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DESIGNING /// A WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF PUBLICATION CONTENTS 04 THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL are being completed at a rate of nearly 350 a year. What can we expect from this new WELCOME high-rise generation? WE ARE IN A ngineering is not just about 16 THE SKY AND OTHER LIMITS E science and , but The many challenges of planning skyscraper cities GLOBAL AGE experience. We have been designing iconic, efficient tall for 26 FAR STORY OF TALL AND more than 50 years, and it’s that How a railyard became the US’s biggest experience that makes us unique. Around SUPER-TALL ever real-estate development , we are combining the latest BUILDINGS. IT’S tools and with an in-depth 32 AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE understanding of how tall buildings behave has rewritten the rulebook on IMPORTANT TO to create the next generation of . tall CONSIDER ALL OF In this magazine, we discuss many of THE IMPLICATIONS the engineering and architecture 42 CONTINENT challenges, but also speak to architects, Ahmad Rahimian The Asian-inspired skyscrapers transforming planners, developers and clients for a more Ahmad Rahimian ’s complete overview of the requirements Director of Building Structures, USA and of tall buildings and what 48 THE VERTICAL SOCIETY they will mean for cities. Preparing for a future of living, working and playing Many of these discussions took place in at great height the WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff host room at the 2015 Council for Tall Buildings and 56 RETURN TO SLENDER Urban Habitats conference in . Structural gymnastics meets grace in We would like to thank everyone who Manhattan spoke during the event, and the many attendees who came to join us over the 64 SECRETS OF THE MEGA-TALL two days. We have tried to distill the best is leading the way on 500m-plus towers – of the content here – we hope you will find and the hidden systems that make them work it interesting. Kamran Moazami Kamran Moazami Head of Building Structures, UK

Editor: Julie Guppy, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Copy: Wordmule Inhouse photography: Nicola Evans, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Design and production: Supreme Creative Ltd 04 DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// FIVE OFTHEKEYTRENDS LIKE THELAST. WEEXPLORE TOWERS WILLBENOTHING BUT THISGENERATION OF EXPANDING EVERSKYWARDS. TO CITIES, THOSE CITIESARE WORLD’S POPULATIONS MOVE AS MOREANDOFTHE

THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL new towers on every continent. continent. new towersonevery and 2016, there willbeatotal of2296, with completed, allintheUS. 2006 Between 49 buildingsover 150minheightwere a global scale. 1924 Between and1934, in the1920s. Except that,thistime, it’s on equalling thatofnorthernAmerican cities The race isontobuildhigh,withafrenzy be beatenbythe342expectedin2016. buildings over 150m,butthiswillquickly for high-risecompletions, with338new T was arecord-breaking year skyscrapers isuponus. 2015 he nextgoldenageof

“ RESPONDING BY REACHING FORTHESKY.” AND CLIMATE CHANGE.CITIES ARE TWO SIGNIFICANT TRENDS:URBANISATION WE ARELIVINGAT THECROSSROADS OF DAVID COOPER, WSP|PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF and red. and red. were amongthoseglowing blue, white TowerShanghai andCalgary inCanada New York, theOrientalPearl in , OneWorld Trade Center in the coloursofTricolore. TheAuckland world citieslituptheirownlandmarks with extinguished inmourningforthe dead, 2015. Asthe lights oftheEiffel Tower were terrorist attacksonParis inNovember was demonstrated inthehoursafter them nottobeoutdone. on theworldstage. Established citiesbuild ambition andcommunicatetheirarrival cities buildlandmarkstosignaltheir elements, wealth andpower. Expanding strength, demonstratingofthe mastery of aweandwonder. Theyare ashow of from thetopcontinuetoinspire asense scaleandtheviewstheyafford diminish. Theirsheersizeinrelation tothe force thatfamiliarityseemstodolittle buildings alsoexert apowerfulemotional prime central sites. amenities, andmaximisesthevalue of homes, times between jobsandessential it minimisesthedistancesandtravelling advantage ofvertical expansion isthat they willinevitablyhave todo both. The either grow outwards orupwards, and needing space tolive andwork,citiescan than continuinghorizontalexpansion.” sky, asamore sustainable forward “Cities are responding byreaching forthe buildings atWSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff. change,” says David Cooper, president of significant trends: urbanisation andclimate top 600cities. 60% ofglobal GDPisgenerated bythe economy: according toanalyst McKinsey, comes anincreasing share oftheglobal year every untilthen.Andwiththisgrowth constructing five citiesthesizeofBeijing dwellers–theequivalentnew of to risetwo-thirds, with2.5billion urban areas, butby2050,thisispredicted than halfoftheworld’s populationlived in related tourbanisation. In 2014,more The symbolic role of high-rise buildings The symbolicrole ofhigh-risebuildings But that’s notthewholestory. Tall With somanynewurban dwellers “We are livingatthecrossroads oftwo This high-riseboomisintimately

