available for use by designers of concrete
buildings in high-seismic regions.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS ASCE. 2014.

Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings ASCE/
SEI 4113. Reston: ASCE.
LEQUESNE, R. D. 2011. Behavior and Design of
High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Coupling
Beams and Coupled-Wall Systems. PhD Dissertation,
University of Michigan.
LOS ANGELES TALL BUILDINGS STRUCTURAL DESIGN
COUNCIL LATBSDC. 2015. An Alternative Procedure for
Seismic Analysis and Design of Tall Buildings Located in
the Los Angeles Region A Consensus Document. Los
Angeles: LATBSDC.
PAULAY, T. & PRIESTLEY, M. J. N. 1992. Seismic Design of
Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Buildings. New York:
John Wiley & Sons.
SETKIT, M. 2012. Seismic Behavior of Slender Coupling
Beams Constructed with High-Performance FiberReinforced Concrete. PhD Dissertation, University of
Michigan.
Unless otherwise noted, all image and

photograpy credits in this paper are to the
authors.
References
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS ASCE. 2010.
Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures
ASCE/SEI 710. Reston: ASCE.
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Architecture/Design
A Car-Free, Polycentric City, with MultiLevel Skybridges and Inter-Building Atria

The concept of cities as self-contained megastructures has fascinated architects and urban theorists for decades. The idea received much attention in the
1960s and 70s, resulting in some experimental built works. With todays renewed interest in sustainability and compact living, along with advances in
computerized architectural optimization, there is now an opportunity to revisit
this concept. This paper examines the potential for the nearest modern
analogue the college town to be incorporated in such a self-contained
structure, which is nevertheless connected to the world.
Richard J. Balling
Author
Richard J. Balling, Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Brigham Young University
368G Clyde Building
Provo, UT 84602
United States
t: +1 801 422 2648
e: balling@byu.edu
www. byu.edu
Richard J. Balling
Richard J. Balling is a professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young
University. He earned his PhD in Engineering and
MS in Engineering from the University of California,
Berkeley. Balling is the author of more than 110
published, peer-reviewed manuscripts, and nine
textbooks. He was the King Husein Professor of Civil
Engineering from 2011 to 2013, was on the board
of directors of Design Synthesis Inc.in Provo until
2004, and was a visiting scientist on behalf of the
International Council of Associations for Science
Education (ICASE) at NASA Langley Research Center,
19931994.
The study showed

that wind load per
building is much less
than for the same
buildings without
ETFE atria and multilevel skybridges,
requiring up to 10%
less structural
material.
28 | Architecture/Design
Introduction
People love their cars, but what is the cost of
this love aair? The average American family
spends 17% of its income on transportation
(US BLS 2015). The ratio of the number of
trac fatalities to the total number of deaths
each year reveals that about one out of 79
dies in a car crash (US NHTSA 2015; US CDC
2015). Air pollution from vehicles causes the
premature death of about one out of 49
Americans (Caiazzo et al. 2013). Car use
contributes to the pandemic of physical
inactivity, which causes about one out of 10
deaths worldwide (Kohl et al. 2012).
Congested trac is a source of wasted time,
noise, and stress. The American lifestyle is so
dominated by car usage that most people
choose to ignore the dangers and costs.
Is it realistic to build car-free cities? The past
century has seen the development of
high-density ground-access-skyscraper (GAS)
cities throughout the world. Such urban
intensication has been called the Paradox
of Intensication, which states, Ceteris
paribus, urban intensication which increases
population density will reduce per capita car
use, with benets to the global environment,
but will also increase concentrations of
motor trac, worsening the local
environment in those locations where it
occurs (Melia, Parkhurst & Barton 2012). One
reason high-density GAS cities are congested
with vehicles is that in many cases the
horizontal distance between origin and
destination is too far to walk. Studies show
that people are willing to walk about 800
meters before taking a motorized vehicle
(Guerra, Cervero & Tischler 2012). This article

examines car-free cities where all daily origins
and destinations are located within an
800-meter horizontal walking distance.
Evolution of the Self-Contained City

A city that includes all daily origins and
destinations for all its residents will be referred
to hereafter as a self-contained city, for which
there is a signicant theoretical precedent.
Buckminster Fuller contemplated such cities
in conjunction with his famous geodesic
dome designs in the 1950s. These ideas
inuenced the London-based architectural
group, Archigram, which was committed to a
high-tech, lightweight, infrastructural
approach. Metabolism was a post-war
Japanese architectural movement that
combined ideas from architectural
megastructures with organic biological
growth in the 1960s. In 1970, construction
began on Arcosanti in Arizona, a hyperdense
city designed by Paolo Soleri to maximize
interaction of its 5,000 inhabitants as an
example of architecture coherent with
ecology, or arcology. These ideas are again
becoming popular as sustainability becomes a
priority. In 2012 Ken King established Vertical
City, a not-for-prot organization that aims to
ignite a worldwide conversation about vertical
cities as a solution to a more sustainable
future. In recent years, massive self-contained
hyperstructures have been proposed,
including the X-Seed 4000 in Japan, 1995;
Crystal Island in Russia, 2007; and Ziggurat in
Dubai, 2008.
How much oor space is needed for a

self-contained city, and what is a logical
population for a city encompassing residences, workplaces, oces, schools, stores,
hospitals, restaurants, churches, and entertainment? Everyone who lives in the self-contained city works there. Some of the best
contemporary examples of self-contained
cities are college towns. The following ve
college towns in the USA were considered:
Auburn, Alabama; Lafayette, Indiana; College
Station, Texas; State College, Pennsylvania; and
Ames, Iowa. Based on the 2010 US Census, the
analysis of the demographics and land use of
these ve cities revealed that the average
population of these cities, including students,
is about 100,000 (US Census 2010), and the
average total oor area is about seven million
square meters.
One blunt-force approach to accommodating
the above would be to construct a single
mega-building with a oor area of 7 million
square meters. If the mega-building has a
square 800-meter-by-800-meter footprint, it
would require 11 stories. Alternatively, if the
mega-building has 100 stories, it would
require a square 265-meter-by-265-meter
footprint. People would not want to live in an
uninspiring mega-building such as this
because it lacks architectural diversity and
limits natural light penetration and exterior
views.
A team of students and faculty from a variety
of engineering, management, and social
science disciplines designed a car-free
University City for 100,000 people including
33,000 students with the same oor space
and outer dimensions as the mega-building,
but which instead consists of 46 diverse
buildings ranging from 15 to 44 stories (see
Figure 1). This University City is an example of
an urban paradigm that will be referred to
Optimization
problem
Skybridges
present
Elev.
loops
Space Use and Multi-Level Skybridges

The team addressed the optimum allocation
of space use throughout the University City by
considering results from an optimization
study on a simpler city with 25 buildings. This
city was divided into 344 zones, in which each
zone consisted of three consecutive oors in
one of the buildings. Space was optimized
with a genetic algorithm that represented a
particular design as a chromosome with 344
genes one for each zone. The value of each
gene was an integer between 1 and 16,
corresponding to 16 specic residential,
commercial, educational, and recreational
space uses. The algorithms objective was the
minimization of the average travel time of all
trips during the evening peak period. A
three-step transportation model was
developed: 1) trip generation, 2) trip
distribution, and 3) trip assignment.
Four optimization problems were solved (see
Table 1). In scenarios 1 and 3, skybridges were
located between every building at four
equally-spaced levels. In scenarios 2 and 4,
there were no skybridges. In scenarios 1 and 3,
each building was equipped with one
multi-car circulating elevator loop (Hitachi
2006) that stopped at every story and one
express multi-car circulating elevator loop that
stopped only at skybridge levels. In scenarios
Average
travel
time (s)
Longest
trip
time (s)
Yes
3X
168.6
594.2
No
3X
196.5
706.2
Yes
1X
168.8
594.2
No
1X
267.5
1390.3
Table 1. Travel times for optimum designs of generic city.

herein by the name greenplex. At the CTBUH

World Conference 2011, the notion of the
greenplex was introduced and research needs
were outlined (Balling 2011). This article
presents research results garnered over the
past ve years and further renes the
greenplex as a car-free polycentric urban
paradigm.
Figure 1. The University City plan.
2 and 4, each building had three express and

three standard elevator loops. The average
travel time was the same for scenarios 1 and
3, 19% longer for scenario 2, and 134%
longer for scenario 4.
These results clearly show the value of
skybridges in reducing travel time. The fact
that increasing the number of elevator loops
did not shorten the travel time suggests that
pedestrian movement is predominantly
horizontal rather than vertical when
skybridges are present. When skybridges are
present, the optimum location of highattraction uses such as shopping centers,
supermarkets, food & beverage, and athletic
clubs was at skybridge levels, while the
optimum location of low-attraction uses,
such as oces, medical centers, schools, and
churches was at non-skybridge levels.
Optimization distributed all uses vertically
throughout the city. These results suggest
that the presence of multi-level skybridges
leads to the creation of multi-level
communities in the optimum design, where
people spend most of their time within a few
levels of their residence.
The team used these results to design the
space use for the 100,000-resident University
City (see Figure 2). Recall that the 46
buildings range from 15 to 44 stories. Note
that the mixed-use buildings are highlyconnected with skybridges every seven
stories, and that high-attraction retail space
Campus
Family Residence
Student Residence
Retail
Offices & Services
Health related Services
Schools
Government Services
Skybridges
Figure 2. Facility configurations for the University City.

Architecture/Design | 29
Neighboring skyscraper
is located on the skybridge levels of the

multi-level city. The university campus is
located in the stem of the city and residences,
oces, hospitals, and schools are located in
the ve leaves that surround it. The family
residences are located mostly in the bananashaped buildings on the exterior of each leaf,
and consist of spacious and soundproof
homes with terraced balconies with an
average oor space of 251 square meters for a
family of four. Student residences consist of
dorms with an average oor space of 93
square meters for four students.
Neighboring skyscraper
ETFE
cushions
Air vent
Air vent
Compression
spring
Prestressed cables
Drainage
gutter
Drainage gutter
ETFE
cushion
Multi-level skybridges relieve ground-level

congestion and transform ground-access
buildings into multi-level access buildings (see
Figures 1 and 2). This design protects the city
from re and terrorist attack, because the
multi-level skybridges are reproof and
provide multiple escape routes from every
building (Wood 2003). A re/police station is
located on each skybridge level of the city so
that emergency responders need only
ascend/descend three ights of stairs to reach
any point in the city if elevators are
inoperable.
Cable spring
truss
Figure 3. Cable-spring support for ETFE cushions.
The ETFE atria between buildings fully protect

people from rain, snow, wind, dust, extreme
heat, and extreme cold while allowing the
penetration of natural light. This makes it
possible for people to move comfortably
between buildings year-round, regardless of
the weather outside.
ETFE Atria and Thermal/Structural Response

Since the car-free city is free from vehicle
emissions, the University City includes
enclosed atria between all the buildings. This
was accomplished by spanning building roofs
and exterior building sides with the Ethylene
tetrauoroethylene (ETFE) structural material.
ETFE has the following remarkable properties:
it is lightweight, transparent, exible,
easy-to-repair, self-cleaning, noncombustible,
It also reduces the total exposed surface area

of the city, which reduces the energy required
for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning
(HVAC). Even though the ETFE atria increased
the indoor volume of the University City by
48%, the exposed surface area was reduced
conditioned
One example of a small system of buildings

interconnected with multi-level skybridges
and ETFE atria is the Parkview Green in
Beijing, which received a LEED Platinum
Monthly temperature in C
Monthly energy in MWhr

unconditioned
by 52%. The University City was analyzed for

three cases over a year long period: 1)
conditioned ETFE atria between buildings, 2)
unconditioned ETFE atria between buildings,
and 3) no atria between buildings (see Figure
4). For the year, the conditioned-atria case
used 36% less energy than the no-atria case,
and the unconditioned-atria case used 40%
less energy than the no-atria case. The
outside temperature ranged from a low of
-18C to a high of 38C. The temperature of
the conditioned atria was in the same range
as the buildings interior temperature,
between 18.3C to 23.9C. The
unconditioned atria temperature,
meanwhile, ranged from 8C to 30C.
recyclable, inexpensive, and has low

embodied energy (LeCuyer 2008). ETFE
cushions between buildings can be
supported by a lightweight, exible, cablespring truss system as shown in Figure 3
(Balling & Bessey 2015).
conditioned
atria
no atria
180,000
min.
unconditioned
atria
max.
unconditioned
atria
min. outside
max. outside
40
160,000
30
140,000
120,000
20
100,000
80,000
10
60,000
40,000
-10
20,000
0
-20
1
10
11
12
10
11
12
Figure 4. Energy consumption and temperature in University City.

Parkview Green
Terri Meyer Boake
Figure 5. Parkview Green, Beijing serves as a useful smaller-scale built precursor of an ETFE city.
rating in 2009 (see Figure 5). Parkview Green

consists of two 18-story and two 9-story
mixed-use buildings within a quarter pyramid
with an ETFE roof and glass sides. Skybridges
between buildings are located at multiple
levels. The unconditioned atria temperatures
are much milder than the outside
temperatures.
Fossil fuel consumption for HVAC can also be
reduced by utilizing ground-source heat
pumps and hydronic heating/cooling. These
technologies were used in the Linked Hybrid
in Beijing, which received the CTBUH Best Tall
Building Worldwide Award in 2009 (see Figure
6). The Linked Hybrid consists of nine 21-story
buildings that sit atop 660 100-meter-deep
wells that harness cool ground temperature in
summer and warm ground temperature in
winter. Water from these wells is circulated up
through the oor slabs of the buildings to
provide radiant hydronic heating/cooling that
eliminates the space needed for the ducts and
noisy fans of a forced-air system. These
technologies shoulder 70% of the heating/
cooling load for the complex.
Structural analysis and optimization methods
were used to study the structural design of tall
buildings interconnected with multi-level
skybridges and ETFE atria subjected to gravity,
wind, and seismic loads. The study controlled
for factors such as number of buildings,
equal-height vs. variable-height buildings,
type of skybridge connection, site seismicity,
and wind intensity, and presence vs. absence
of skybridges and atria. If skybridges are

connected to the buildings with sliders, then
the buildings can sway independently under
lateral wind and seismic load. The study
showed that it is advantageous to construct
hinge connections between the skybridges
and the buildings. The axial stiness of
hinge-connected skybridges constrain the
buildings to horizontally sway in unison under
lateral loading (see Figure 7).
The long natural period of the system leads to
a low seismic response. Response to wind
loading is often more critical for tall buildings.
The ETFE envelope between building roofs
and exterior building sides creates an
aerodynamic shape, such that the total wind
load on the system is signicantly less than
the total load due to wind blowing in and
around buildings without the envelope. The
hinge-connected skybridges utilize the lateral
stiness of both interior and exterior buildings
Figure 6. Linked Hybrid, Beijing, provides a precursor

built example of a multi-building complex linked by
skybridges. StevenHollArchitects/Shu He
to resist wind load. The study showed that

wind load per building is much less than for
the same buildings without ETFE atria and
multi-level skybridges, requiring up to 10%
less structural material.
Polycentric Greenplex Urban Paradigm:

Expansion Potential
The University City is an example of a general
urban paradigm, the greenplex. The
characteristics of the greenplex are
summarized below:
1. Car-free with a walkable footprint
diameter less than 800 meters.
2. Self-contained, with origins and
destinations for about 100,000 people.
3. Inspiring form, with many architecturally
diverse, multi-story buildings.
4. Multi-level city, with multiple retail levels
in mixed-use buildings.
5. Highly-connected, with multi-level
skybridges.
6. Fully-weather-protected, with ETFE atria
between buildings.
7. Near net-zero fossil fuel and water
consumption with green technologies
such as ground-source heat pumps,
hydronic heating/cooling, reduced
exposed surface area, multi-car circulating
elevators, wind turbines, solar panels,
on-site wastewater treatment, natural
lighting, and natural ventilation.
Figure 7. Buildings with hinged-skybridges and