generation ofhigh-rise buildings. at thefeatures thatwill define thenext one. Over thefollowingpages, we look horizontal planetoamuchmore vertical life isshiftingfrom apredominantly use, towhere wespend ourleisure time, we our homestothepublicservices the conceptofhigh-riseliving.From areand electricalservices revolutionising systems andstate-of-the-art mechanical ,pioneeringstructural quality mixed-use. Iconic architecture, high- orhotels, andafurther19% millennium, justunderhalfhave been purely commercial. Sincetheturnof built. Before 2000,two-thirds were Nigeria have barely started. new towers. Ontheotherhand,India and 2000, Chinahasbuilt43%ofalltheworld’s countries: China,India andNigeria. Since Asia andmore thanathird injustthree urban dwellerswillbelivinginAfrica and urbanisation isaglobal trend, 90%ofnew these newtowerswillbelocated.While ways. Astrikingdifference iswhere breaks withthepast inseveral important towers,taller versions of20th-century but Then there’s thekindoftowersbeing The current boomisnotjustproducing 05 THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL /// “MILLENNIALS INCREASINGLY WANT /// /// OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER A DENSE URBAN QUARTER WITH A REAL MIX OF USES – AREAS THAT ARE BUZZING AND ACTIVE AT ALL TIMES” ANDREW CANTOR, RELATED

A city’s is its signature. But it’s This blurring won’t just be a lifestyle what happens at street level that defines choice, it will be a necessity, he adds. its . Previous generations of towers “As space becomes more and more were predominantly places to work. They precious, shared amenities that have a were hives of activity by day, and dark and higher utilisation will be more important, silent by night, set in areas that compared to lots of individual amenity became ghost towns after working hours spaces or private spaces. Strategies and at weekends. The new tower is a far that increase the utilisation of space more sociable place, buzzing well into the will be important, whether that’s shared night, if not 24/7. It plays a more active atrium spaces, hotel lobbies that serve as role in the local community, and perhaps restaurants or lobbies that serve as even functions as a community itself. meeting areas.” High-rise buildings are increasingly Older towers provided little at ground combining a mix of different kinds level beyond hostile, high-security of space, at least some of it publicly entrances and high winds. Today, accessible. The taller a building is, the more planners are demanding much more, likely this is. According to the database of and developers are increasingly aware the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban of the value of a high-quality experience Habitats, 17% of buildings over 150m are at ground level. Even pure commercial mixed-use. But this rises to nearly half of all towers are likely to include some food super-tall towers over 300m, and three- and beverage or retail space at their base. quarters over 500m. Or they may be just one component of a Mixed-use makes sense for economic more varied development, as at Hudson reasons – there’s a lot of space to fill in a Yards, linked by a shared plaza or publicly mega-tall tower and selling residential units accessible podium. can help to finance the rentable elements “In our rekindled love affair with – and also practical ones, because higher skyscrapers and the city, we need to floorplates tend to be smaller and so less think about the spaces and communities

suited to commercial use. we’re creating at ground level,” says But it also makes sense because life in Ken McBryde, principal at HASSELL cities is changing. The new generation in . “The skyline of a city is of workers are returning to urban areas, predominantly an abstract thing – it exists rejecting suburban lifestyles in favour in the digital or photographic realm but of vibrant neighbourhoods with a range you never actually experience it unless of amenities. Millennials already make you’re in a helicopter. We need to address up half of the US workforce, points out the challenge of creating meaningful Andrew Cantor, vice president at Related, and memorable public domain, as co-developer of the Hudson Yards that’s what will determine whether the regeneration scheme in New York. “By building becomes an important social and the time that it’s complete, they’ll make commercial asset to the city.” AS CITY LIFE CHANGES, TALL up 75%. They’re looking for a mixed- BUILDINGS CAN’T JUST BE PLACES use experience in their neighbourhood. Millennials increasingly want a dense urban TO WORK. THEY NEED TO BE PART quarter with a real mix of uses – areas that are buzzing and active at all times, and

24-HOUR TOWERS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD where the lines between your office, your hotel, your restaurant or your residence are blurring.” 106 07 Tower, A high-rise building not only changes The ability to respond to fast-changing One of the most significant challenges Image courtesy of KPF the skyline today, it also forms part of the workplace trends is also key to maintaining that all buildings will face in the relatively legacy that we leave to future generations. the longer-term value of a building. near future is the impact of climate Conventional real estate wisdom gives a Technology is already removing the change – a moving target as the century commercial building a lifespan of around need for large support spaces, points out progresses. How will buildings and their 30 years. But the sheer scale of high-rise Andrew Cantor, vice president at New surroundings be affected by much heavier structures and the quantity of materials York developer Related. “There will be rainfall or more frequent droughts, what