ETFE Atria.
Can the greenplex urban paradigm be

extended to large metropolitan areas? The
Wasatch Front Metropolitan Area (WFMA) is
an urban area in the United States that
includes Salt Lake City, Utah. The projected
population of the high-growth WFMA is 3.5
million for the year 2040 (Davidson 2012).
Like many metropolitan areas in the USA, the
current urban form of the WFMA is caroriented, low-density sprawl.
The projected population of the WFMA
could be accommodated with 35
greenplexes of about 100,000 people each.
The University Greenplex would be
economically catalyzed by the university at
its core. Each of the 35 greenplexes in the
WFMA would have dierent economic
catalysts, such as a biomedical research park,
a software development campus, a nancial
services cluster, or a food processing center.
The architectural form and function would
vary signicantly among greenplexes. The
WFMA would become a polycentric
metropolitan area, which has been
recognized as a sustainable urban form
(Jenks & Dempsey 2005).
The WFMA greenplexes would be
interconnected with high-speed trains, and
each greenplex would have an underground
train station at its center. Since the maximum
footprint diameter of each greenplex is 800
meters, all origins and destinations are within
400 meters walking distance from train
stations. This short walking distance makes
mass transit between greenplexes the
desirable mode of transportation.
Figure 8. Comfortable talkable environment,

year-round.
Trucks and trains would also be used to

transport food and freight to an o-site
distribution center for each greenplex, with
underground conveyance to the freight
elevators of the greenplex. Transport links
between the greenplex and the o-site
distribution center are underground so that
the outdoor surface space immediately
around the greenplex can be used for public
spaces and cultivation, rather than highway
infrastructure.
Currently 7% of vehicle miles of travel (VMT)
in the WFMA is for recreation and rural trips
(Utah DOT 2012), and 10% of VMT is for truck
freight trips (US FHA 2010). It is possible that
all other VMT could be eliminated in the
polycentric greenplex WFMA. This implies
that it may be possible to reduce car
accidents by as much as 83%.
Sustainability Impact
The sustainability of the polycentric
greenplex urban paradigm can be examined
in the context of its impact on people,
planet, and prosperity. The greenplex
environment is walkable by design. People
walk to school and work, and to stores with
their shopping carts. Electric forklifts are
available to transport heavy loads. Walkability
leads to talkability social interaction at a
level not achievable in car-centric communities. As shown in Figure 8, the atria provide a
comfortable, talkable environment yearround. People can interact, and multi-level
communities can develop.
The greenplex environment is accessible.
Parents can take children to a variety of
recreational options within walking distance.
Disabled people are no longer trapped in
their residences and dependent on others to
drive them around. The greenplex
environment is safe. There are no dangerous
vehicular streets. People are fully protected
from bad weather. Increased sense of
community and police proximity lead to
lower crime (Cook 2008). Skybridges provide
multiple emergency escape routes. Without
cars the air is clean and noise is diminished.
Exercise increases and stress decreases.
The potential impact of the polycentric

greenplex urban paradigm on the planet is
truly staggering. The projected developed
land use for the WFMA in 2040 is about 1,000
square kilometers (Envision Utah 2005). The 35
greenplexes needed for the projected 2040
population would occupy about 90 square
kilometers, including the o-site toy boxes
and distribution centers. This represents a 91%
reduction in land consumption.
Utah is a dry place. About 57% of the water
consumed is used for outside sprinkler
systems for lawns and gardens. Assuming that
outdoor sprinkler consumption is reduced in
accordance with the 91% reduction in land
consumption, and that indoor water
consumption is reduced by 50% due to
recycling and green technologies, total water
consumption could be reduced by 73%.
In the United States, about 41% of energy is
consumed in residential and commercial
buildings, 30% is consumed in industry, and
29% is consumed in transportation (US DOE
2012). In buildings, 61% is consumed in air
and water heating/cooling, and 39% is
consumed in lighting/electrical. Assuming
heating/cooling energy consumption is
reduced by 40% due to the lower exposed
surface area, and assuming 70% of the
remaining heating/cooling energy comes
from ground source heat pumps as was the
case for the Linked Hybrid the heating/
cooling fossil fuel consumption could be
reduced by 82%. Assuming that the lighting/
electrical fossil fuel consumption could be
reduced by 40% due to green technologies,
the fossil-fuel consumption in buildings would
be reduced by 66%. In transportation, assume
that the 83% reduction in VMT translates to a
70% reduction in fossil fuel consumption,
since fossil fuel would still likely be used to
power trains. In total, the reduction in fossil
fuel consumption would be 47%. This
calculation does not include further
reductions in the industrial sector.
Since cars and trucks account for 57% of
Utahs air pollution (Utah Foundation 2008),
the 83% reduction in VMT would reduce air
pollution by 47%. The reduction would be
even greater due to reduced fossil fuel
consumption for heating/cooling and power

generation. Utah occasionally has the worst
air in the nation during winter temperature
inversions.
The benets to prosperity of the polycentric
greenplex urban paradigm are signicant.
High-density greenplexes catalyze
productivity. Productivity is further enhanced
when people are healthy and comfortable,
and wasted time in trac is eliminated. Utility
and transportation costs are dramatically
lower. By exploiting prefabrication,
modularization, and replication, the
construction costs of greenplexes can be
brought down to competitive levels.
Implementation
Transition from the current sprawl paradigm
to the polycentric greenplex urban paradigm
is a major economic issue. Fortunately,
greenplexes can be constructed incrementally
rather than all at once. For example, the rst
phase of the University Greenplex could
consist of the university core or stem, along
with one of the ve surrounding leaves. Then,
as demand for car-free living increases, the
other four leaves could be added in
succession. Greenplexes do not require large
amounts of land, and are ideal for urban areas
that need revitalization. In some cases, the
value of the land that is freed up in the
transition from sprawl to greenplex could be
used to help nance greenplex construction.
Demand for mixed-use, walkable, high-density
living is increasing throughout the world
(Cech 2012). The polycentric greenplex urban
paradigm is out in front of this trend.
Unless otherwise noted, all image credits in this
paper are to the author.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to acknowledge the following for
their contribution to this paper; Grant G. Schultz, Brigham
Young University; Michael J. Clay, Brigham Young University;
Matthew R. Jones, Brigham Young University; Clifton B.
Farnsworth, Brigham Young University; and Patrick J.
Tripeny, University of Utah.
In addition to the author, the students on the team that
designed the University City included Jarrett Humble,
Arnold Valdez, Jerey Buxton, Cree Farnes, Seth Burdette,
Kayla Cummings, Stuart Withers, MKynzi Newbold, Casey

Millard, Rachel Hansen, Kaela Nordlin, Shanisa Butt, Megan
Peer, and Stewart Perry from Brigham Young University,
and Teodor Antonov and Massih Nilforoushan from the
University of Utah. The team received funding from the US
Environmental Protection Agency P3 Program Grant
835522 and from the King and Diane Husein Professorship
at Brigham Young University.
JENKS, M. & DEMPSEY, N. 2005. Future Forms and Design for

Sustainable Cities. Oxford: Elsevier.
KOHL, H. W.; CRAIG, C. L.; LAMBERT, E. V.; INOUE, S.;
ALKANDARI, J. R.; LEETONGIN, G. & KAHLMEIER, S. 2012.
The Pandemic of Physical Inactivity: Global Action for
Public Health. The Lancet 380(9838): 294305.
LECUYER, A. 2008. ETFE: Technology and Design. Berlin:
Birkhauser.
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Greenplexes do not require large amounts of

land, and are ideal for urban areas that need
revitalization. In some cases, the value of the
land that is freed up in the transition from
sprawl to greenplex could be used to help
finance greenplex construction.
Sustainability/Green/Energy
Skyscraper Energy Calculator
Mark Weisgerber
Author
Mark Weisgerber, Designer
Eric Colbert & Associates PC
717 5th Street NW
Washington D.C. 20001
United States
t: +1 202 289 6800
f: +1 202 289 6801
e: maweisg@gmail.com
www.eca-pc.com
Mark Weisgerber
Mark Weisgerber is a sustainable designer and
theorist with Eric Colbert and Associates. Weisgerbers
career has encompassed over a decade of industrial,
commercial, and high-rise projects mainly in the
Midwest, with an emphasis upon applicable evidence
based design. He is also a frequent contributor to
HeightsRising; an online treatise on the possibilities of
net-zero high-rise design, that can be found at www.
heightscalling.blogspot.com.
A building would
have to climb at least
92152 meters before
any potential from
wind power was
applicable at this
selected site. Further,
collectors sufficient to
generate power would
require that large
swaths of the building
be left open for
collection.
34 | Sustainability/Green/Energy
This paper seeks to add to the growing collection of literature on skyscraper

energy use, documenting on-site resource calculation potentials as related to
overall collector sizes along a buildings surface area. It suggests structures that
can use their size, bulk, and physical location to offset total energy use, forgoing
any number of complicated baseline standards. These features would better
define net-zero aspirations up front, underlining alternative strategies that can
be pursued from the outset of design. It also suggests utilizing a wealth of data
available from contemporary ASHRAE sources and on-site measurements,
showcasing the number of people a potential site could accommodate, as
compared to predictive models based on expected user types.
Introduction
As skyscrapers soar ever higher and explore
greater depths of design eciency, designers
have begun to experiment with more
empirical and comprehensive approaches to
overall energy use. This recent shift has
attempted to transcend the traditional limits
incurred by the tall building typology thus far,
utilizing opportunities from growing heights
or existing site opportunities to better
incorporate next-generation design ideals. A
range of options, from formal arrangements,
to occupant user groups, to internal layouts, is
now being considered by which to rework
built structures as a sustainable whole. When
balanced against a variety of harvestable
on-site resources, new empirical approaches
seek to exceed reductionist pursuits by
creating a true net-zero skyscraper from the
initial design outset.
The emergence of such comprehensive
planning initiatives follows several design
approaches that have been growing in
prominence over the last few years. Major
research-focused architecture rms have
begun to publish procedural steps by which
to initiate net-zero buildings in the United
States, while theorists abroad continue to
push the envelope toward fully integrated,
self-sucient buildings. Such methods rst
encourage minimizing user point loads upon
a building, then seek to oset remaining
energy use through an array of various on-site
or technological sources. Structures like the
Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou and the Bank of
America Tower, New York have shown that
substantial energy osets are possible in
todays marketplace through such practices,

while Chambers et al. (2014) has theorized a
point-by-point analysis of how to
conceivably reduce current high-rise energy
use by up to 90%. Other structures have
gone a step further, using tactile biological
capture through Living Machines to oset a
greater range of human needs.
But while many such theories emphasize
reductionist strategies to mediate overall
energy use, practitioners in Europe are
beginning to address high-rise sustainability
from a computational perspective. The
PlusEnergy system has recently taken root
with German designers and theorists,
seeking to create buildings that produce
more energy than they need to operate
directly from design outset. Such structures
rst map out energy requirements for a
target structure or user group, then
implement a variety of design systems to
capture enough wind, solar, or geothermal
resources to counterbalance user needs.
Case studies like Rolf Dischs Heliotrope or
the solar settlement of Vauban in Freiburg,
Germany, have shown that PlusEnergy is now
achievable in shorter structures, even within
harsh northern climates. While such facilities
have yet to apply a complete biological
approach or even expand beyond mid-rise
height, they have the added benet of being
easy to calculate and evaluate over time.
Meanwhile, additional possibilities have
arisen from the integration of technologicaland cloud-based design sources at earlier
intervals. Companies such as Google and
Mapdwell have been documenting available
solar energy to rooftops in select global

cities, while plug-ins for BIM design software
have begun to showcase the ecological
benets of various design iterations.
For skyscrapers a building type that uses
considerably more energy than low-rise
counterparts the integration of these
methodologies can have enormous design
connotations. Resource data can now be
integrated into nal designs at an early stage,
creating the possibility of better prediction,
or of measuring initial harvest potentials
from almost any site. Towers have now been
suggested that could incur osets through
height-based economies of scale, exceeding
the original conditions of a site, such as
providing external vegetation on multiple
levels, beyond what is possible on an
undeveloped site, or by using their size or
bulk for additional user benet or resource
collection. Such strategies can range from
redirecting excess roof rainwater to ush
surrounding buildings; to nestling extensive
solar panel groupings within exterior faades
to facilitate energy production; to applying
intensive use of vegetation inside central
courtyards, increasing natural bioltration.
What emerges is a layout where a singular
tower could potentially link to, or even
support, several smaller structures around it.
In this manner, theorists have sought to
justify new developments with factors other
than prot, seeking to capture and utilize the
growing opportunities oered by tall
buildings to more fully oset their enormous
consumption rates. These and other
questions led to the following assessment
and results presented here.
Initialized Calculations:
Alternative Methods to Achieve Net-Zero
This research suggests an agenda similar to
the aforementioned PlusEnergy tactics, while
superseding several reductionist strategies
that have traditionally dened skyscraper
energy eciency. A ve-step procedure,
could provide parameters for a computational program for designing net-zero
skyscrapers and balance those parameters
against on-site resources:
balance energy gures of tall buildings

below zero energy use. The rst is identifying
a prospective site and contrasting it against a
general building program. From this initial
analysis, lessons could be shifted and scaled
to other locales, based on data input from
local regions.
1. Select a site and identify desired building

size/general program parameters
2. Document all on-site resources available
for capture and energy osets
3. Determine internal occupant types and
energy uses that will inhabit a building
over the course of its lifetime
4. Balance these users against available
on-site resources
5. Exceed all energy minimums
As all PlusEnergy strategies are highly reliant

on site, the City of Chicago was tentatively
selected as an initial test locale for many
reasons. The region is rich in available capital,
investment opportunities, transportation,
natural resources, and commitments to
green design. It also remains a dense,
growing metropolis, with a long history of
clients willing to invest and experiment with
passive energy buildings. Most importantly,
the city is one of the wettest and windiest
cities with a population of more than
750,000 in the United States, containing
major harvest potential for wind and rain
resources (Why 2010).
These strategies can be thought of as a

comprehensive energy use calculator, with
specic applicability beyond low- or mid-rise
building applications. It would continue
aforementioned PlusEnergy strategies,
balancing on-site resources against rentable
building space in skyscrapers. From there,
additional energy or municipal criteria can
be added to better correspond to each
selected site, expanding upon local initiatives
or applicable site precedents as needed.
For the purpose of this paper, a 30.5 x 30.5 x

183-meter test structure was also initially
considered along the Chicago River (see
Figure 1). This suggested size aligns with
standard skyscraper dimensions prevalent
in the current downtown building
assemblage (CTBUH 2015), at a location
already the subject of a number of ongoing
inll proposals. From here, additional criteria
and calculations were added after initial
design considerations were generally tested.
Step 1: Site selection/building sizing

To initiate this net-zero skyscraper calculation
methodology, several steps must be taken to
Step 2: On-site potentials

The next step in this suggested net-zero
skyscraper calculation process is to
document available on-site resources. Like
most North American cities, Chicago
maintains an extensive listing of its weather
phenomenons and other resource data
through the National Climate Data Center.
From these and other similar sources, a
catalog for the riverside location was created,
utilizing engineering calculations acquired
through the American Society of Heating,
Refrigeration & Air Engineers (ASHRAE). A
chart of each potential at this site was then
mapped and compared, with the results
shown in Figure 2. Additional measurements
were taken from online databases and
CHICAGO RIVERWALK MASTERPLAN

four riverwalk districts
THE CONFLUENCE DISTRICT
ARCADE DISTRICT
CIVIC DISTRICT
MARKET DISTRICT
PROSPECTIVE SITE
Figure 1. Chicago test site location, showing current infill proposals. SOM
Sustainability/Green/Energy | 35
Though these numbers represent a rough

approximation of energy that could actually
be captured in a real-world environment, it
serves to highlight that two sources in
particular, wind and storm-water hydro,
appear to oer the greatest on-site potentials
at this location. The initial documentation
phase also demonstrated surprisingly low
gures from several common sustainable
sources such as solar and geothermal
underlining the fact that a majority of these
capture systems are highly site-specic and
fairly erratic. For the downtown locale,
lowered resource capture was likely due in
part to the proximity of nearby building
structures, reducing initial harvest potential.
It was also discovered that taller buildings to
the south and west of the test site could
severely inhibit the collection potential of
solar and wind arrays, until the example
structure rose above a 15- to 30.5-meter
threshold.
Step 3: Occupant type
The third step of the net-zero skyscraper
calculation methodology is to explore and
document an expected range of occupant
types: daily users that would need to be
balanced by the available on-site resources.
As the internal resource needs of various
tenant groups have been accurately
quantied and measured over the last 50
years (Oldeld et. al. 2008), these gures can
be compared or contrasted with various
occupant types that could potentially inhabit
the building. For the Chicago site, a
determination was made to explore and
expand upon normally expected occupant
groupings and modern energy consumption
rates, with a moderate anticipation of future
user needs to be explored on an ad-hoc basis.
Several additional factors need to be
considered and balanced in order for this
approach to be applicable to a full range of
possible users. Unsurprisingly, the combined
activities of residents, oce workers,
cleaning crews, and innumerable other
number of resources available on-site. From

there, experiments with building proportions,
collector sizes, or other design features could
then be factored back into the initial model,
with a greater emphasis on methods that
showed the greatest returns.
facility caretakers were discovered to have

considerable impact upon overall building
energy use. High-rise hotel patrons,
residents, and general hospitality services
have traditionally accounted for 30% more
energy use than their clerical or low-rise
counterparts (US EPA 2008, Grabar 2013).
Meanwhile, tenants inhabiting the upper
heights of a tall or supertall structure were
found to require substantially more energy
for any number of basic services, from water
to vertical transportation (US GAO 2008).
Even tourists, a traditional mainstay of
Chicago high-rises, were found to use
double or even triple the energy of all other
user groups over a similar time frame (Brown
2015, Rastogi 2009).
For the wind and water harvest potentials at

the Chicago site, the original net-zero
selection was found to be even more dynamic
and layered than rst predicted. Wind
collection works best with large-diameter
turbines located at the peak of tall structures,
while storm water energy generation requires
substantial collection apparatuses, including
properly sized pipe diameters and internal
turbines by which to generate any excess
power. Further limits arose after discovering
that occupant-to-collection-sizing ratios were
exponentially inverse, as only a limited
quantity of occupants could be oset before
the test building reached certain heights or
collector sizes. The initial analysis suggested a
test building that would have to climb at least
92152 meters before any potential from wind
power was applicable at this selected site.
Further, collectors sucient to generate
power would require that large swaths of the
building be left open for collection.
As this dynamic oers a considerable range

of possibilities for a possible test structure, a
low-impact average user was suggested to
initiate this test research. This typical user is
documented in Figure 3, as a standard
clerical oce worker inhabiting a generic
oce building for only an eight-hour portion
of the day. Other daily user groups, such as
hospitality, food service, and tourists, would
be considered for the subject building after
initial calculations were tested and
compared with other nearby structures.
In addition to these initial sources, harvest

potentials also varied considerably depending
on the time of day or year and were not as
consistent as current fossil-fuel sources. Both
wind and water collection were found to be
highly infrequent, leading to serious questions
about the ability of these sources to provide
Step 4: Energy-space relationships, trials,

energy balance, and the empty tower
The last phase of this calculation
methodology is one of balance and
exploration: comparing how many users a
site could potentially house, based upon any
180
160
Daily Energy Potential (mWh)
physical eld measurements at the site,

combined with a conventional site analysis
and applicable solar studies.
140
Hydro energy
120
Wind (16 kph)

100
Wind (24 kph)

Wind (32 kph)
80
Solar energy
60
Geothermal
River water
40
20
0
0
16
46
91
183
274
366
457
549
Tower Height (meter)

Figure 2. Resource Potentials from Chicago River Site (mWh generation per height).
osets during times of drought or sell energy

back to the grid during periods of collection
excess. This suggested a building that was
much larger, thinner and considerably more
open than initially estimated, with greater
space requirements dedicated toward direct
resource capture. For these and other reasons,
several variations between design arrangements were initially contrasted and tested.
Yet even with these accommodations,
several startling gures emerged after a
range of quantiable data was applied to a
succession of test structures. Even by
harvesting a combination of all available
on-site potentials, not even a modest 46 x 46
x 33.5-meter building containing 1,310
people could be supported through passive
means. A tower would have to soar to at least
183 meters to oset this underwhelming
quantity of occupants and be comprised
mostly of collection panels or open space
allocated for total resource capture. These
conditions occur even after limiting the
structure to low-impact users on only the
rst few oors and assuming a 100% capture
for all available resources, at all times of the
day, throughout the entire year. Such gures
persisted, regardless of building shape or
arrangement, or even by the energy
calculation method used. While additional
energy possibilities could be supported by
lling such empty spaces with urban farming
or natural bioltration, such possibilities

raise serious questions of cost, impact and
practicality.
Additionally, the riverfront site was
discovered to be far from an ideal rainwater
or solar collection test site. While the
heightened densities around the initial
Chicago locale remained prime for other
facets of sustainability, it reduced the
availability of solar and wind collection until
a structure rose above a quantiable
threshold of 15 to 30.5 meters. Locations
several blocks to the south or west of this
downtown cluster oered slightly higher
energy returns, as fewer buildings exist to
interfere with overall collection potential.
Rural and suburban Chicagoland oered
even better possibilities, having substantially
fewer obstructions than their urban
counterparts, though it was at the sacrice of
desirable levels of density.
Elsewhere around the world, even greater
potentials were found through these same
calculation methodologies. Several
southeastern Asian sites were found to
average almost double the annual amount
of rainfall or solar potential as the initial
Chicago test site, all while maintaining
similar wind velocity patterns. Most of these
locales contain higher populations and
urban densities than in the United States,
Ratio Programming:
Oce space requirements/ratios.

t Self sucient space requires proportional external support
(i.e., incoming water, access space, food, etc.)
Spatial ratios required for human self suciency:

Oce to farm4:
6.75:1
Oce to sanitary3:
1:2
Oce to mechanical2: 1:20
Oce to access2:
1:33
1:200
Oce to water2:
Oce to farm water1: 1:1666
Department of Energy
Grondzik & Kwok 2014
3
Oberlin College
4
CTBUH
1
2
while representing a strong market for

forward-thinking energy resources. Energy
use at these sites was also 2550% the level
of American consumption (Diamond 2015),
suggesting that a greater quantity of
occupants could be oset by nextgeneration structures or design frameworks
in these possible locations.
Yet even with drastically increased resource
potential at other sites, no cursory location
was found to generate enough energy to
fully oset any standard-sized 30.5 x 30.5 x
183 meters skyscraper. From high-energyuse environs like Dubai, to lower-impact
users in Shanghai, not even a scant 40%
occupancy of similar test structures was
found to be achievable through these same
calculation processes. It was discovered that
the resources required to operate or inhabit
contemporary skyscrapers far surpassed the
ability of modern energy capture technology
to match even a basic set of net-zero design
parameters. What remains is a conceptual
structure that is mostly empty, using a majority of its resource capture potential to power
only a small portion of the buildings base.
Conclusion
As the next generation of skyscrapers seeks a
greater amount of self-suciency, a
continued push for increased analysis and
application remains paramount. This
presented skyscraper energy calculator
oers one prospective way of expanding
upon net-zero concepts into the future,
better magnifying eorts already utilized for
shorter building types (see Figure 4). Though
the gures presented in this research
suggest additional design shifts may be
necessary to oset greater heights, it also
serves to highlight the possible challenges
and opportunities that remain as the
typology aspires to complete net-neutrality.
Site, orientation, and occupant use types
remain critical in the discussion of any
PlusEnergy structures, as does the continued
integration of active and passive energy
sources. While the rise of resource collection
and display technology is helping to reduce
these gures, the tested Chicago site (as well
Figure 3. Office occupant ratio programming & requirements for net-zero energy balance.
Sustainability/Green/Energy | 37
Hydro Energy Potentials (mWh/Rain Event)
Energy Potentials Calculations
Pth = p q g h
Pth = power potential (mWh)
p = density (kg/m3)
q = water flow (m3/s)
g = acceleration of gravity (9.81 m/s2)
h = falling height, head (m)
Available Harvest Potentials

Horizontal harvesting
WR = g * SR
Vertical harvesting
Wv = 0.5(g * Sv)
Catchment sizing (m2)
Solar Energy Potentials (mWh/Rain Event)
WR = Water harvesting (roof )

SR = Roof surface area
g = 25.3 liters/m2
(for 25 mm rain / 24 hours)
Wv = Water harvesting (vertical)

Sv = Vertical surface area (faade)
g = 25.3 liters/m2
(for 25 mm rain / 24 hours)
Wind Energy Potentials (mWh/Rain Event)
E = A * r * PR
E = energy (kWh)
A = total solar panel area (m2)
r = solar panel yield (%)
H = solar radiation on tilted panels
PR = performance ration. coefficient for losses
Turbine diameter (m)
Monthly Energy Chart (from pvwatts.nrel.gov)

Station Identification
City
State
Latitude
Longitude
Elevation
Chicago
Illinois
42.42 N
83.02 W
191 m
PV System Specifications
DC rating
DC to AC derate factor
AC rating
Array type
Array tilt
Array azimuth
5.60 kW
0.770
4.31 kW
Fixed tilt
42.4
180
Energy Specifications
Cost of electricity
Result
Solar
Month radiation
2
(kWh/m /day)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Year
2.91
3.59
4.13
4.84
5.51
5.57
5.41
5.48
5.17
3.97
2.59
2.15
4.28
5 m/s (50% likelihood)

Result
AC
Energy
energy value
(kWh)
407
450
551
611
688
652
641
668
622
511
322
292
6,415
Solar
Month radiation
(US$)
33.78
37.35
45.73
50.71
57.10
54.12
53.20
55.44
51.63
42.41
26.73
24.24
532.45
AC
Energy
energy value
(kWh/m /day)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Year
2.91
3.59
4.13
4.84
5.51
5.57
5.41
5.48
5.17
3.97
2.59
2.15
4.28
(kWh)
(US$)
291 24.15
321 26.64
394 32.70
436 36.91
492 40.84
466 38.68
458 38.01
477 39.59
444 36.85
365 30.30
230 19.09
209 17.35
4,582 380.31
Pth = 0.5 [AD * CA * (VW)3 * TE]

Pth = theoretical power (mWh)
AD = air density (kg/m3)
CA = collection area (m2)
VW = wind velocity (m/s)
h = turbine efficiency, max at 59.26%
$0.083/kWh
Figure 4. Calculation of energy potential for the modeled site and building.
as other locations around the globe) shows

that an incredible array of resources remains
available for harvesting. While it may be too
soon to completely remove the skyscraper
from the current metropolitan grid,
signicant advances in technological energy
capture can, and are, playing an increasing
role in mitigating future energy use.
paper are to the author.
References
BROWN, E. 2014. For Tourists, A 3.9 Billion View. The Wall
Street Journal. Accessed August 27, 2015. http://www.wsj.
com/articles/for-tourists-a-3-9-billion-view-1414367952.
CHAMBERS, N. 2014. Is Net-Zero Tall Possible? CTBUH
Journal 2014 Issue II: 1824.
CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND

DEVELOPMENT. 2015a. Overview of the Green Permit
Program. Accessed July 24, 2015. http://www.
cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/bldgs/supp_info/
overview_of_the_greenpermitprogram.html.
US GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE GAO. 2008.

ENERGY-WATER NEXUS Amount of Energy Needed to
Supply, Use, and Treat Water Is Location Specific and Can Be
Reduced by Certain Technologies and Approaches.
Washington D.C.: US GAO
CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND

DEVELOPMENT. 2015b. Sustainable Development.
Accessed July 24, 2015. http://www.cityofchicago.org/
city/en/depts/dcd/provdrs/sustain.html.
US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY EPA OFFICE

OF AIR AND RADIATION OAR. 2008. EnergyStar Building
Upgrade Manual. Washington D.C.: US EPA.
COUNCIL ON TALL BUILDINGS AND URBAN HABITAT

CTBUH. 2015. The Skyscraper Center. Accessed July 25,
2015. http://skyscrapercenter.com/.
DIAMOND, R.; YE, Q.; FENG, W.; YAN, T.; MAO, H.; LI, Y.;
GUO, Y. & WANG, J. 2013. Sustainable Building in China
A Green Leap Forward. Buildings No.3: 63958.
GRABAR, H. 2013. The Closest Look Yet at the Relative
Energy Eciency of Big Buildings. The Atlantic CityLab.
Accessed August 28, 2015. http://www.citylab.com/
tech/2013/09/closest-look-yet-relative-energy-eciencybig-buildings/7033/.
OLDFIELD, P.; TRABUCCO, D. & WOOD, A. 2008. Five Energy

Generations of Tall Buildings: A Historical Analysis of Energy
Consumption in High-Rise Building. TheJournal of
Architecture 14(5): 591-613.
RASTOGI, N. 2009. When People Take the Elevator, Does
Earth Get the Shaft? Slate. Accessed August 25, 2015.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_
green_lantern/2009/04/energy_and_elevators.html.
WHY, T. 2010. How Do Chicagos Winds Compare with
Other Major US Cities? Chicago Tribune. Accessed 10 Sept.,
2015. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-12-28/news/
ct-wea-1229-asktom-20101228_1_average-winds-citieschicago-greeter.
Best Tall Building Americas:

VIA 57 West, New York City
Best Tall Building Asia & Australasia:

Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
Best Tall Building Europe:

The White Walls, Nicosia
Best Tall Building Middle East & Africa:

The Cube, Beirut
Urban Habitat Award Winner:

Wuhan Tiandi Site A, Wuhan
10 Year Award Winner:

Hearst Tower, New York City
Innovation Award Winner:

Pin-Fuse
Performance Award Winner:

TAIPEI 101, Taipei
Lynn S. Beedle Award Winner:

Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, HDB
Fazlur R. Khan Medal Winner:

Ron Klemencic, MKA
Join Us in Chicago this November!
CTBUH 15th Annual Awards

Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner
A free daylong symposium featuring presentations from all the 2016 award winners from around the
world. A gala dinner follows, in Mies van der Rohes Crown Hall, where all awards will be conferred.
Thursday, November 3 IITs Crown Hall 3360 South State, Chicago, IL
CTBUH
CTB
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Journa
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016
6 Issue
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IT/Computer Science/Software
A Software Tool for the Analysis of TimeDependent Effects in High-Rise Buildings
Carlo Casalegno
Mario Alberto Chiorino
Increased use of concrete in high-rise buildings has made these structures

especially sensitive to delayed deformations due to concretes natural
tendency to creep and shrink. This is exacerbated in particularly tall buildings
of hybrid construction, due to the different behavior of concrete and steel
elements. In this paper, the authors present a software tool specifically
developed to predict time-dependent behavior of high-rise buildings in both
the construction and service stages. The specific features of the software are
illustrated, and the results of a review and validation study are presented.
Finally, the approach is applied to a real high-rise building currently under
construction in Malaysia.
Concrete Properties Effect on Tall Buildings
Taehun Ha
Sungho Lee
Authors
Carlo Casalegno, Research Fellow
IUAV University of Venice
via Massimo dAzeglio 179
10081 Castellamonte
Italy
t: +39 34 6372 1142
e: casalegno.c@gmail.com
Mario Alberto Chiorino, Professor Emeritus
Politecnico di Torino
Department of Structural, Geotechnical and Building
Engineering (DISEG)
Viale Mattioli 39
10125 Torino
Italy
t: +39 01 1090 4864
e: mario.chiorino@polito.it
www.diseg.polito.it
Taehun Ha, Senior Researcher
Sungho Lee, Senior Researcher
Daewoo Engineering and Construction
20 Suil-ro 123
Jangan-gu, Gyeonggi-do
16297 Suwon
South Korea
t: +82 10 9145 1873; 82 10 8650 7295
e: taehun.ha@gmail.com;
sungho.lee@daewooenc.com
www.daewooenc.com
40 | IT/Computer Science/Software
In recent decades, the use of reinforced

concrete as the main construction material for
high-rise buildings has signicantly increased
(Safarik et al. 2014). As a consequence, these
structures have become sensitive to the
eects of time-dependent concrete properties such as creep and shrinkage (b 2014).
The problem becomes particularly relevant in
supertall buildings (Gardner & Chiorino 2007).
While the construction of the building
proceeds, vertical supporting members, such
as columns and cores, are subjected to
successive incremental loads and axial strains
due to the construction of the overlying
oors. In concrete elements, these initial
strains increase due to creep and shrinkage,
shortening the overall building and causing
shortening dierences among columns;
between cores and columns; or between
concrete cores and steel or concrete/steel
composite columns. The dierences in the
initial and time-dependent strains among
concrete vertical members are normally due
to dierences in the stress levels and/or in the
creep and shrinkage properties, due to
members volume-to-surface ratio (eective
thickness) and/or longitudinal reinforcement
ratio. Such dierences in strains are intrinsic to
hybrid concrete/steel structures, due to the
dierent initial deformability of the two
materials and the absence of creep and
shrinkage in steel elements. The problem is
further complicated by the continuous
changes of the structural conguration

inherent to construction sequences.
Redistribution of stresses and internal actions
as vertical loads in the supporting members,
and shear stresses and bending moments in
horizontal members, are normally associated
with all these eects in rigid connections
between oor structures and vertical
elements, especially when a sti horizontal
brace or transfer structure is present. In an
asymmetrical building structure or in the
construction sequence, lateral displacements
and vertical deviations can develop as well,
aecting the load distribution in vertical
elements.
If all these phenomena are not adequately
understood and analyzed in the design and
construction phases, several serviceability
concerns may arise (Gardner & Chiorino 2007;
b 2014; Chiorino et al. 2011; Fintel et al. 1986;
Lagos et al. 2012). This aects structural
members as well as non-structural
components, such as the sloping and cracking
of oors, cracking of horizontal structures and
interior partitions, buckling of elevator guides
and piping, misaligned elevator stops relative
to oors, and damage to curtain walls and
column cladding. In the case of incremental
loads in vertical elements, their inuence on
the ultimate strength cannot be neglected.
Special attention must be paid in the case of
hybrid structures (which typically feature
signicant shifts of axial loads from concrete
to steel vertical elements), especially when the
Current commercial software

is functionally limited in solving
problems typical of high-rise
buildings and their complex
construction-stage sequences,
which consist of a large number
of multifaceted steps spread
across an extended time.
Figure 1. User interface of ASAP for post-processing of results.
buckling of slender steel elements must be

considered. In concrete structures between 50
and 100 meters in height, the eects of the
delayed deformations are often disregarded
without serious consequences. In taller
structures, as well as in hybrid structures,
ignoring the eects of creep and shrinkage
can lead to undesirable service conditions,
and in some cases, to concerns for the
structural safety of the building.
Axial shortening of a tall building can be
predicted relatively easily during the
preliminary design stage as the sum of elastic,
creep and shrinkage deformations in the
single vertical elements, taking into account
the construction sequence (Fintel et al. 1986).
This prediction method is usually referred to
as one-column shortening analysis. The most
signicant limit of this approach is the fact
that the restraining eects against dierential
shortening of the beams or slabs connected
to the column or wall are not considered or
are considered in an approximate way. The
method has been widely used for decades,
but recently there has been a move towards
sequential construction stage analyses and
time-history analyses of 3D models of entire
building structures.
Advanced Stage Analysis Program (ASAP)