and energy that go into them means they no need for large file rooms or storage toll will more frequent extreme events // OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER will be around for much, much longer, rooms as there has been in the past, and take on structures and façades, and how with lifespans measured not in decades even servers have diminished in size or to maintain comfortable conditions but in generations. been moved off site into the cloud. So the for building occupants when average amount of space each person needs to temperatures could be much higher Super-tall and super-slender buildings work is smaller and there’ll be more people than today? “The challenges that climate need to be extremely strong. Elements on each floor, putting pressure on change will pose need to be considered in such as cladding or mechanical and and washrooms.” every building, but particularly those that electrical systems may be upgraded, but will be around for a long time,” says David their immense structures are effectively The challenge is not just to size building Symons, director of Environment & Energy permanent features of the urban systems for potentially greater loads but to at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in the UK. landscape. In this way, today’s state-of- keep structural elements as unobtrusive as “In 50 years, peak summer temperatures the-art towers have more in common with possible, with no columns on the floorplates in are forecast to be 6.5°C higher medieval cathedrals than with their low-rise and floor-to-ceiling so that spaces than they are today. By 2100, they could be contemporaries. “In the history of the can be reconfigured any way a tenant around 10.5°C higher. Our research shows world, only four buildings taller than 150m wants. The same goes for residential towers that today’s building design codes are have ever been demolished,” says Bill Price, – internal columns interrupt views and limit wholly inadequate to address these future director at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in buyers’ options. temperatures. Over 80% of Londoners London. “For a large building in an urban The economic challenges of mega-tall already claim their flats are too hot in setting, studies show that it will cost more towers mean that they may sometimes summer, with newer homes having more of a problem.” To address hotter temperatures, mechanical and electrical engineers could just design larger cooling “IN 50 YEARS, PEAK SUMMER TEMPERATURES systems. “But that will create massive extra energy demand – for cities IN LONDON ARE PREDICTED TO BE 6.5°C and for building owners. That’s challenging when energy prices are HIGHER THAN THEY ARE TODAY. BY 2100, forecast to be about 30% higher in the UK by 2030. So energy bills will be much higher too.” The alternative THEY COULD BE AROUND 10.5°C HIGHER” is to use emerging techniques DAVID SYMONS, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF that use fresh air from outside and the thermal mass of buildings to maintain comfortable temperatures. “That becomes even more of an and take longer to take it down than it did undergo drastic changes of use even when option in a future world which is anticipated to put it up. That means that when we’re the design is well advanced – keeping to be purely electric. By 2050, some cities designing and constructing a tall building, building systems engineers on their toes. will be all electric for heating, for power, we need to remember that it’s essentially Now under construction, 528m China for travel. At a stroke, that transforms going to be there forever.” Zun Tower in Beijing was originally air quality and reduces noise levels.” In temperate climates today, windows remain Price suggests that designers should planned as a mixed-use development 2 shut against the noise and pollution of city think more carefully about how a building providing 380,000m of , hotel streets, and because buildings are designed might eventually be demolished from accommodation and serviced apartments. to rely on systems. “But the start. But more immediately, they The biggest challenge for the services why would you do that into the future? You need to make sure towers can adapt to engineers was always reconciling the unique could imagine a world in which there’s no change, and consider a range of interlinked form of the building – flared at the base reason not to open the windows.” technological, social and environmental and the top – with the demand for services factors that will impact on the built and vertical transportation created by its Driverless cars promise to change environment. mix of uses. Then the decision was taken to patterns of land use in cities too: “At the convert the whole building to commercial moment, quite large amounts of valuable STRUCTURES AND SERVICES OF There are good commercial reasons space. “This dramatically increased vertical space are given over to car ,” says for designing flexible spaces too. Office SUPER-TALL BUILDINGS MUST BE transportation requirements, but the Symons. “In the future, at the very least buildings need to be able to accommodate construction was already fixed, so it wasn’t you could have much tighter parking ABLE TO ADAPT TO CHANGING different occupier groups to make them as possible to make any changes to the spaces because the cars themselves. lettable as possible. Because corporates available space in the core,” says Vincent At best, you don’t have car parking at all USES, AND A CHANGING PLANET are increasingly seeking more locations FUTURE READY Tse, managing director of building systems in the building – if you do drive yourself that offer more diverse experience for for WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in China. to your tall building, the car then goes their workers, they need to attract novelty- “Our solution was to add more sky lobbies, off and itself on some cheap land seeking millennials and to spur cross- so there are now three double-decks somewhere else and comes to you disciplinary thinking and innovation. spaced throughout the building.” when you need it.” 208 09 school and public space and no fewer than 16 skyscrapers. “When you provide mass transit access to a neighbourhood, it spurs tremendous development