For assessing building movements,
construction-stage and time-history analysis
using a 3D nite element (3DFE) model that
incorporates the time-dependent eects in

concrete gives more accurate and
comprehensive results than a one-column
shortening analysis. The 3DFE analysis
considers the eects of sequences of gravity
loading and consecutive changes in the
structural system as construction progresses.
It also concurrently evaluates the eects of
the various time-dependent properties of the
concrete elements of the structure on the
building structural response. Movements of
the building are calculated through time in
the construction stage and in service mode,
as well as redistributions of internal actions in
vertical and horizontal members.
Although there are several types of analysis
software that can simulate sequential
construction, they were mostly designed for
the construction-stage analysis of bridges. As
a result, current commercial software is
functionally limited in solving problems
typical of high-rise buildings and their
complex construction-stage sequences,
which consist of a large number of multifaceted steps spread across an extended time.
Such software has limited capacity to analyze
intrinsic aspects of high-rises like axial
shortening, deviation from verticality, and
redistribution of internal actions.
The Advanced Stage Analysis Program (ASAP)
is a 3DFE analysis software specically
developed to analyze time-dependent
behavior of high-rise buildings during the
construction stage and throughout their

service lives (see Figure 1).
The program predicts building movements
in the vertical and horizontal directions at
any stage of construction and at any desired
target time. Redistribution of internal actions
and stressed as a consequence of the
delayed concrete strains and the related
dierential shortenings and deviations from
verticality as well as the progressive changes
in the structural system can also be
evaluated at any time. In particular, the
program calculates the variations over time
of internal actions and stresses in rigidly
connected oor structures and in sti
horizontal structural members such as
transfer beams, outriggers, and belt walls/
trusses, as well as the concurrent load
variations in vertical elements.
Once the loading dates and duration of
column forms and slab supports are dened,
the software automatically generates the
construction stages. Users can also create
specic construction sequences for their
own needs.
It is possible to import FE models from
software such as SAP2000, ETABS and
MIDAS/GEN. Beam and plane FE elements
(such as shell, plate, plane stress, etc.) are
implemented in the software. For the
time-dependent behavior of concrete, creep
and shrinkage prediction models can be
used in the analysis. Interaction between
IT/Computer Science/Software | 41
GL2000 Model
Rigid steel
beam
V/S = 75 mm
GL2000 Model
External column
Concrete
core
theoretical
solution
ASAP
solution
external
steel
columns
theoretical
solution
ASAP
solution
h = 30 m
V/S = 200 mm
Central core
theoretical
solution
ASAP
solution
theoretical
solution
ASAP
solution
6m
Figure 2. ASAP software validation case study of a column loaded at time t0 = 7

days subjected to the application of an additional delayed restraint at mid-height, at
time t1 = 28 or t1 = 90 days. The graph show the development of the vertical reaction
of the delayed restraint for different sets of influencing parameters.
foundation and superstructure can also be

simulated by iteration during the staged
analysis.
The softwares algorithm facilitates programming and control of compensation procedures by classifying vertical components of
movement, allowing the insertion of diverse
compensation (preset) options, identifying
progressive horizontal movements, and
allowing the adoption of the related suitable
corrections. The cumulative eects of all these
geometrical counteractions are considered in
the analysis.
The software structure also allows the
incorporation of test results on timedependent concrete properties. This permits
updating of the implemented creep and
shrinkage prediction models and the
incorporation of structural behavior in terms
of strains and stresses, deformations,
movements, and forces resulting from on-site
survey and monitoring campaigns during the
construction stage and during service life. This
also allows verication of program outputs
and appropriate program updating
procedures. The unique features of this
software make it favorable for constructionstage analysis.
6m
6m
Figure 3. ASAP software validation case study relative to a non-homogeneous hybrid

structure with concrete core and steel columns loaded at time t0 = 90 days (the horizontal
bracing element is considered as a rigid body). The graph show evolution over time of the
axial force in columns and core.
Software Validation
The review process is intended to ensure
that the computational algorithm of ASAP is
able to:
Evaluate the structural eects of delayed
concrete deformations.
Consider the intrinsic sequential character
of high-rise buildings in the construction
phase, and address the eects of
progressive sequential actions, as well as
changes in the structural system as
construction proceeds.
Concerning the initial and time-dependent
properties of concrete, the review considers
the ability of ASAP to correctly incorporate
dierent prediction models. In particular, the
program must be able to evaluate the
specic shrinkage and creep properties of
each individual structural element as
inuenced by inherent properties, time of
casting and age. For this study, the correct
incorporation of the Eurocode 2, B3, and
GL2000 prediction models was checked.
To evaluate delayed deformation eects,
particularly creep, ASAPs outputs are
reviewed for consistency with results derived
from current advanced creep prediction
models. These are based on the theory of
aging linear viscoelasticity, with due account
taken of the aging properties of concrete
and its behavior over time. For complex
sequential structures, histories of application

of external actions, and progressive changes
of structural systems, this involves solving
linear integral equations or the adoption of
equivalent-rate-type approaches. On this
basis, the validity of ASAP has been tested
through a few select case studies.
In each case study, numerical values
obtained from ASAP are compared to those
obtained from the integral-type general
computational approach analyzing timedependent structural eects in concrete
developed at the Politecnico di Torino
(Casalegno et al. 2010; Chiorino et al. 2007 &
2011; Chiorino & Casalegno 2012; Gardner &
Chiorino 2007; Sassone & Casalegno, 2012).
The latter program anticipates heterogeneity
due to the presence of materials with
dierent elastic and viscoelastic
characteristics. Successive changes in the
structural system can be considered as well,
due to changes in the restraint conditions or
to the variation of structural elements. Note,
only beam and truss elements are
implemented in the program, and the
analysis is limited to 2D models.
In particular, the following simple scholastic
case studies representing (1) extreme
one-time-step problems and (2) staged
construction of a multistory structure have
been analyzed in order to check the validity
of the tested software:
3000
Sequential construction of the building

with a rate of 7 days per story
300
600
1800
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
FE models relative to the diferent construction stages
Central core
story
a. An unloaded concrete column, in order to

check the shrinkage prediction models.
b. A concrete column (without considering
shrinkage), subjected to a constant-unit
axial stress, in order to check the creep
prediction models.
c. A concrete column (without considering
shrinkage), subjected to a constant
imposed axial deformation, in order to
check the accuracy of the software
regarding the stress response to imposed
deformations (a relaxation-type problem).
d. A concrete column (without considering
shrinkage), in which a rigid restraint is
introduced at mid-height at time t1 after
the application of an axial force at the top
of the column at time t0. This creepinduced redistribution of internal stresses
and actions is a consequence of a change
in the structural system due to the
introduction of a delayed rigid restraint
after the application of constant external
loads. In Figure 2 the model considered for
this case study is represented, together
with the results of the comparison in terms
of development of the vertical reaction of
the delayed restraint for dierent sets of
inuencing parameters.
e. A frame structure with a concrete core and
steel columns (the horizontal steel bracing
element is considered as a rigid body),
analyzed to check the softwares solution
for a case of a non-homogeneous hybrid
structure, in which the stress migrates over
time from the viscoelastic to the elastic part
of the structure. For this case study, the
evaluation of the eects of shrinkage and of
the interaction between creep and
shrinkage has been checked, also
considering the shrinkage deformations of
the central core. In Figure 3 the structure
considered for this case study is
represented, together with the results of
the comparison, in terms of evolution over
time of column and core axial forces.
f. A simple demonstrative case of a multistory building realized through a sequential
construction procedure. Two options have
been considered: (1) the whole structure is
made of reinforced concrete and (2) the
external columns are made of steel,
horizontal oor structures are in concrete,
and shrinkage deformations are not
External column
4
6
8
10
Axial shortening (mm)
12
14
Figure 4. ASAP software validation case study relative to a multistory building with concrete core and concrete or
steel columns (sequential construction). Layout plan, analysis models relative to the different construction stages.
Axial shortening is shown, corresponding to different floors at 100 years (concrete structure) and to the characteristics
of the structural members adopted in the comparison.
considered. In Figure 4 the structure

considered is represented, together with
the analysis models and the characteristics
of the structural members adopted for the
concrete and composite buildings, while
the diagram represents the long-term
shortening (at 100 years) of the dierent
oors for the concrete building.
The analyses have been carried out for
dierent sets of inuencing parameters
(loading age, volume-to-surface ratio, etc.).
Cases a) and b) only require the computation
of shrinkage and concrete strains and
consequent deformations according to the
implemented shrinkage and creep models.
The software results are correct for all the
case studies considered. Small dierences
between the softwares results and the
numerical solutions of the inherent
hereditary integral equations are obtained
only for the case study f ) relative to the
multistory building (see Figure 4). For this
study, only the GL 2000 prediction model
was considered in all checks; for other
prediction models, checks were limited to
the model implementations by analyzing
only the rst two simple case studies.
Application to a Real Case Study

After the thorough review and validation of
ASAP code as a result of previous steps, the
code has been applied to the case of a real
high-rise building, the Public Mutual Tower,
currently under construction in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia (see Figure 5).
The tower block is 179 meters high (42 stories
with 6 levels of basement). The structure is
made of reinforced concrete megacolumns, in
combination with post-tensioned oor
beams. The tower block comprises two zones:
the low-rise oce oors from level 6 to 22,
and the high-rise oce oors from evel 23 to
level 38. The high-rise oce oors have larger
usable oce space due to the low-rise lift core
terminating at level 22.
In brief, the structural framing consists of the
following:
Post-tensioned beams with span lengths of
14 to 16 meters; the beam depths for main
and secondary beams are 750 millimeters
and 650 millimeters, respectively.
Reinforced concrete beams at shorter span
areas with beam depths of 600 millimeters.
Reinforced concrete beams are also
provided at levels 5, 22, 39, and 40 due to
F G
J K
Figure 5. Public Mutual Tower, Kuala Lumpur.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction
Figure 6. Public Mutual Tower typical plan.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction
the heavier loadings on these oors; here

the beam depths adopted are 1.0 meter
(level 5), 1.1 meters (level 22), and 1.5
meters (levels 39 and 40).
The biggest columns are located along grid
lines 4 and 6 (see Figure 6), with sizes
varying from 2.4 by 2.4 meters to 2.6 by 2.4
meters; these columns reduce in size to 1.7
by 1.7 meters from level 22 to 31 and 1.35
by 1.35 meters from level 31 upwards.
The size of four corner columns varies from
1.8 by 1.8 meters to 1.4 by 1.8 meters and
subsequently reduces to 1.1 by 1.8 meters
and 1.1 by 1.4 meters from level 6 upwards.
Core wall thickness varies from 450
Figure 7. Deformed shape of the Public Mutual Tower at target time of 100 years.
millimeters to 250 millimeters, depending

on structural requirements.
An FE model of the building was built in ASAP.
All 86 construction stages were modeled.
Construction-stage and time-history analyses
were carried out for a nal target time of 100
years. In order to evaluate the inuence of
time-dependent deformations of concrete on
the long-term behavior of the building,
compensation of displacements was excluded
from analysis.
The deformed shape obtained at the nal
target time of 100 years (see Figure 7) shows,
besides the shortening of columns and walls,
L34
L24
F G
a signicant deviation from verticality. The

total shortening results up to the
completion of the oor (UPTO) + subsequent
to the completion (SUBTO) are visible at
dierent levels after 100 years. Figure 8 shows
that the maximum values at the top of the
building are around 350 millimeters. The larger
part of the shortening occurs after the
completion of the oors (blue part of the
diagram). This is also true for the higher oors,
without adding signicant loads after the
completion, meaning that the long-term
shortening is due in large part to creep- and
shrinkage-delayed deformations. The
horizontal displacements at the top of the
building are a maximum of about 250
34
L34
24
L24
L14
J K
Story
Story
L14
4
L4
UPTO
SUBTO
UNIT
0
milimeter
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 350
Shortening
Figure 8. Shortening at the different levels of Public Mutual Tower at column J6 over
100 years.
L4
L4
ELASTIC
CREEP
SHRINKAGE
UNIT
milimeter
-250 -240 -230 -220 -210 -200 -190 -180 -170 -160 -150 -140 -130 -120 -110 -100 -90 -80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10
10
Shortening
Figure 9. Horizontal displacements at the different levels of Public Mutual Tower at

column J6 over 100 years. Total (UPTO + SUBTO) displacements.
Conclusions and Future Developments

The time-dependent deformations of
concrete play a signicant role in the
performance of high-rise buildings and need
to be properly considered in the design stage
in order to avoid serviceability and structural
concerns. The presented software allows
structural engineers to evaluate these eects
by combining 3DFE and time-dependent
analysis of structures. The validation process
presented here evidenced the reliability of the
software for the case studies and the
prediction model considered. The analysis of
the case study building evidenced a very
signicant inuence of time-dependent
concrete deformations on the long-term
behavior of the building, highlighting the
need to take into account these phenomena
and to adopt proper countermeasures, such
as compensation for displacements (via
presets). The software allows consideration of
the eects of adopting dierent
compensation measures.
In this preliminary review, only the GL2000
prediction model was considered. The next
F G
L34
J K
L24
4
Story
millimeters (see Figure 9). The diagram shows

that these displacements are mainly due to
elastic (red) and creep (blue) deformations,
while the shrinkage (green) contribution
results are much lower. Finally, the dierential
shortening between adjacent vertical
members is about 50 to 60 millimeters at the
top of the building (see Figure 10). The
shortening dierences are mainly due to
displacements that occur after the completion
of the oors (blue part of the diagram).
Although these displacement values are very
signicant, it must be noted that the
shortening that occurs up to the completion
of the oors is usually not very important, at
least for cast-in-place concrete structures,
since the slabs are leveled at the time of
casting. Nevertheless, the shortening that
occurs after the completion of the oors also
appears to be signicant. The absolute
maximum values are approximately 200
millimeters and the relative values between
adjacent vertical members are between 20
and 30 millimeters (see Figures 8 and 10).
L14
6
L4
8
UPTO
SUBTO
UNIT
-70
60
milimeter
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Shortening
Figure 10. Differential shortening between column H4 and wall J4 of Public Mutual Tower at 100 years.
steps will concern the check of the correct

implementation in the software of all other
referenced prediction models. Finally, an
eort will be made to set up long-term
monitoring programs in high-rise buildings,
thus generating a positive feedback loop for
the calibration of predictive models.
paper are to the authors.
CHIORINO, M. A., CASALEGNO, C.; FEA, C. & SASSONE, M.

2011. Numerical Analysis of Creep and Shrinkage in
High-rise Concrete or Steel-concrete Buildings. In
Proceedings of the fib Symposium: Concrete engineering
for excellence and efficiency, Prague, edited by Vlastimil
rma. Prague: Czech Concrete Society (BS Servis).
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION (CEN).
2004. Eurocode 2 - Design of Concrete Structures - Part 1-1:
General Rules and Rules for Buildings, EN 1992-1-1.
Brussels: CEN.
FDRATION INTERNATIONALE DU BTON (b). 2014. Tall
Buildings: Structural Design of Concrete Buildings up to
300 m Tall. b Bulletin 73. Lausanne: b and MPA The
Concrete Centre.
References
American Concrete Institute (ACI). 2008. Guide for
Modeling and Calculation of Shrinkage and Creep in
Hardened Concrete, ACI 209.2R-08. Farmington Hills: ACI.
FINTEL, M.; GHOSH, S. K. & IYENGAR, H. 1986. Column

Shortening in Tall Structures - Prediction and
Compensation. Skokie: Portland Cement Association.
American Concrete Institute (ACI). 2011. Analysis of Creep

and Shrinkage Effects on Concrete Structures. Final Draft,
ACI 209.3R-XX. Farmington Hills: ACI.
GARDNER, J. & CHIORINO, M. A. (eds.) 2007. Structural

Implications of Shrinkage and Creep of Concrete, ACI
SP-246. Farmington Hills: ACI.
CASALEGNO, C.; SASSONE, M. & CHIORINO, M. A. 2010,

Time Dependent Eects in Cable-stayed Bridges Built by
Segmental Construction.In Proceedings of Third
International fib Congress incorporating the PCI Annual
Convention and Bridge Conference 2010. Chicago: Precast
Prestressed Concrete Institute.
LAGOS, R. C.; KUPFER, M. C.; SANHUEZA, T. S. & CORDERO,

F. V. 2012. Costanera Center - Shortenings Due to Elastic
Deformation, Creep, and Shrinkage of Concrete in a
300-m Tall Building. The Indian Concrete Journal, 86(12):
5360.
CHIORINO, M. A.; SASSONE, M.; BIGARAN, D. &

CASALEGNO, C. 2007. Eects of Creep and Shrinkage on
Serviceability Limit State. In Proceedings of fib
Symposium: Concrete Structures - Stimulators of
Development, Dubrovnik, 62332. Lausanne: b.
CHIORINO, M. A. & CASALEGNO, C. 2012. Evaluation of the
Structural Response to the Time-dependent Behaviour of
Concrete: Part 1 - An Internationally Harmonized Format.
The Indian Concrete Journal 86(12): 25-36.
SAFARIK, D.; WOOD, A.; CARVER, M. & GEROMETTA, M.

2014. CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013 Small
Increase in Completions Marks Return to Upward Trend.
CTBUH Journal 2014 Issue I: 4047.
SASSONE, M. & CASALEGNO, C. 2012. Evaluation of the
Structural Response to the Time-dependent Behaviour of
Concrete: Part 2 - A General Computational Approach.
The Indian Concrete Journal 86(12): 39-51. Errata, Vol.
87(8): 33.
Tall Buildings in Numbers

CTBUH denes a twisting building as one that progressively rotates its oor plates or its faade
as it gains height. Usually, but not always, each plate is shaped similarly in plan and is turned on
a shared axis a consistent number of degrees from the oor below. A stunning variety of textures,
view angles, and ripple eects results from these manipulations, making these twisters some of
the worlds most iconic buildings and in many cases, aerodynamic and energy-ecient. In this
study, we rank the worlds 28 tallest twisting towers (either completed or currently under
construction) and display selected variations on the theme.
Comparison of height vs. total rotation for 90 m+ buildings

currently complete or under-construction
360
4
13
Global Twisting Icons

To accommodate typhoonforce winds, the twist of the
Shanghai Tower reduces
wind-load by 24%, saving $58
million in structural material
16
15
12
24
21
23 10
26
27 25 14
20
22
18
28
19
270
20
17
11
40
600 m
If construction completes,
the Diamond Tower would
become the second-tallest
building in Saudi Arabia
9
7
Note: All numbers in dots correspond to the table on the right
The rotation that

creates F&F Towers
helix-like form allows
each oor to have four
exterior balconies
The white ribbon that

outlines Evolution
Tower wraps over
the roof to create
an innity symbol, a
direct reference to
human evolution
300 m
180
The form of Cayan Tower

generates self-shading,
optimizing occupant
views and reducing the
demand for cooling
450 m
90
60
Al Tijaria Tower
is Kuwaits tallest
building, and features
vertically stacked,
six-story-high atrium
gardens throughout
its height.
Once completed,
United Tower will
become the tallest
mixed-use project
in Bahrain
Turning Torso is
widely considered
the rst twisting
skyscraper,
inspiring countless
other designs
150 m
Shanghai Tower
632 m / 2,073 ft
Shanghai, 2015
Diamond Tower
432 m / 1,417 ft
Jeddah, 2019*
The Chicago Spire, designed to

mimic a nautilus shell, started
construction in 2007 and
was set to become the USAs
tallest building and the worlds
tallest residential building.
Construction stopped in 2008,
due to the recession.
46 | Tall Building in Numbers
Cayan Tower
306 m / 1,005 ft
Dubai, 2013
Evolution Tower
246 m / 807 ft
Moscow, 2015
F&F Tower
233 m / 763 ft
Panama City, 2011
360
In addition to being planned as the worlds
next-tallest twisting tower, Diamond
Tower would also be the only building to
twist a full 360 degrees along its height.
Al Tijaria Tower
218 m / 716 ft
Kuwait City, 2009
United Tower
200 m / 656 ft
Manama, 2016*
Turning Torso
190 m / 623 ft
Malm, 2005
Dubais proposed Dynamic Tower

consists of individually motorized,
rotating floor plates, built around
a central core. Wind turbines, to be
situated between floors, would generate
enough energy to power the building.
The project is currently on hold, and
many are skeptical it will be completed.
The Worlds Tallest Twisting Towers

Included below are all buildings, over 90 meters, currently under construction or complete, that twist through a gradual rotation of oor plates, ranked in
order from the tallest. The table identies the absolute degrees of rotation from the ground oor to the top oor plate, typically determined through an
examination of technical drawings and comparison of oor plans. It also shows the average oor rotation, determined by dividing total rotation by the total
oor count (record holders in each category indicated in bold).
Shaded rows indicate buildings under construction as of July 2016.
No.
Building
City
Country
Completion Year
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Shanghai Tower
Lakhta Center
Diamond Tower
Ocean Heights
Cayan Tower
Supernova Spira
Evolution Tower
F&F Tower
Al Majdoul Tower
Al Tijaria Tower
United Tower
Al Bidda Tower
SOCAR Tower
Turning Torso
Trump International Hotel & Tower Vancouver
Generali Tower
Absolute World Building D
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers
Absolute World Building E
Baltimore Tower
Avaz Twist Tower
The Point
Sichuan Radio & TV Centre
PwC Tower
Xiamen Suiwa Tower
Grove at Grand Bay North Tower
Grove at Grand Bay South Tower
Tao Zhu Yin Yuan
Shanghai
St. Petersburg
Jeddah
Dubai
Dubai
Noida
Moscow
Panama City
Riyadh
Kuwait City
Manama
Doha
Baku
Malmo
Vancouver
Milan
Mississauga
Nagoya
Mississauga
London
Sarajevo
Guayaquil
Chengdu
Midrand
Xiamen
Miami
Miami
Taipei
China
Russia
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
India
Russia
Panama
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Bahrain
Qatar
Azerbaijan
Sweden
Canada
Italy
Canada
Japan
Canada
United Kingdom
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Ecuador
China
South Africa
China
United States of America
United States of America
Taiwan
2015
2018 (expected)
2019 (expected)
2010
2013
2017 (expected)
2015
2011
2016 (expected)
2009
2016 (expected)
2009
2015
2005
2016 (expected)
2017 (expected)
2012
2008
2012
2017 (expected)
2008
2014
2010
2018 (expected)
2016 (expected)
2016 (expected)
2016 (expected)
2016 (expected)
Fondly dubbed the

Marilyn Monroe towers
by local residents,
Absolute World parallels
the twisting uidity of
natural lines found in life
Absolute World Towers

176 m / 576 ft (Building D);
158 m / 518 ft (Building E)
Mississauga, 2012
A school of fashion,
computer science and
medicine each occupy
one of the three twisting
ribbons that wrap the
central core of the Mode
Gakuen Spiral Towers
Mode Gakuen
Spiral Towers
170 m / 558 ft
Nagoya, 2008
Currently, the
Avaz Twist Tower
is the tallest
building in Bosnia
& Herzegovina
Avaz Twist Tower

142 m / 466 ft
Sarajevo, 2008
The shape of The

Point is intended to
mimic the whirlwinds
that occur next to
the tower, where the
Guayas, Babahayo
and Daule rivers meet
The Point
137 m / 448 ft
Guayaquil, 2014
Architectural
Height (m)
632
462
432
310
306
300
246
233
232
218
200
197
196
190
188
185
176
170
158
149
142
137
136
106
100
94
94
93
Upon completion,
PwC Tower will be
the rst high-rise to
be built in Midrand,
a developing
precinct north of
Johannesburg
PwC Tower
106 m / 348 ft
Midrand, 2018*
Floor Count
128
86
93
83
73
80
55
53
54
41
47
44
40
57
63
44
56
38
50
44
39
36
31
26
22
21
21
21
Average Floor
Rotation
0.938
1.047
3.871
0.482
1.233
1.825
2.836
5.943
2.500
1.951
3.830
1.364
0.500
1.580
0.714
1.127
3.732
3.000
4.000
2.182
1.539
5.833
2.903
1.154
4.091
1.843
1.843
4.286
Upon completion,
Grove at Grand Bay
will be the rst truly
twisting high-rises in
the USA
Grove at Grand Bay

94 m / 308 ft (North Tower);
94 m / 308 ft (South Tower);
Miami, 2016*
Total Rotation
120
90.0
360
40.0
90.0
146
156
315
135
80.0
180
60.0
20.0
90.0
45.0
49.6
209
114
200
96.0
60.0
210
90.0
30.0
90.0
38.7
38.7
90.0
Inspired by a DNA double

helix, the mega-column
structure lining the
exterior of Tao Zhu Yin
Yuan allows for columnfree interior spaces
Tao Zhu Yin Yuan

93 m / 306 ft
Taipei, 2016*
* Expected completion date
Guangzhous Canton
Tower, appears to gradually
rotate through the use of
an hourglass-shaped steel
hyperboloid structure as the
primary reinforcement and
a spiraling steel lattice as the
secondary structure.
5.9
F&F Tower, Panama City, holds the record
for the tightest twist, that is, the highest
average rotation per floor, at 5.943
degrees across each of its 53 floors.
The Aufzugstestturm elevator

test tower and observatory,
in Rottweil, Germany, will be
clad in 17,000 square meters
of self-cleaning, durable and
translucent fiberglass, giving
the structure its twisting shape.
Tall Building in Numbers | 47
Talking Tall: Dasui Wang
Engineering Chinas Skylines
Dasui Wang
Interviewee
Dasui Wang, Chief Engineer
East China Architectural Design Institute (ECADI)
151 Hankou Road
Shanghai 200002
China
t: +86 21 6321 7420
f: +86 21 6321 4301
e: email 1
www.ecadi.com
Dasui Wang
Dasui Wang is one of Chinas foremost thought
leaders on the design and implementation of
supertall buildings, with experience in both
structural engineering and architecture. Wang
graduated from Tongji University in 1964. As
a Design Master of China and a consultant for
ECADI, he is renowned in the field of engineering
design. Currently, he holds the position of Deputy
Director of the High-Rise Building Committee of
the Architectural Society of China. He is a member
of the Ministry of Construction High-Rise Building
Review Committee and an adjunct professor at
Tongji University. He has participated in writing and
reviewing a number of national design specifications
and codes.
Dasui Wang, China Design Master and chief structural engineer for East China
Architectural Design Institute (ECADI), is the recipient of the inaugural CITAB CTBUH China Tall Building Outstanding Achievement Award. Wang has
committed his lifes work to designing the structural engineering solutions behind
some of Chinas and the worlds outstanding tall buildings. His long list of projects
includes the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, CCTV New Headquarters, Tianjin International
Financial Center, Shanghai World Financial Center, and Shanghai Tower. Wang sat
with CTBUH Journal Editor Daniel Safarik to talk about his 52-year career and the
tremendous amount of change he has seen during this time.
What do you consider to be your greatest
accomplishment?
I dont know that I can say I have a single
great accomplishment, but I think of myself
as walking along with the development of
China. Specically, the last 30 years have
been a golden period of time in Chinas
development. I have been working at ECADI
for 37 years, since 1979. In this period, my
colleagues and I really did something for our
country. We were lucky to have participated
in building most of the important tall
buildings in China. That is a source of great
pride for me.
One of your groundbreaking works was the
Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai (see
Figure 1). Can you talk a little about how
that project came to be?
The project is a truly original one for China.
ECADI did all of the work independent of the
transmission technology. We got the project
in 1989, when I was the lead structural
engineer. During that period, there were few
communications with overseas professional
architects. And we had never seen foreign TV
towers to use as a reference. There were
several TV towers under construction at

Tianjin, Liaoning, Wuhan, and Beijing, but they
were all smaller than the Oriental Pearl Tower.
So this was an unprecedented structure,
meant to be not only a TV tower but a
symbol and an observation tower. What
accounted for the tripod-like, ball-and-stick
design for which it is famous?
Originally it was created for broadcasting
purposes. There was no cable TV back then;
only high-frequency transmissions, which
required height to cover all of the citys
territory. The location chosen was the
geographic center of Shanghai.
The architects proposed the initial formal
concept of Oriental Pearl, which was based
Since the economic opening, China has

benefited from foreign architecture techniques,
and has closed the gap with the world. Now
that we have the confidence to execute
complex projects, we need to focus on
originality in design and innovation.
48 | Talking Tall: Dasui Wang
Figure 1. Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai.

Tansri Muliani
on Shanghais central position on Chinas

coastline and its role as the brightest city of
eastern China. You can see the tower has six
balls, which the Chinese call mingzhu (pearls).
There is an ancient Chinese poem that refers
to big and small pearls falling into a jade
plate. We structural engineers made great
eorts to realize this concept. In conclusion,
the achievement of the Oriental Pearl Tower is
owed to several architects and structural
engineers, rather than the work of one person.
There were many proposals, and ECADI
presented several of them. The former
President Jiang Zemin, who was mayor of
Shanghai in 1989, chose this proposal after
consulting with the relevant experts opinions.
There is a painting in the China Art Museum,
which features what appears to be Deng
Xiaoping looking admiringly out a window
at Oriental Pearl Tower. What is the story
behind that?
Jiang showed Deng Xiaoping a model of the
Oriental Pearl, which was highly praised by
Deng.
It is impressive that this was at a time when
Chinese architecture was not as open to
international expertise as it is now. How was
a feasible concept realized?
Most of the tall TV towers around the world
consist of one single tube with cable-stayed
supports. The Chinese dont like the cablestayed style. They like self-supporting towers.
Since the design called for a big ball to be put
up to 300 meters height to accommodate
tourism needs, a single tube would not be
strong enough to support it. To support the
three vertical tubes and the ball, the inclined,
triangulated tubes composed a stable
structure. The structural concept is very clear.
It must be satisfying to see the tower
remains popular to this day.
At the same time, considering that there are a
large number of visitors about ve million a
year we need six elevators in those three
tubes. Recently, the owner has requested
more elevators to increase capacity, which is
not easy. We are working on developing a
feasible plan for them.
What do you think are the greatest

challenges that you have overcome?
I think this is best answered in the context of
the development progress of China in tall
buildings over three decades. In the 1920s
and 1930s, Shanghai had some tall buildings
constructed, like the Park Hotel, and it looked
like a small Manhattan. But because of World
War II and the Chinese Civil War, it all stopped,
and most of the work in engineering was in
industry. After the 1970s, as the population
increased, we had to consider high-rise
residential development. At that time, China
was a closed-o country without foreign
communication. Chinese engineers had to do
their own research and development. Before
1986, nearly all of the engineering work was
done domestically.
The important projects I was involved in at
that time were the Huating Hotel, 19821985,
and the Huadong Diandi (East China Electrical
Power Distribution) building in 1989 both in
Shanghai. From about 1986, foreign architects
and engineers began to be involved in
Chinese projects, rstly in Shanghai, including
the Jinjiang Hotel on Huaihai Road. Since
1990, when Pudong opened to development,
more high-level foreign architecture
companies have been involved.
Figure 2. Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai.