“I THINK THERE ARE SOME VERY BRIGHT DAYS /// OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE opportunities,” says DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER Kelly. “The absence of IN FRONT OF US IN TERMS OF HOW CITIES ARE access really limited that neighbourhood for BEING PLANNED AND DEVELOPED, ACROSS a very long time. After the decision was made THE US AND AROUND THE WORLD” to extend the subway, development naturally GREG KELLY, PRESIDENT & CEO, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF followed.” WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is also involved in similar railyard projects elsewhere, such as the 22-acre Atlantic Yards site in Brooklyn, now Traffic congestion and pollution were In many places, towers are being renamed Pacific Park, and almost defining characteristics of the deliberately sited on top of or next another project in Boston. 20th-century city. Urbanisation has been to existing transport hubs, he notes, For best results, the interfaces between traditionally accompanied by an increase while investment in new infrastructure infrastructure and buildings are considered in car travel, choking roads and bringing is creating opportunities for high-rise at the earliest possible stage, says Kelly. movement to a near halt for significant development. London’s Shard is right next “That’s vitally important. Obviously you portions of the day. The most valuable to a major interchange for overground don’t want to preclude future options to development sites were ones that could and underground trains and buses, while maximise the overbuild that could occur be easily reached by car from the suburbs ’s future tallest building, the over a subway station, but it’s also about and had ample room for parking. 326m , will be part of the creating successful communities. You As more and more people move to new complex. This 2 have to look at the pedestrian flows, how cities, the challenge of mobility is only includes more than 6 million ft of office the traffic interacts with the pedestrians becoming more acute. UN HABITAT space, 4,400 homes, a hotel and retail and how that knits together with the estimates that by 2050, city dwellers space, as well as a 5.4-acre rooftop park. high-rise development. The sooner you could travel three or four times as many Developers are also looking afresh can bring those two together, the more passenger-kilometres as in the year at previously unappealing sites close to efficiently you will be able to incorporate 2000, and that freight movement could transport hubs. Areas that were once both parts of the development and the rise more than threefold over the same blighted by their proximity to rail lines or better the outcome will be. With little or no period. Without investment in sustainable left as underused expanses of industrial additional cost you can enhance what that alternatives to cars, the places where three- space are now prime opportunities for neighbourhood looks like.” quarters of the world’s population live, work high-rise development. They are able The integration of transport and high- and play will simply be unable to function. to support sustainable high-density density development is good news not “Higher-density cities won’t work development, and the potential returns only for those components but for the without investment in transport,” says Peter from building tall mean that overcoming success of cities themselves, believes Kelly. Weingarten, principal at Gensler. “As the the challenges of such sites becomes an “I think the industry is getting very smart world is getting flatter and there’s a war economically viable proposition. at how we plan cities. It goes beyond the for talent, people will migrate like they’ve “These transport nodes do present transit infrastructure. We’re looking also at never migrated before. Cities that don’t technical challenges, because you have how we plan the environment, at how we have good infrastructure will lose out to to keep a railroad while you’re power cities, I think there are some very places that do.” building around it,” says Kelly. “That takes bright days in front of us in terms of how One of the major themes of 21st-century time and may involve additional cost, but cities are being planned and developed, urbanisation will be investment in systems by being in that location, there’s a greater across the US and around the world.” such as metros, light rail and bus rapid long-term value that’s created. People may transit, as city planners search for more have been a little bit reluctant in the past, sustainable ways to support growth. The but I think they now truly see the value of population of a super or mega-tall tower it and they’re moving forwards with these THE DENSE FABRIC OF 21st-CENTURY can easily rival that of a small city in itself, so types of project.” it needs to be integrated closely into these This is the story of the US’s largest CITIES MEANS THAT TOWERS NEED TO networks. “Mass transit links are critical to ever real estate project, now underway at BE CLOSELY INTEGRATED INTO PUBLIC successful high-rise development,” says Hudson Yards in New York. The extension Greg Kelly, president and CEO of WSP | of the subway to the western edge of TRANSPORT NETWORKS Parsons Brinckerhoff in the US, Central & Manhattan has suddenly opened up the CONNECTED South America.. development potential of a neglected industrial site. Over the next ten years, it is set to become a 28-acre mixed use development of office, residential, retail, 310 11 , London Halvorson says this has partly been Many more towers also combine a mix driven by advances in building core of uses, which is giving rise to innovative construction, specifically mechanisation hybrid structures. London’s Shard, for which reduced the amount of labour example, features a highly unusual involved and made or composite combination of both and concrete structures more economical than pure floors around a concrete core. The first 40 steel. “But an even more important driver storeys are offices, supported by steelwork is that architects, owners and occupiers spanning from the core with steel columns. /// OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER The typical 20th-century skyscraper was wanted more and more windows As the floorplates shrink, the use switches most likely to be an office, and probably without those big structural obstructions to hotel and luxury apartments and the built out of steel. It’s much harder to on the perimeter.” A concrete core frame to post-tensioned concrete, before characterise the 21st-century model. provides a strong but discreet backbone reverting to steel for the spire. Using Encompassing a diverse range of uses for the building, while protecting essential concrete for the middle section enabled and a multitude of unusual shapes, every services and means of egress and the addition of two extra storeys within of today’s towers is a prototype, concealing key structural elements such as overall height. demanding constant innovation. outriggers on plant floors. Structures need to perform better than In New York’s new super-slender ever before, but also be less obtrusive. Halvorson thinks hybrid structures will residences, high-strength concrete cores The of skyscrapers continue to evolve, as engineers keep and frames maximise strength without was a source of pride and wonder in up with the computer-aided ingenuity restricting internal layouts or blocking the early , proudly flaunted of an ever more ambitious architectural views. But for the most extreme aspect on steel column façades. Now the profession. “If you look back to the 1980s or ratios, strength alone is not enough. engineer’s greatest feat is to keep well earlier, buildings were rectangular and they Engineers cannot keep adding structure out of sight, creating super-strong were largely prismatic – they were constant indefinitely – they have to think laterally. structures that betray no trace of the from top to bottom or they had a constant A key innovation of recent years is the massive forces at play. slope or regular setbacks. Geometries were use of dampers, which function in a similar very simple. Now we’re trying to develop This requirement for hidden strength way to the shock absorbers on a car to structural concepts for buildings that taper help buildings perform better under wind has contributed to a radical shift in what and slope, that have 3D curved or irregular towers are constructed from, says Bob and seismic events. “We used to design surfaces, or large openings through them. structures that were basically passive,” says Halvorson, executive vice president The biggest challenge we have is adapting at Halvorson and Partners. In 1984, Halvorson. “Today there are a lot more structural tools to more creative, taller and options open to the engineer for ‘active’ Halvorson wrote a paper on the structural thinner architecture.” solutions most commonly used for tall buildings with dynamic elements that buildings. “If you looked at all the tall Another major factor in the shift modify their behaviour in positive ways.” buildings up to that point, particularly from steel to concrete is the increasing As towers get taller and thinner, the office buildings, they were . proportion of towers designed wholly or biggest challenge for the engineer is They’d have either diagonal bracing or partly for residential use. Concrete is the not making them sufficiently strong and closely spaced columns and a moment natural choice for buildings, resilient, but cost-effective, says Silvian frame round the perimeter, and that because it offers better acoustic and Marcus, director of building structures, seemed to be the way of the future.” But fire separation between apartments and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in New York: when he repeated the exercise 20 years enables shorter floor-to-floor heights “Any engineer can design a structure that later, the world had completely changed. so developers can fit more storeys will stand. The brilliant part is to do it in an “The tallest buildings were either concrete within a constrained building envelope. efficient way.” or of composite construction using both “Apartments are always going to be steel and concrete, and the structural concrete-framed,” says Mark Hennessy, systems had almost universally switched director of structures at WSP | Parsons from the perimeter of the building to Brinckerhoff in . “Floor-to-floor structures hidden in the core.” heights can be pretty lean and mean, whereas steel just doesn’t work from that point of view.”