Mori Building
There is still, it seems, a lot of responsibility

that rests with the Chinese design institutes,
more so than in the West, where the design
architects often insist on being involved all
the way through the projects. Do you think
the projects have achieved a higher level of
quality through this more rigid separation of
duties?
Before 1990, we did not have many tall
buildings in Pudongs Lujiazui District. Then,
Lujiazui became a showcase of Chinas
opening up, with a great number of excellent
tall buildings. These buildings, which
combined foreign technology and Chinese
engineers skills, are our pride.
What was different about working with

those firms?
The government set relevant policies at that
time, which welcomed foreign architects to
be involved. But another policy was that
foreign designers could only be involved up
to the concept period. Before the construction
drawing stage, the foreign architects and
engineers were more involved. And Chinese
architects and engineers got more involved in
the later stages. We had these policies in
eect for a long time, which I think was the
right decision.
Two projects, in particular, impressed me

deeply. One is the Jin Mao Tower. You can see
that there are some Chinese elements in the
design. From the structural standpoint, I nd
that an ecient outrigger system was used.
The two groups of architects paid attention to

dierent stages but kept in constant contact,
which was good for Chinese architectural
development. We were exposed to new
technology and new expression methods,
both architectural and structural.
Since the opening up, China has beneted

from foreign architecture techniques.
Nowadays, we dont have a big gap with
high-level architecture around the world. We
can design all kinds of buildings. Now that we
have the condence to do that, we need to
focus on originality in design and innovation.
The other is Shanghai World Financial Center

(see Figure 2). The structural engineer was
Leslie Robertson, who is really a genius. He
was an electrician on an aircraft carrier in
World War II. After the war, he came to
university and nally became an excellent
engineer.
Talking Tall: Dasui Wang | 49
helpful that the government ask experts to

peer-review the project.
What interested you in structural

engineering?
In my teenage period, unlike the students of
today, I was happy in my pursuits without
thinking of the pressure of college entrance
examinations. I studied what interested me. I
enjoyed doing sports and making models. I
also studied engineering because of the
demand for it China. They did not separate tall
buildings out of building construction as a
subject at that time. There was no distinction.
How did your career develop after
university?
I worked on industrial buildings before I
committed to structural design. The Socialist
industrialization of China meant that most
building tasks were factories. I gained
experience in prefabricated structures at that
time. I have been involved in tall buildings
since 1980 or 1981.
The sheer volume of tall buildings in China
is overwhelming. There is much creativity
and much monotony. How do you balance
the need for creativity and productivity/
accommodation?
We have cooperated with foreign architects
for many important tall buildings in China. In
the process of cooperation, we not only
transfer the concepts and master plan to
construction drawings, but we also optimize
and deepen the design in consideration of the
situation in China.
Now the process seems more interwoven,
which has to be good.
As a good example of this, Tianjin World
Financial Center (see Figure 3), in which ECADI
collaborated with SOM, is the worlds tallest
building to be constructed of steel-plate shear
walls. With such thin plates, we had to
consider the tendency of steel to buckle as
well as the need to deal with multi-directional
forces. But it was a very exible and ecient
method, so the overall tness of the design
was increased. We worked on this with
Tsinghua University and did some tests on the
issues between shear wall stability and gravity
load. That was in 2008. When the tower was
ultimately built, SOM and ECADI presented
our design on the annual conference of the
American Society of Structural and Civil
50 | Talking Tall: Dasui Wang
Figure 3. Tianjin World Financial Center, Tianjin.

SOM/Tim Griffith
Engineers (ASCE). This project received the

structural category Award of Excellence.
What would you want to pass on to the
next generation of structural engineers?
I dont think much of the elaborate division
of the subjects in higher education.
Architectural structure or road and bridge
engineering could be integrated into one
area of civil engineering because of the same
basic knowledge of mathematics,
mechanics, geotechnics, and seismic forces.
You would encourage the disciplines to
interact more, and not to over-specialize?
Schooling should emphasize big concepts.
You can choose dierent aspects to pursue
when entering your career. And anyway,
people of high capability could do both at
the same time. My role model Professor Lin
Tung Yen who was a well-known bridge
and high-rise building structural engineer, is
an excellent example.
What is the biggest change you have seen
over your career, how has that affected the
shape of the skyline, and how do you feel
about it?
My working platform is ECADI, which means
I am not alone when facing those challenges.
For something like the CCTV New
Headquarters, I couldnt evaluate it from an
architectural aspect. But, it really brought
great challenges in structural design. Two of
my major assistants helped me with this, and
they gained important experience from it.
For particularly important projects, it is very
For this project, OMA, the architect, and Arup,

the lead engineer, made a lot of contributions.
However, there were still many practical
problems for us to solve. For example, the
huge eccentricity in the structure, the huge
cantilever, and how to keep the oor at
when the cantilever was completed, how to
manage the high-steel-ratio columns. It was
an unforgettable accomplishment that we
nally managed to complete the building
within reasonable cost while ensuring safety.
We felt very pleased.
While we are on the subject of extraordinary
buildings like this, what do you think is
weird architecture? How do you think
discouraging it will affect the industry?
Since 1957, China has set up a development
policy that emphasized appropriateness for
use, low cost, and beauty when applicable. I
agreed with this policy, since it helped show a
way out of Chinas economic backwardness.
Of course, things have changed now.
When Rem Koolhaas spoke at the 2013
CTBUH Awards, accepting for CCTV as Best
Tall Building Worldwide, he said, This is a
building that could only have been thought
of in Europe and only built in China.
As Chinas development has arrived at a
certain stage, there is an awareness of the
need to pursue aesthetics. However, some
people would consider strangeness as
beauty, even when the aesthetic level is not
that high. This situation may depend on the
preference of local leaders or developers
sometimes. There was a period of time in
which many strange or even ugly buildings
were built. But, I think that time has passed,
and China has come to a more rational stage.
The aesthetic level of our nation has improved
now that developers and the government
think it is not appropriate to spend too much
to build those strange buildings. Now, China
has come out with a modied development
policy appropriate for use, low cost, green,
and beautiful. I would say that architectural
development in China took a short detour
before. But now, it is on the right path.
Ask a CTBUH Expert: James Fortune
How Fast Should Tall Building Elevators Go?
James W. Fortune, FS2
In the last three years, we have seen a host of announcements about radically new elevator
technologies with higher possible speeds and travel distances. CTBUH will host a networking
reception at the top of the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center for its upcoming International
Conference in October to be reached by elevators traveling 20 meters per second. As we devise
faster and more efficient ways to ascend tall buildings, considerations about safety, comfort, and
energy consumption must be made. We asked James Fortune, Partner, FS2, the question, How fast
can (or should) elevators in tall buildings go?
About the Author

James W. Fortune is a Partner at FS2, a consulting rm specializing in elevator designs for supertall towers. Fortune has designed the elevator systems in
Taipei 101 (508 m), Burj Khalifa (828 m), and the new Jeddah Tower (1,000+ m).
Why seek the maximum speed?
There is clearly an economic motivation for
the tower operator: The worlds current fastest
passenger elevators are typically installed in
supertall towers to take riders to the top
observatory oor(s), charging anywhere from
US$25 to $125 for a ticket.
Its also great publicity for the manufacturers,
which have an incentive to claim the worlds
fastest speed records. The worlds fastest
single-deck observatory lifts, at contract
speeds of 18 m/s up and 10 m/s down, are
presently installed in Shanghai Tower. One of
the cars was accelerated to 20.5 m/s in order
to recapture the worlds fastest speed record.
Physiological problems
The human body has various internal sensors
that are sensitive to external motion forces,
noise, and vibrations. These sensors provide
constant feedback to the brain and are quite
responsive to any out of the ordinary elevator
vibrations or noises.
The elevator industry has developed the
following physiological limits, which standing
elevator riders can typically tolerate without
feeling discomfort:
Vertical acceleration/deceleration:
1.01.5 m/s2
Jerk rates: 2.5 m/s3
Horizontal sway: 1520 mg
Ear-pressure change: 2000 Pa
Most of the major elevator companies have
recently developed their own super-quiet
ride quality protocols for use in particularly tall

structures. These include maximum interior
sound levels of 45dBa and horizontal
vibrations in the 810 mg range.
All of these high-speed elevator physiological
design parameters, except ear pressure
changes, can be mitigated with proper
equipment designs. However, ear comfort and
pressure changes do not usually aect healthy
elevator riders unless the descent speeds
exceed 10 m/s and vertical travel exceeds 500
meters. For this reason, virtually all of the latest
supertall high-speed lifts, with up travel
speeds of 10 to 20.5 m/s, have a maximum
down speed of 10 m/s.
Think of the middle ear as a balloon that
expands as exterior pressure decreases during
ascent and contracts as exterior pressure
increases during descent. As pressure in the
elevator cab decreases during ascent, the
expanding air in the middle ear pushes the
normal Eustachian tube open (at about 4,000
Pa), letting the increased pressure escape
down into the nasal passages until the
pressure in the inner ear and the external
environment is equalized. However, during
rapid descent, the passenger must
consciously open the Eustachian tube by
swallowing, yawning, tensing muscles in the
throat or by closing the mouth and pinching
the nose closed and attempting to blow
through the nose (Valsalva Maneuver) to
equalize the pressure. If the ascent or,
particularly, the descent is too rapid, and the
inner ear pressure is not relieved, a painful
condition called Ear Block can develop.
Technical and practical limitations

Because of the extreme costs of increasing lift
up speeds, with few benets other than
bragging rights, it is doubtful that
conventional traction elevators will currently
go much beyond 2627 m/s.
Elevators traveling at more than 15 m/s
require the use of oversized machine-room
spaces, excess lift space beyond the travel
zone, and pit depths in excess of 20 meters.
They also are not very practical for todays
modern buildings, with heights ranging from
800 to 1,000 meters high, the present practical
elevator hoist rope limitations of about
600650 meters of travel, and the human
tolerance of vertical accelerations and
decelerations of 1.01.5m/s2.
High-speed elevators also contribute only
marginal benets to total travel time. For
instance, the worlds longest-traveling
observatory elevators, to be installed in the
one-kilometer-high Jeddah Tower, will have
loads of 1,600 kg at 12.5 m/s up and 10 m/s
down, with a travel distance of 630 meters.
Each lift has a calculated express ascent time
of 93 seconds between the B1 level and the
157th-oor observatory. This travel time
includes 52 seconds of door openings/
closings and passenger transfers at both
landings, 14 seconds of acceleration and
deceleration, and 26 seconds of full-speed
travel. If the speed were increased from 12.5
mps to 20 m/s, transit time would only
decrease by about 12 seconds, a high
economic price to pay for such small in-kind
time savings.
2016 China Tall Building Awards
Inaugural China Tall Building Awards

Highlight Critical Achievements
Reporting by Daniel Safarik
The inaugural CITAB-CTBUH China Tall

Building Awards were held at Shanghai Tower
on May 13, the culmination of over a years
worth of planning. More than 400 were in
attendance for the symposium, ceremony,
and dinner, which took place in the fth-oor
Garden Ballroom of the recently completed
Shanghai Tower.
At the dinner, the China Tall Building Awards
Jury announced the winner of the inaugural
China Best Tall Building Overall Award: Bund
SOHO, Shanghai. The nal decision was the
result of a juried selection process considering
more than 90 entries from around the country.
In February, the jury named four Excellence
Award recipients: The Asia Pacic Tower &
Jinling Hotel, Nanjing; Bund SOHO, Shanghai;
Hongkou SOHO, Shanghai; and Wangjing
SOHO, Beijing.
Senior representatives of each of the
Excellence Awardees gave presentations at
the Awards Symposium at Shanghai Tower,
with the jury convening immediately
afterwards to determine an overall winner.
Jury Chair Chunhua Song, former vice minister
of the Chinese Ministry of Housing and
Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), then
had the honor of awarding the title of overall
China Best Tall Building to Bund SOHO.
Song characterized the process of selecting
the inaugural Best Tall Building winner: The
decision was unanimous, but carefully
52 | 2016 China Tall Building Awards
considered. The consensus was that Bund

SOHO adapted well to a challenging site,
demonstrated a respect for local history, and
was well-detailed, using warm-colored
materials that coincided with the community.
The Awards Jury commented, Bund SOHO
resolves a dicult site, historic surroundings,
the requirements of the modern oce
building, and the responsibility of a highprole waterfront location in Shanghai with a
reserved distinction. It is like a ships prow,
pushing the frontier forward of the
established central Bund into new, uncharted
territories, with visible condence. There are
discernible shades of Raymond Hoods work
at Rockefeller Center, New York and nods to
the Art Deco predecessors on the Bund, as
well as to the existing grain of the
neighborhood. Nevertheless, a project of
unique qualities has been rendered here.
Stephan Rewolle, Associate Partner, von
Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects,
accepting the award for Bund SOHO, said, I
want to congratulate the organizers for this
very professional and very great event.
Secondly, I want to thank our clients SOHO
China for making this possible. You have
been a really great client and its been
inspiring work. I want to thank ECADI for
being a good partner. And of course I want
to thank my team in Beijing. I think you did a
really good job.
The audience also heard from three other

China Best Tall Building Excellence Award and
two Honorable Distinction recipients. Remo
Riva, design director of P&T Group, described
how both the original design and the new
addition to the Asia Pacic Tower and Jinling
Hotel were inspired by auspicious shapes in
Chinese culture, such as the octagon; by
contemporary feng shui requirements; and by
local landmarks in Nanjing, such as the
memorial to the founder of the Chinese
Republic, Sun Yat-Sen.
Representing Hongkou SOHO, Wansheng
Wang, vice president, Tongji Architectural
Design Institute (TJAD), described how the
distinctive project was essentially a case of
faade design, because the initial plan shape
had already been set before SOHO acquired
the project.
The proportion of the design was not perfect,
so how could we make it more elegant?
Wang said. We had to make something like a
Phoenix from an ordinary bird.
A particularly distinctive work of proportion
and shape could be found at Wangjing SOHO,
represented by Eugene Leung, Lead Designer,
Zaha Hadid Architects, and Yu Zhang, Vice
President of Design, CCDI Group. The unusual
pill-and-sh-shaped structures, which many
consider a futuristic look, were so technically
demanding that they required an approach
that recalled an earlier time when
2016 China Tall Building Awards Winners
2016 China Best Tall Building

Overall
Bund SOHO, Shanghai
China Tall Building Excellence

Award
Asia Pacic Tower & Jinling
Hotel, Nanjing

Award
Hongkou SOHO, Shanghai

Award
Wangjing SOHO, Shanghai
China Urban Habitat Award

Jing An Kerry Center, Shanghai
China Tall Building

Construction Award
Forum 66, Shenyang
China Tall Building

Innovation Award
Mega-Suspended Curtain
Wall, Shanghai
China Tall Building Legacy

Award
White Swan Hotel, 1983,
Guangzhou
China Tall BuildingLegacy

Award
HSBC Main Building, 1985,
Hong Kong

Award
International Foreign Trade
Center, 1985, Shenzhen

Award
Huadong Electrical Power Dist.
Building, 1989, Shanghai

Award
Bank of China, 1990,
Hong Kong

Award
Shanghai Center, 1990,
Shanghai

Award
Shun Hing Square, 1996,
Shenzhen

Award
Jin Mao Tower, 1999, Shanghai

Award
Two IFC, 2003, Hong Kong

Award
Taipei 101, 2004, Taipei
China Tall Building Outstanding

Achievement Award
Dasui Wang, ECADI
architectural design and engineering were

the same discipline, Zhang said.
There is no real division of the brain, Zhang
added. A binary analysis of an issue causes
us to forget the fundamental reason we
want to do something in the rst place.
Every day there were a lot of drawings and
practical issues, and environmental concern
about the project. We were always
considering constructability and choice of
technologies.
The audience also learned about the
detailing behind the wildly dierent, if
equally fascinating, faades of the Jiangxi
Nanchang Greenland Center twin towers in
Nanchang and the Peoples Daily New
Headquarters, Beijing. Yue Zhu, associate
director at SOM, described how the
sophisticated use of cold-bent glass on the
Nanchang duo required not only extensive
computer modeling of bending tolerances

for glass and the steel support structure, but
even the properties of the glue that would
keep the double layers of glass intact under
stress. Professor Qi Zhou of Southeast
University School of Architecture detailed
the decision process for the distinctively
curved Peoples Daily building, which
involved studying material properties for
more than a year. In the end, the curved
shape was anything but arbitrary, providing
good wind resistance, maintaining an above
average oor area ratio for a Beijing oce
building, and embedding novelty and
surprise into the building, which could be
experienced from within and without.
In addition to the China Best Tall Building
award, the China Tall Building Awards
recognized and showcased projects in
several other categories. Michael Greene,
principal, KPF, accepted the China Urban
Habitat Award for Jing An Kerry Centre,