“NOW WE’RE TRYING TO DEVELOP TODAY’S SKYSCRAPERS NEED TO BE STRONGER THAN STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS FOR BUILDINGS EVER BEFORE – AND WHILE THEIR ARCHITECTURE IS THAT TAPER AND SLOPE, THAT HAVE 3D INCREASINGLY STRIKING, THE STRUCTURES CURVED SURFACES, OR LARGE OPENINGS THEMSELVES MUST BE CLOSE TO INVISIBLE HYBRID STRUCTURES IN AND THROUGH THEM” BOB HALVORSON, HALVORSON AND PARTNERS 412 13 Salesforce Tower, San Francisco Image courtesy of Hines In tomorrow’s denser cities, people will There is also a powerful business Maximising fresh air in office spaces spend a much greater proportion of case for better environments that can also requires a different approach to the their lives in tall buildings. But having a boost workers’ productivity – staff costs façade – as a permeable skin rather than connection to the outside will be more can account for as much as 90% of a an impenetrable barrier. Simply opening important than ever. Traditional office company’s outgoings, so even a small the windows is not an effective ventilation towers are sealed against the elements improvement can make a big difference. strategy for buildings with deep floorplates, and use building systems to create a Studies have found that office workers says Nick Offer, director at WSP | Parsons comfortable environment, but the next with a seat sleep an average Brinckerhoff in London – the air current /// OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER generation will be far more permeable, of 46 minutes longer per night and will either be too strong by the windows or a trend driven by both employers and that doubling the supply of outdoor too weak further in. “What we need is an workers themselves. air to an office reduces short-term sick equivalent to openable windows, without “One of the most important things we leave by 35%. In 2014, the World Green actually opening them. We need to link the can do as buildings get taller and higher Building Council brought a growing building to the façade, floor by floor. Then and further from the ground is let the body of evidence together in a landmark we can channel air in through the façade, occupants keep in touch with the outside, publication called ‘Health, Wellbeing & into rooms on each floor, and then push so they can understand what time of day Productivity in Offices, the next chapter that fresh air through the floors or ceilings it is and what’s it like before going out, for ’, which received to service the space.” says Ken McBryde, principal at HASSELL enthusiastic backing from industry clients The Salesforce Tower in San Francisco in Sydney. “That’s a real challenge in tall including Tishman Speyer, British Land and will be ventilated with outdoor air for buildings, because if you can’t open the Grosvenor. 80% of the time, supplied from under windows, you really lose touch with the There’s even a new certification, the the floor. It has been pre-certified LEED environment.” WELL Building Standard, which focuses Platinum, making it one of the world’s most Quality of life has taken on much exclusively on human health and wellbeing. sustainable tall buildings. In temperate greater importance among the millennial In March 2015, the developers of 425 Park climates, using outside air also reduces generation – and as they spend so much Avenue committed to build New York’s the energy that a tower consumes, which time in the office, that means quality first WELL-certified office tower. Cooper will make it an increasingly appealing of the working environment. “It’s becoming says that clients have begun to ask strategy as energy costs rise in the future about much more than temperature,” about the standard, and a couple have and targets on carbon emissions become says David Cooper, president of the requested that their buildings comply, tougher. In most parts of the world, it is US buildings division at WSP | Parsons but it’s still some way from achieving possible to completely ventilate a building Brinckerhoff. “It’s about total environmental widespread adoption. using external air for 70-80% of the year, comfort – access to natural light, glare In a tall building with a huge population, says Offer. “There is a great future in control, air motion and humidity, the creating a healthy environment starts thinking differently about how we design freshness and quality of the air. This is with the building envelope. “The envelope true low-energy buildings.” absolutely, increasingly important to a is the critical juncture for thermal Introducing higher levels of fresh air successful occupancy.” performance, access to daylight and views, makes denser working environments glare control, and all of those things really possible – typical occupation densities affect comfort,” says Cooper. “There have fallen from 10m2 per person to 8m2. are many opportunities, depending on “Because of changes in screen and lighting the climate – dynamic façades, operable technology, we are able to squash up façades, triple-wall façades, dynamic and and people accept it because they like static shading. That’s where engineering collaborating and working together,” says and architecture meet.” Offer. “But they also need access to other types of great space, so they can break away from their desks and meet other people or find a quiet place to work. It’s about the building giving something back other than office space.” Green spaces make vertical cities much more pleasant places to be, just as they do horizontal ones: Tower, China’s tallest building at 632m and one of its greenest, has winter gardens at the edge of every floor, open spaces with trees and planters. From a developer’s point of view, this is a “IT’S ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN significant space sacrifice, which is why the most advanced buildings are typically one- AS PEOPLE SPEND MORE TIME FURTHER FROM TEMPERATURE. IT’S ABOUT ACCESS TO off landmarks or constructed for owner- THE GROUND, ENVIRONMENTAL COMFORT occupiers, says Cooper. “Most innovation NATURAL LIGHT, GLARE CONTROL, AIR happens in owner-occupied buildings,” he IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. THAT MEANS says. “But then it catches on and becomes BRINGING THE OUTDOORS IN MOTION AND HUMIDITY, THE FRESHNESS something that other tenants are looking PERMEABLE SPACES for because they see the advantages, and AND QUALITY OF THE AIR” developers follow suit.” DAVID COOPER, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF 514 15

very week, E 1 million people “IT’S A FANTASTIC CHALLENGE, LIKE RACING A move to cities – if all of that growth happened m in one place, it would create 12 YACHT. YOU’RE ALWAYS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND a new city the size of Dublin, THE SKY /// LIMITS THE SKY AND OTHER or Adelaide. THE RULES AND WHAT THE POSSIBILITIES ARE.” DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER But in reality, a considerable DAVID PENICK, HINES proportion of these new city dwellers will be looking for space to live, work and play For developers, the Penick welcomes the In New York, getting a AND OTHER in places that have been challenge is to carve out viable complexity that the city’s project off the ground is not established for hundreds schemes from a constantly detailed planning guidelines just about finding the right or thousands of years. The diminishing supply of land. bring. “An exciting thing about site – the vertical space above densification of historic New towers must be woven developing in New York is that it is just as sought-after. To cityscapes will be one of into an already complex there is a great set of rules. make possible, Hines LIMITS the defining challenges tapestry of existing buildings, It’s not a matter of going to also had to negotiate the of the 21st century. much-loved landmarks, public City Hall and saying ‘Gee, transfer of from spaces and transport and utility I wish I could do this’. Every neighbouring buildings that For city planners, the IN ESTABLISHED CITIES, NEW TOWERS ARE NEVER BUILT networks. If buildings define neighbourhood is precisely had not consumed their full challenge is one of balancing a city, they are themselves zoned, and for each plot, it says entitlement, says Penick. the interests of many different IN ISOLATION – THEY ARE INTIMATELY SHAPED BY THE shaped by all of the forces in how big the building can be “Then there are other air rights stakeholders, enabling cities to that city. and what its use can be. It’s a transfers within the project to BUILDINGS AND SPACES AROUND THEM. DEVELOPMENT thrive and grow without losing fantastic challenge, like racing a allow for the intended uses to what makes each one unique. The profusion of sculpted, IS A COMPLEX JIGSAW OF RULES, VIEWING 12m yacht. You’re always trying occur at their correct locations In a fully globalised economy chiselled or staggered forms to understand the rules and within the building. It’s a very CORRIDORS AND AIR RIGHTS. BUT IT’S A CHALLENGE where skills, jobs and capital now cropping up in established what the possibilities are, and demanding process.” are increasingly footloose, urban cores is not only an then someone comes up with a THAT DESIGNERS ARE MEETING HEAD ON the fiercest competition for expression of the whims of The plans also had to be clever new idea that everyone resources is being fought architects or the quest to create signed off by a number of learns from.” not between countries but ‘iconic’ landmarks. It’s also parties including the Museum between rival cities. High-rise because in the most congested One of the most striking of Modern Art, which will buildings play an important role cities, attempts by city planners features of 53W53 is its high occupy the lower floors, the not only in accommodating to protect rights to light or height-to-width ratio – a Landmarks Preservation newcomers but in attracting signature views often impose feature of many new towers in Commission and the NYC them in the first place – very restricted, contorted Midtown. As developers seek Transit Authority because of expressing a city’s personality envelopes into which buildings to achieve the greatest possible the nearby subway tunnels. and marking it firmly on the must fit. value from very narrow, yet The project will be occupied map as a destination for talent It didn’t take New York very expensive plots, advances in 2018, 11 years after Hines and investment. planners long to notice that in structural engineering are originally purchased the land. its new skyscrapers were enabling increasingly slender New York is already overshadowing the streets forms. But 53W53 also lies in renowned as a skyscraper below and to restrict building three different zoning districts, city, but London is only now massing at certain heights, each with its own permitted becoming one. Around 70 at a stroke prompting the densities and shapes. Architect buildings above 20 storeys distinctive setbacks of many of Jean Nouvel’s design is an are under construction, and the city’s Art Deco landmarks elegant solution to a complex almost 200 more have been from the 1920s and 30s. geometrical problem, with proposed. But even while some Since then, as approaches to different parts of the building Londoners may feel uneasy at planning have become more tapering at different angles what seems like untrammelled sophisticated, the challenge for as it rises from 53rd and 54th development, there is a well- developers has only become Streets. defined set of rules governing more complex. “Government the placement and form of approvals are a huge piece of towers, intended to preserve what we do,” says David Penick, views of the city’s landmarks managing director of Hines, from surrounding public developer with spaces. As these new towers and Pontiac Land Group of take shape, London’s planning the super-tall 53W53 tower rules are being writ large on above New York’s Museum the skyline. of Modern Art. “To create a project like this, we spend a tremendous amount of time getting everything in place so we can proceed with construction.”