Shanghai.
Greene noted that the project, which
manages the transition from the traditional
neighborhood scale to the superblock scale
through skilful manipulations of the
pedestrian paths and building massing; was
inspired by the work of artist Sol LeWitt.
Working at this scale forces the architect into
the role of planner, and the developer into the
role of a sort of urban caretaker, Greene said.
Haiyan Qu, Deputy Chief Engineer of the
North Region, accepted the Construction
Award (a category which is unique to China,
and launched with this years awards) for
Shenyangs Forum 66, on behalf of China
Construction Steel Structure Corporation. The
351-meter building, which slants continuously
from top to bottom at 3.82 degrees, is the
worlds tallest building to have a tilt angle this
2016 China Tall Building Awards | 53
steep. This required a number of techniques,

such as enlarged connection bolts and a
system of carefully timed welds to account
for the structural elements expanding and
contracting during construction in the harsh
northeast China climate.
The China Tall Building Innovation Award
winner, Mega-Suspended Curtain Wall, was
in familiar territory the innovation is the
key to Shanghai Towers graceful owing,
twisting shape. Dr. Zhijun He, Chief Engineer,
Technology Development Department, TJAD
and Xiaomei Li, Vice President & Executive
Director, Gensler, accepted the award. Dr. He
noted that the aerodynamics needed to
keep the building safe in typhoon conditions
necessitated the design, as much as did the
brief to make it appear dierent from its two
sisters in Lujiazui, Shanghai World Financial
Center and Jin Mao Tower.
The awards not only recognize projects. Of
course, there would be no projects without
the eorts of extremely talented and
hard-working people. The inaugural China
Tall Building Outstanding Achievement
award went to Dasui Wang, Chief Engineer
of ECADI and China Design Master. Though
his resume reads like a list of nearly all the
famous Chinese skyscrapers of the last 30
years, his modesty is the equal of any of his
buildings in measuring his career.
I am just a practitioner, a participant, a
witness in the history of the industry, Wang
said. I have learned much from my peers,
and gotten a lot of support from partners.
The awards symposium also took advantage

of the industry-wide attendance to stage two
discussion panels. One was comprised of
architects behind two projects in the Legacy
Awards category, which honors tall buildings
constructed from Chinas economic opening
in 1978 to 2005. The audience heard from
architects and engineers at the Guangzhou
Design Institute (GDI), which designed the
original and renovated versions of the White
Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, and East China
Architectural Design Institute (ECADI), which
designed the original and renovated versions
of the Huadong Electrical Power Distribution
Building in Shanghai.
The second panel was comprised of
developers, including Jianping Gu, General
Manager of Shanghai Tower Construction &
Development; Jerry Yin, Senior Vice President
and Chief Architect of SOHO China Ltd.,
Jinwang Ding, General Manager, Jinling Hotel
Corp.; and Zhaohui Jia, Deputy Chief Architect,
Greenland Group. Perhaps the most
provocative statements of the panel were
delivered by Gu, who responded to a question
about what advice hed have for newcomers
to the China tall building development
market.
The biggest challenge facing China is how to
build fewer skyscrapers, Gu said. Even if you
have money, you shouldnt be too headstrong.
There is no need to build such a tall building
[as Shanghai Tower] in most rst-, second-,
third- or fourth-tier cities. Gu, who in earlier
remarks had frankly detailed the trials of
bringing the project to life, went on to say
that even within Shanghai, the namesake
tower is sited at just about the only place it

could be.
About the China Awards Program
Based on the successful CTBUH Global Tall
Building Awards program, the CITAB-CTBUH
China Tall Buildings Awards Program is a joint
initiative of CTBUH and the China
International Exchange Committee for Tall
Buildings (CITAB), established in April 2015.
Each group appoints an equal number of
members to the jury, which judge projects
submitted through a rigorous selection
process. The culmination of the process is an
Awards Ceremony and Dinner where the
awards are bestowed, preceded by
symposium, in which the years award
recipients and a select number of Honorable
Distinction recipients present their projects.
The China Tall Buildings Awards recognize
projects and individuals that have made
extraordinary contributions to the
advancement of Chinese tall buildings and
the urban environment, and that achieve
sustainability at the highest and broadest
level. Tall buildings can be polarizing
presences in their cities, admired for their
sheer height or skyline silhouettes and
criticized for their poor environmental
performance and street-level experience. The
object of this awards program is to provide a
more comprehensive and sophisticated view
of these important structures, while
advocating for improvements in every
aspect of performance, including those that
have the greatest eect on the people who
use these buildings each day.
There is no need to build such a

tall building [as Shanghai Tower]
in most first-, second-, third- or
fourth-tier cities.
Jianping Gu, General Manager, Shanghai Tower Construction &

Development
54 | 2016 China Tall Building Awards
Developer panel discussion (from left): Daniel Safarik, CTBUH; Jerry Yin, SOHO China;
Jianping Gu, Shanghai Tower Construction & Development; Jinwang Ding, Jinling Hotel
Corporation & Zhaohui Jia, Greenland Group.
More information on these events can be found in the events

section of the CTBUH Web site at www.ctbuh.org
CTBUH on the Road

CTBUH leaders took the organization to some
new destinations in the second quarter of
2016, and more rmly established its inuence
in several familiar locations.
As always, preparations for the annual
international conference occupy an
increasingly large portion of the Councils time
as October draws nearer. Planning for this
years conference in three cities across the
Pearl River Delta Guangzhou, Shenzhen and
Hong Kong make for particularly
challenging logistics. However, the planning is
well underway and support is robust. More
than 40 CTBUH Member representatives
convened at Hong Kongs Exchange Square
for the 2016 Conference Steering Meeting,
kindly hosted by Hongkong Land. There,
CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood gave
key updates to the group and called upon
committee members to undertake several
important tasks leading up to the main event.
Attendees emerged with a clear
understanding of how exhibitions, o-site
symposia and building tours, networking
events, and transportation would manifest
across the week-long event.
Progress was also marked in Shanghai,

where CTBUH Chairman David Malott joined
Jianping Gu, Shanghai Towers General
Manager, in ocially unveiling the CTBUH
signboard conrming the 632-meter
building as Chinas tallest and the worlds
second-tallest. It was an auspicious day for
Shanghai Tower, which immediately after the
signboard ceremony played host to the
inaugural China Tall Building Awards (see
CTBUH Report, page 48)
In Beijing, the citys next tallest building,
the 528-meter China Zun Tower, was the
scene of a fascinating building tour led by
CTBUHs Beijing Chapter. The underconstruction tower is now level with the
top of the CCTV Headquarters and is set to
be completed in 2018.
Though China continues to dominate the
world in terms of sheer skyscraper scale and
volume, neighboring Southeast Asia has
been making the news more frequently in
recent months. In recognition of this, the
CTBUH Myanmar Chapter was launched in
Yangon on March 29. More than 40 people
The official unveiling of the Shanghai Tower signboard on May 13, 2016
Diary
In Seattle, Callison RTKL and the CTBUH

Seattle Chapter hosted nearly 80 local
professionals in an event that considered a
comparatively diminutive, but important,
constituency in the tall building world
children. The panel discussion at the event
Transform Downtown Seattle for Kids
discussed ways in which the citys
downtown, which has experienced a surge
in residential construction recently, could
seize the opportunity to make high-quality
public spaces that would be family friendly.
The CTBUH Young Professionals Committee
Spring Social event took place at Bjarke
Ingels Group (BIG)s New York oce, hitting
its maximum capacity of 50 participants. The
group heard from several BIG designers on
local projects such as The Spiral and 2 World
Trade Center, and about BIGs Toronto
project, King Street West.
On the home front in Chicago, the big news
was the move-in to CTBUHs expansion
headquarters in the 1912 Monroe Building.
The historic skyscraper, known for its intricate
terra-cotta-lined archways and pitched
rooine, was recently restored by the Pritzker
family. Sta began to get used to the new
space and prime location near Millennium
Park, while opening the search for ve new
employees to help ll out the space and to
get to work on many more CTBUH initiatives
in the near future.
More upcoming events at: http://events.ctbuh.org
CTBUH Twilight Global Walking Tours
Garden City Mega City Exhibition
Varies - August
The CTBUH Urban Habitat/Urban Design
Committee will hold another set of walking tours
across multiple cities around the world, including
Chicago, London, Ottawa, Shanghai, Toronto, and
Vancouver, this time focused on the use of space
at night. The tours will all kick o at twilight and
examine the way that public spaces function
dierently as day gives way to night and
commuter crowds head home for the evening.
Previous walking tours explored winter and
summer weather spaces in various global cities.
http://ctbuh.org/events
The Skyscraper Museum, New York - until September 4

Visit The Skyscraper Museum in New York for an
exhibition featuring the work of WOHA, the
Singapore architects whose tropical towers,
enveloped by nature, create vertical villages with
sky gardens, breeze-ways, and elevated parks.
WOHAs work rethinks urban life in Singapore and
beyond, oering high-density, high-amenity
housing and urban commercial centers that create
highly social, sustainable, and garden-lled cities..
www.skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/WOHA/woha.
html
attended the event at the citys new Novotel

Hotel, hosted by Archetype Group, SaintGobain Glass and Schindler.
C i ti e s to
CTBUH 2016 International Conference

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong - October 1621
CTBUH is pleased to announce its rst ever
conference taking place progressively across three
cities. Get involved today!
www.ctbuh2016.com
CTBUH on the Road & Diary | 55
Reviews
Shanghai Tower
Gensler
2016
Cover: Hardcover, 183 pages
Publisher: ORO Editions
ISBN: 978-1935935124
Since completing in late 2015, Shanghai Tower has

rightfully garnered instant icon status as Chinas
tallest building; its sleek, curving appearance
looms over the city as the centerpiece of the
Lujiazui nancial district. In a new retrospective,
the design architect, Gensler, considers the
inspiration and impact of the megatall structure,
drawing on reections by stakeholders and a
treasure trove of photography.
The book, seemingly meant more for the coee
table than the library, leans heavily on fantastic
imagery that provides an unprecedented look into
the construction of the tower, along with some
never-before-seen vantages along its height. Many
of the written descriptions provide further details
on the towers design and its intended impact on
its surroundings.
In one illuminating passage, design principal Jun
Xia shares how his upbringing in a Shanghai
shikumen, a traditional lane house that blends
indoor and outdoor space, served as the
conceptual starting point for the tower. Xia likens
the towers atria to the shikumen, placing the
design rmly in the context of traditional Chinese
spaces. Through these descriptions, it becomes
apparent that themes of local culture were
carefully integrated into the building, and that
only a team based in Shanghai could accomplish
this feat.
Though occasionally reductive in its descriptions,
the Shanghai Tower retrospective provides
enlightening interpretations of the tower design
straight from the design team. Throughout, their
sense of pride and accomplishment rightfully
earned is palpable.
Reviewed by Benjamin Mandel, CTBUH
To read other reviews go to: http://journalreviews.ctbuh.org
Design of Steel Structures

Limit States Method
Garden City | Mega City Exhibition

WOHA
Date: Through September 4
Location: The Skyscraper Museum,
New York
Narayan Subramanian
2015
Cover: Paperback, 916 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0199460915
The task of explaining the buckling characteristics

of various steel components and overall structures,
and the force-transforming features of various
connections used to assemble steel components,
is challenging but necessary work for a textbook
on the design of steel structures.
Design of Steel Structures: Limit States Method by
Dr.Narayan Subramanian presents the complicated
knowledge in a distinct and easily comprehended
manner, which is the most important characteristic
of a textbook to be used by students and young
engineers. The concepts on the conguration and
behavior of components and assembly of steel
structures are clearly expressed by sizable
graphical illustrations, rendering dicult concepts
more easily understandable. Case studies are set
through the whole book for readers to understand
the background of the important issues that aect
steel structure design.
Examples are given to demonstrate how to
employ the knowledge of the book to solve a
special problem in every detail, providing an
excellent self-learning resources. A large number
of questions and exercises are included to make
the textbook suitable for both students and
teachers. In addition, a number of the most
contemporary technologies of steel structures are
introduced in the book, such as the assembled
moment connection, buckling-restrained braces,
and girders with corrugated web and blind
bolting, to make readers aware of the latest
developments in steel structures.
Singapore-based WOHAs rst major exhibition in

the United States encompasses a philosophy all
too foreign but increasingly sought after.
Conceptually rich yet originally conceived, Garden
City | Mega City thoughtfully presents important
built and unbuilt works by WOHA that span several
decades and have positively impacted their
surrounding environments, as well as contributed
to making the city more livable for people.
The 12 projects on view are presented through
diverse means. Drone footage reveals the
indooroutdoor nature of Singapores social
housing. WOHA-researched ratios index each
projects measurable impacts, including green plot
ratio, community plot ratio, ecosystem
contribution, self-suciency, and civic generosity.
WOHA Founding Directors Mun Summ Wong and
Richard Hassell describe the exhibition as a vision
for how cities should evolve in the future and of
a self-sucient, sustainable city thats also
beautiful and surrounded by nature.
More than a supercial application of plants to
buildings and buildings to sites, Garden City |
Mega City lands in the United States at a critical
point in designing better-integrated cities. From
the holistic planning principles to the
performance-driven details of hyper-dense green
urban living, WOHA oers unparalleled insight into
how to thoughtfully and unpretentiously design
buildings that dazzle the eye without neglecting
important criteria for making cities more livable
and equitable in the age of global warming.
In September 2016, the Young Professionals
Committee of CTBUH NY Chapter will host a panel
discussion with WOHA founders Wong and Hassell.
While the theory presented in the book is not

deep, the knowledge is complete and practical.
Reviewed by Guo-Qiang Li, Tongji University
CTBUH in the Media
Reviewed by Ilkay Can-Standard, KPF
More CTBUH in Media articles: http://media.ctbuh.org
CTBUH 2016 Tall

Building Award
Winners Announced
CTBUH Research
Paper Frames
Discussion on Linear
Greenways
Costa Ricas High-rise

Boom
June 23
ArchDaily
May 30
The Globe and Mail
May 9
The Tico Times
ArchDaily covers the CTBUH 2016 Tall Building

Award winners. The Best Tall Building
Worldwide winner will be chosen at the
Awards events on 3 November in Chicago.
Kate Ascher and Sabina Uers research paper

on New Yorks High Line, which was rst
released at the 2015 CTBUH Conference, is
helping Vancouver realize a similar project.
CTBUH Costa Rica Chair Victor Montero

discusses the impact of the building boom
occurring in San Joss, including density and
building regulations.
56 | Reviews & CTBUH in Media
The Council would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on the Journal and CTBUH activities.
Please send your comments to journal@ctbuh.org
Comments
CTBUH Singapore Event
I would like to say how much we in Singapore
enjoyed a preview of the kind of events we
hope to have on a regular basis with the
establishment of the CTBUH Singapore
chapter here, through CTBUH Executive
Director Antony Woods presentation in late
June. Dr. Wood gave the built environment
community of Singapore an opportunity to
take a closer look at the city-states tall building
standing in the international context and the
challenges that lie ahead.
Hosted by CapitaLand in Capital Tower, and
organized by the National University of
Singapore (NUS)s Department of Architecture
and the CTBUH, this event was very well
attended by academics, students, architects,
developers and other built environment
professionals. Given the unprecedented pace
of growth in Asia and the rising pressure on
urban land, it will be critical that cities like
Singapore consider carefully how tall
buildings and mega-mixed-use projects will
be incorporated in years to come.
The talk emphasized the need for careful
integration and interfacing of tall buildings
with the immediate and wider urban context,
the natural environment, and the city ecology.
Indeed, recognizing the importance of
respecting local culture would lead to
appropriation of such projects to the local
conditions.
opportunities here to do this, and we already

have some strong possibilities in some of our
best-known high-rises. The key lies in
capitalizing on whats been done so far and
continuing to do it here, while also
identifying what lessons are exportable and
adaptable to other places. As part of the
CTBUH network, this chapter has important
work to do in that regard.
With the bar set high by the rst event, I look
forward to seeing it matched as the
Singapore chapter ourishes.
Dr. Swinal Samant, Associate Professor, NUS
CTBUH + CCHRB Collaboration:
High-Rise Healthcare
On behalf of the Chicago Committee on High
Rise Buildings (CCHRB) I would like to thank
the CTBUH for their ongoing assistance to us
in our eorts. As a member of both
organizations for more than two decades, I
can personally attest that there has been
continuous support and cooperation

between them since the founding of both in
the late 1960s. In the past decade, this has
included assistance from the CTBUH in the
promotion of the CCHRB Spring Seminar,
starting in 2005 and continuing to our most
recent event in April 2016. The topic this year
was The Rise of the Urban Hospital: High Rise
Healthcare Facilities for the 21st Century. In
addition to the promotion by CTBUH, we
greatly appreciate the special eort by the
CTBUH sta to expedite the printing and
forwarding of advanced copies of the article
titled Challenges and Opportunities in Vertical
Healthcare Design, which appeared in the
CTBUH Journal 2016, Issue II. These were
made available to our attendees, several of
whom expressed appreciation for this added
benet of attending. We look forward to
continued and increased collaboration in the
coming decade.
Kim Clawson, CCHRB Chair 20142016
THEY SAID
From the Tower of Babel to the more recent left-field

economic hypothesis for predicting crises the Skyscraper Index
tall buildings have attracted unusual attention from visionaries
and doom-sayers.They are both a totem for fetishized building
technology and a lightning rod for social discontent.
With our balmy climate and strong

government support, we have unique
Phil Pawlett Jackson, critic for RIBA, reviewing the lm High Rise.
From Infernal Tower, RIBA Journal, April 2016 .
Whats on the CTBUH Web?
Visit www.ctbuh.org for more on the global tall building industry
Vertical Greenery Now Free to Download

The Vertical Greenery research report an in-depth
examination of the innovative Bosco Verticale building
in Milan, which incorporates an incredible living green
faade is now available to download from the
CTBUH website, free of charge. Print copies of the
book are also available, with member discounts.
www.ctbuh.org/verticalgreenery
China Tall Building Awards Archive Now Live

The complete record of the inaugural China Tall Building
Awards, which took place on May 13 at Shanghai Tower, is
now available on the CTBUH Web site. Visitors can access
winner and nalist proles, as well as all presentations,
photos and videos from this historic event.
http://china-tall-building-awards.com/en/2016-awardsevent/
Comments & What's on the CTBUH Web | 57
Meet the CTBUH
(July 20, 2016)
SUPPORTING CONTRIBUTORS
CTBUH China Board Member: Murilo Bonilha

Murilo Bonilha is a
CTBUH China Oce
board member. He
leads United
Technologies Research
Center (China), Ltd. in
Shanghai, which
Murilo Bonilha, United
supports a number of
Technologies Research
United Technologies
Center (China), Ltd
companies in Asia
including Otis, Carrier, and GST (Gulf Security
Technologies) by dening new frontiers in
building systems and safety. Primary areas of
research include tall buildings technologies,
building energy eciency, intelligent systems
and advanced manufacturing.
What inspired your firm to become a
founding sponsor of the CTBUH China
Office?
United Technologies and Otis are leaders in
the tall building sector in China. Our goal was
to support CTBUHs overall mission and bring
a research perspective to the CTBUH China
Oce. Our board membership also reinforces
UTRC Chinas pioneering tradition, which
dates back to 1997, when we established the
Shanghai operation and our work in
integrated building energy and security with
Tsinghua University.
What are some of the goals and
expectations you have for the CTBUH in
China?
The CTBUH China Oce needs to build its
reputation as a thought leader and strong
voice in our community to bring a
dierentiated and broader perspective to the
global tall building dialogue. This is critical,
since more than half of the worlds tallest
buildings are now located in China. Although
CTBUH created a China Oce to address this
trend, CTBUH China needs time to assert itself
as a true second headquarters for the
organization. In my opinion, a signicant
portion of CTBUHs operations should be
based in its China oce within the next ve to
10 years. This would include conferences,
publications and membership. Additionally,
we want to ensure the oce is housed in one
of Chinas 10 tallest buildings.
58 | Meet the CTBUH
What do you foresee as some of the biggest

challenges in the China tall building
segment in the coming years?
There is a new generation of very talented
Chinese architects trained predominantly in
China that is already leaving its mark in this
eld, both in China and abroad. This is clear
when you look at the recipients of the
inaugural China Tall Building Awards, and it
oers exciting opportunities to maintain
Chinas current lead in the tall building sector.
The goals set by the 13th Five-Year Plan and
Made in China 2025, including indigenous
innovation, urbanization, the Internet of
Things and advanced manufacturing, provide
another set of opportunities. Finally, Tier 2 and
Tier 3 cities in China want to leave their mark
on history and are driving the next wave of
demand for tall buildings. While this demand
is signicant, it does not match the magnitude
of the nearly 20-year wave China has ridden
since completion of the Jin Mao Tower. Risks
and challenges that need to be managed very
carefully include an oversupply of tall
buildings in the commercial segment,
availability of credit, and recent discussions
concerning the appropriate form for tall and
landmark buildings in China.
Do you have any ideas about the best
platforms for information sharing between
academia, consultants, developers, and the
government?
The well-established and successful CTBUH
website, conferences and regional events
provide a highly eective platform for
information sharing at multiple levels
between key tall buildings stakeholders.
However, as industry leaders we can
strengthen the conversation through the use
of additional platforms, such as industry-wide
workshops. UTRC China is currently working
with the CTBUH China Oce to organize such
a workshop specic to tall building evacuation
via elevators. The workshop will be hosted at
Tsinghua University, Beijing, in September
2016. My hope is that this workshop will
inspire other CTBUH members to organize
similar events and/or provide fresh ideas to
extend CTBUHs already extensive information
sharing platform.
AECOM
Arcadis
BuroHappold Engineering
CCDI Group
CITIC HEYE Investment CO., LTD.
D2E International VT Consultants Ltd.
Dow Corning Corporation
Emaar Properties
HSB Sundsfastigheter
Hudson Yards
Illinois Institute of Technology
IUAV University of Venice
Jeddah Economic Company
Kingdom Real Estate Development
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
KONE Industrial
Lotte Engineering & Construction
National Engineering Bureau
New World Development Company Limited
Otis Elevator Company
Pace Development Corporation Plc.
Ping An Financial Centre Construction & Development
Property Markets Group
Samsung C&T Corporation
Schindler Top Range Division
Shanghai Tower Construction & Development
Shenzhen Aube Architectural Engineering Design
Shenzhen Parkland Real Estate Development Co., Ltd.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited
Taipei Financial Center Corp.
Tongji University
Turner Construction Company
Underwriters Laboratories
Wentworth House Partnership Limited
WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Zhongtian Urban Development Group
PATRONS
BMT Fluid Mechanics
Citic Pacific
DeSimone Consulting Engineers
Durst Organization, The
East China Architectural Design & Research Institute
Empire State Realty Trust
Fly Service Engineering
Forest City Ratner Companies
Gensler
Hoboken Brownstone
HOK, Inc.
Hongkong Land
ISA Architecture
KLCC Property Holdings Berhad
Kuraray America, Inc.
Langan
Meinhardt Group International
NBBJ
Permasteelisa Group
Rider Levett Bucknall
Ridley
Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin
Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town
SL Green Management
Studio Libeskind
Swire Properties
Tencent Holdings Limited
Thornton Tomasetti
thyssenkrupp Elevator
Tishman Speyer
Wirth Research
Zuhair Fayez Partnership
DONORS
A&H Tuned Mass Dampers
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Aedas
Aon Fire Protection Engineering
Arcadis Australia Pacific
Architectural Design & Research Institute of South China University
of Technology
Arquitectonica International
Arup
Aurecon
CTBUH Organizational Members

BALA Engineers
Beijing Fortune Lighting System Engineering Co., Ltd.
Broad Sustainable Building Co.
Brookfield Multiplex
CBRE Group
China State Construction Engineering Corporation
Enclos Corp.
Fender Katsalidis
Guangzhou Yuexiu City Construction Jones Lang LaSalle
Property Management Co., Ltd.
Halfen United States
Henning Larsen Architects
Hill International
Hilti
Jensen Hughes
JLL
JORDAHL
Jotun Group, The
Larsen & Toubro
Leslie E. Robertson Associates
Magnusson Klemencic Associates
MAKE
McNAMARA SALVIA
Nishkian Menninger Consulting and Structural Engineers
Outokumpu
PDW Architects
PEC Group
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects
Pickard Chilton Architects
Plaza Construction
PLP Architecture
PNB Merdeka Ventures Sdn. Berhad
PT Gistama Intisemesta
Quadrangle Architects
SAMOO Architects and Engineers
Saudi Binladin Group / ABC Division
Schco
Severud Associates Consulting Engineers
Shanghai Construction (Group) General
SHoP Architects
Sika Services AG
Sinar Mas Group - APP China
Solomon Cordwell Buenz
Spiritos Properties LLC
Studio Gang Architects
Syska Hennessy Group
TAV Construction
Terracon
Tongji Architectural Design Group
UltraTech Cement Sri-Lanka
Walsh Construction Company
Walter P. Moore and Associates
WATG URBAN
Werner Voss + Partner
William Hare
Woods Bagot
Wordsearch
Zaha Hadid Architects
CONTRIBUTORS
AkzoNobel
Alimak Hek
Alinea Consulting
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Altitude Facade Access Consulting
Alvine Engineering
AMSYSCO
Andrew Lee King Fun & Associates Architects Ltd.
Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners
ArcelorMittal
architectsAlliance
Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tsinghua
University
Architectus
Barker Mohandas, LLC
Bates Smart
BG&E
bKL Architecture
Bonacci Group
Bosa Properties Inc.
Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
Bouygues Batiment International
British Land Company

Broadway Malyan
Brookfield Property Group
Brunkeberg Systems
Cadillac Fairview
Canary Wharf Group
Canderel Management
CB Engineers
CCL
Cerami & Associates
Cermak Peterka Petersen
Chapman Taylor
China Electronics Engineering Design Institute
Clark Construction
Code Consultants, Inc.
Conrad Gargett
Continental Automated Buildings Association
Cosentini Associates
Cottee Parker Architects
CoxGomyl
CS Group Construction Specialties Company
CS Structural Engineering
CTSR Properties
Cubic Architects
Daewoo
Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners)
Davy Sukamta & Partners Structural Engineers
DB Realty Ltd.
DCA Architects
DCI Engineers
DDG
Deerns
DIALOG
Dong Yang Structural Engineers
dwp|suters
Edwards and Zuck Consulting Engineers
Elenberg Fraser
Elevating Studio Pte. Ltd.
EllisDon Corporation
Euclid Chemical Company, The
Eversendai Engineering Qatar
Facade Tectonics
Farrells
Foster + Partners
FXFOWLE Architects
GEI Consultants
GERB Vibration Control Systems (USA/Germany)
GGLO
Global Wind Technology Services
Glumac
gmp Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner GbR
Goettsch Partners
Grace Construction Products
Gradient Wind Engineering Inc.
Graziani + Corazza Architects
Guangzhou Design Institute
Halvorson and Partners: A WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Company
Hariri Pontarini Architects
Harman Group, The
Hathaway Dinwiddie
Heller Manus Architects
HKA Elevator Consulting
Housing and Development Board
Humphrey & Partners Architects, L.P.
Hutchinson Builders
Hysan Development Company Limited
IDOM UK Ltd.
Inhabit Group
Irwinconsult Pty.
Israeli Association of Construction and Infrastructure Engineers
ITT Enidine
JAHN
Jangho Group Co., Ltd.
Jaros, Baum & Bolles
JDS Development Group
Jiang Architects & Engineers
John Portman & Associates
Kajima Design
Kawneer Company
KEO International Consultants
KHP Konig und Heunisch Planungsgesellschaft
Kier Construction
http://membership.ctbuh.org
Kinemetrics Inc.
Langdon & Seah Singapore
LeMessurier
Lend Lease
Lusail Real Estate Development Company
M Moser Associates
Maeda Corporation
MAURER AG
MicroShade A/S
Mori Building Company
Nabih Youssef & Associates
National Fire Protection Association
NIKKEN SEKKEI LTD
Norman Disney & Young
ODonnell & Naccarato
OMA
Omrania & Associates
Ornamental Metal Institute of New York
Pakubuwono Development, The
Palafox Associates
Pappageorge Haymes Partners
Pavarini McGovern
Pepper Construction Company
Perkins + Will
Plus Architecture
Probuild
Profica
Project Planning and Management Pty Ltd
R.G. Vanderweil Engineers
Ramboll
RAW Design
Read Jones Christoffersen
Related Midwest
Rhode Partners
Richard Meier & Partners
RMC International
Ronald Lu & Partners
Royal HaskoningDHV
Sanni, Ojo & Partners
SECURISTYLE
Sematic Elevator Products
Shimizu Corporation
Shui On Group
SilverEdge Systems Software
Silverstein Properties
Skanska
SkyriseCities
Spectrum Metal Finishing Inc.
Stanley D. Lindsey & Associates
Stauch Vorster Architects
Steel Institute of New York
Stein Ltd.
SuperTEC (Super-Tall Building Design & Engineering Tech Research
Center)
Surface Design
SWA Group
Taisei Corporation
Takenaka Corporation
Tate Access Floors
Taylor Devices, Inc.
Trimble Solutions Corporation
Uniestate
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
Vetrocare
Waterman AHW (Vic) Pty Ltd.
Weischede, Herrmann und Partners
Werner Sobek Group
WilkinsonEyre
WOHA Architects
WTM Engineers International
WZMH Architects
Y. A. Yashar Architects
PARTICIPANTS
There are an additional 284 members of the Council at the Participant
level. Please see online for the full member list. http://members.
ctbuh.org
Supporting
Contributors are those who contribute $10,000; Patrons: $6,000; Donors: $3,000; Contributors: $1,500; Participants: $750;
2 | This
Issue
CTBUHAcademic
Journal | Institute:
2015 Issue$500.
I
About the Council

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
(CTBUH) is the worlds leading resource for
professionals focused on the inception, design,
construction, and operation of tall buildings and
future cities. Founded in 1969 and headquartered at
Chicagos historic Monroe Building, the CTBUH is a
not-for-prot organization with an Asia Headquarters
oce at Tongji University, Shanghai; a Research
Oce at Iuav University, Venice, Italy; and a Research
& Academic Oce at the Illinois Institute of
Technology, Chicago. CTBUH facilitates the exchange
of the latest knowledge available on tall buildings
around the world through publications, research,
events, working groups, web resources, and its
extensive network of international representatives.
The Councils research department is spearheading
the investigation of the next generation of tall
buildings by aiding original research on sustainability
and key development issues. The Councils free
database on tall buildings, The Skyscraper Center, is
updated daily with detailed information, images,
data, and news. The CTBUH also developed the
international standards for measuring tall building
height and is recognized as the arbiter for bestowing
such designations as The Worlds Tallest Building.
Global Headquarters
The Monroe Building
104 South Michigan Avenue, Suite 620
Chicago, IL 60603, USA
Phone: +1 312 283 5599
Email: info@ctbuh.org
www.ctbuh.org
www.skyscrapercenter.com
Asia Headquarters
College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP)
Tongji University
1239 Si Ping Road, Yangpu District
Shanghai 200092, China
Phone: +86 21 6598 2972
Email: china@ctbuh.org
Research & Academic Office
Iuav University of Venice
Dorsoduro 2006
30123 Venice, Italy
Phone: +39 41 257 1276
Email: research@ctbuh.org
Chicago Research & Academic Office
S. R. Crown Hall
Illinois Institute of Technology
3360 South State Street
Chicago, IL 60616
Phone: +1 312 567 3487
Email: academic@ctbuh.org
ISSN: 1946 - 1186

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CTBUH Journal

International Journal on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

Tall buildings: design, construction, and operation | 2016 Issue III

Case Study: Evolution Tower, Moscow

Just as the fundamental

living under a giant dome be a price worth

Daniel Safarik, CTBUH Editor

CTBUH Journal | 2016 Issue III

46 Tall Buildings in Numbers

There was a period of time in which many

CTBUH Journal | 2016 Issue III

Dasui Wang, page 48

evidence of not only the growth in the

Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism

International Commerce Centre

Poly Real Estate

Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre

Tencent Seafront Towers

Regular Registration Deadline - 31 August

feat. Not only is this our annual gathering for

Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director

Recent New Organizational Members

Fly Service Engineering,

Swire Properties, Hong Kong

China State Construction

PEC Group, Germany

Great Gulf, Toronto

Jangho Group, Beijing

Kier Construction, Sandy, UK

ATAD Steel Structure

Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel

Smart Building LLC, Moscow

Kawneer, Norcross, USA

Capacite Infraprojects Ltd,

PT. Quadratura Indonesia,

CTBUH Journal | 2016 Issue III

Should Tall Buildings be Demolished

Inexperienced authorities tend to look with

Mott Haven Passive House, New York. Dattner Architects

Oceanwide Center, San Fransisco.

been proposed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

been sold to the Liquor Control Board of

Similarly, in San Francisco, Foster + Partners

While these mega-developments across

Concepts for mixed-use mega developments

Rosewood So Paulo Tower/Citade Materazzo, So Paulo.

by vertically continuing the greenery of the

Asia and Oceania

RB12, Rio de Janeiro. Tryptique

architects in South America are grappling

Perhaps no tall building project yet has

Wanfeng Valley Resort, Xingyi.

inauguration of a CTBUH-designed signboard

Paul Finch, Editorial Director for The

MahaNakhon, Bangkok. PACE

to the area, becoming some of the tallest

Thai Boon Rong Twin Trade Center, Phnom Penh.

the Baiyoke Tower II. Meaning Great

Such a massive residential structure would

Meanwhile, in Brisbane, the recently

Achieving an urban renaissance is about

Lord Richard Rogers, Founder of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, on

Banani DCC-Unique Complex, Dhaka. Borak Real Estate