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“DEVELOPING IN LONDON IS QUITE A CHALLENGE BECAUSE THERE’S A VERY HISTORIC STREET PATTERN AND /// LIMITS THE SKY AND OTHER

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER BLOCK SIZE, AND A LOT OF PROTECTED VIEWS. IN THE RECENT PAST, A LOT OF BUILDINGS HAVE BEEN SHAPED TO DEAL WITH THOSE CONSTRAINTS” GEOFF HARRIS, TH REAL ESTATE

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The protected view of architecture to be defined by St Paul’s Cathedral from Fleet this requirement. Our focus Street is one of the biggest was on creating a group of reasons why the 220m-high simple, well-proportioned Leadenhall Building tapers elements which work on the at a 10° angle, earning it the skyline. The Fleet Street view nickname ‘the Cheesegrater’ requirement was handled /// LIMITS THE SKY AND OTHER DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER and why its future neighbour by working a set of terraced

A model showing the available envelope in which had to sit. at 52 Lime Street, ‘The set-backs into the overall Below is Make Architect’s terraced design Scalpel’, leans back in the composition, which also opposite direction. In this way, enhance the workplace with both remain hidden behind external amenity spaces.” the cathedral dome. This There is a long history of same view was also a key city dwellers giving irreverent consideration in the design nicknames to new buildings. of 40 Leadenhall Street, a Now with an array of irregular 2 910,000ft development of forms rising above their between seven and 34 storeys hoardings and a constant that sits to the east of The stream of proposed towers Scalpel. coming to market, Londoners But here, developer TH have gone into overdrive. Real Estate wanted to take a Within minutes of a building’s different approach, as head launch, there will be a heated of development Geoff Harris competition on social media to explains: “Developing in coin an appropriate name. The skyline London is quite a challenge In future, London’s towers because there’s a very historic may be less easy to name as street pattern and block size, architects and developers take and a lot of protected views. a more understated approach. In the recent past, a lot of Gwyn Richards, the City of buildings have been shaped London Corporation’s head to deal with those constraints. of design, said in a recent We were looking for a building interview that he wanted to that is beautiful, unique and see “less iconic buildings, less “IS EVERY BUILDING SUPPOSED TO BE AN distinctive in its form, that provocative buildings, fewer takes us back to 20th-century buildings which might have EXUBERANT TOP OR SHOULD SOME BE US tower design – a building nicknames”. that expresses its verticality, But that hasn’t saved mixes solid and clear and MORE CONSERVATIVE? ” 40 Leadenhall Street from uses terracing.” becoming known as “ JAMES PARAKH, CITY OF TORONTO PLANNING DIVISION Working with Make City”, a name originally coined Architects, Harris’ team by Richards’ predecessor Peter completed 58 separate design Rees. Harris says he doesn’t studies, modelling all the mind. “Actually, I quite like it. It’s Developers themselves the UK. “They’re more blasé. Toronto Planning Division. San Francisco has the Golden constraints in 3D to produce an interesting because we were may now come to market In London, it’s a relatively new Gate Bridge and the bay. Hong envelope in which the building aiming for that 20th-century “We think very hard about with a brand already formed, phenomenon but in time the Kong has Two International had to sit. But rather than US architecture and that has the role of each tall building as WRBC has done for The novelty will wear off here too.” Financial Centre, shaping the building to fill that come through. But we won’t be on the skyline,” he says. “That’s Scalpel. This is partly a way of Harbour and The Peak in the space, they considered it from writing ‘Gotham City’ on our Few cities are densifying really important. Is every heading off any less flattering background. Rio de Janeiro is “WE ENDED UP WITH A the inside out, looking at how hoardings.” as rapidly as Toronto, which building supposed to be form could follow function. suggestions. But naming these has more than double the an exuberant top or should instantly recognisable for its Sometimes a building’s “We ended up with a terraced giant buildings also makes number of high-rise buildings some be more conservative? statue of Christ the Redeemer TERRACED BUILDING THAT owners may adopt a building that is arranged in them relevant on a human under construction than New Not every building can be a and Sugarloaf Mountain. nickname officially, as Sellar slices,” he says. “It deals with scale, and somehow less York, with as many as 180 landmark.” Toronto’s official plan Property Group did at The IS ARRANGED IN SLICES. all the constraints, but it’s threatening. tower cranes complementing identifies centres in which Shard – originally coined by Parakh has noticed some still a very clean form that is “People don’t do this to a burgeoning forest of growth will be concentrated, conservation body English common characteristics among IT DEALS WITH ALL THE rectilinear.” the same degree in New skyscrapers. Over the last on which streets the tallest Heritage as an insult. If it does the most successful global York because it’s already an decade, its skyline has been buildings should be located, “40 Leadenhall has to be stick, a nickname can be a skylines: “Very often, there is CONSTRAINTS” established high-rise city,” transformed under the close and sets viewing corridors unseen from Fleet Street, badge of genuine landmark a series of buildings, and then points out Bill Price, director at eye of James Parakh, urban to protect landmarks such GEOFF HARRIS, TH REAL ESTATE by sitting behind the dome status: few would recognise the one landmark that’s different, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in design manager at the City of as the dome of the Rogers of St Paul’s Cathedral in the Gherkin by its official name of and then a natural feature.” same way as ,” . adds James Taylor, partner at Make. “But we didn’t want the

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10,000 people there when it’s HASSELL recently won front. “We reorganised the finished and they all need food a competition to design streets, we replanted it and put and drink,” says Harris. “The 60 in Sydney, seating in, and we lifted the is a busy area a 32- tower due for building up 9m so that a public so offering good amenities is completion in 2019. The design street can run through the site very important.” team have tried to integrate it underneath. Rather than the into the cityscape in a range of building occupying the /// LIMITS THE SKY AND OTHER DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER ‘Placemaking’ has become an important pastime for ways, opening up a previously middle of the site, it connects developers in recent years, not obstructed view of St Stephen’s the square and the street. You only to satisfy planners but also church, and connecting the can walk through there, sit because they recognise the building with the surrounding down, get a drink of water and commercial benefits of making spaces at several different no one will stop you.” a location more ‘sticky’. After levels. They have also created EPA is now applying this all, potential office tenants a generous ‘civic room’ that concept to a much larger or apartment buyers have an invites the public into the project: No 1 Undershaft, increasing choice of rooms ground plane, including a a super-tall tower opposite with a view, and an attractive publicly accessible roof space the Gherkin. Though the neighbourhood at ground on the podium level that will 294m-high project will be the level can be a crucial point of contribute to the night-time tallest building in London’s differentiation. activity of Martin Place and financial quarter, the starting Macquarie Street. “As these buildings get point is the human scale. “In larger and more and more Get the city-making agenda a city like London, you’ve got dominating, I think it’s incredibly right and asset values can to understand how people important that we talk about climb, says McBryde – the move. We carry out pedestrian this more,” says Ken McBryde, challenge is to create spaces studies to map that movement, principal at HASSELL in that genuinely feel as if they and the challenge for us is how Sydney. “To make our cities belong to the public on what is to change it.” habitable, buildings need to really private land. The scheme will see the work on a community level.” This interface between of an older “SYDNEY OPERA IS UNIVERSALLY For McBryde, ‘groundlines’ private and public will tower completed in 1969, are as important as skylines, continue to test project teams, a 118m-high block inserted RECOGNISED BUT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL THING and it is a building’s presence especially as tall gives way to clumsily into the winding at street level that determines super-tall. “As buildings get street pattern. EPA wants the IS THE GROUND PLANE. IT’S REALLY BUZZING” whether it is a successful bigger, their cores become new building to work more addition to a cityscape. He uses more demanding,” says Nick harmoniously with the existing KEN McBRYDE, HASSELL the example of the Sydney Jackson, director at Eric Parry city, and restore some of the Opera House, a world-famous Architects. “The segregation of older connections between landmark. “It’s universally uses and of entrances becomes the surrounding spaces. “There recognised as a symbol of the more of a problem and security are two 16th-century churches city, but the most successful is a much bigger factor. That that probably haven’t seen makes it very difficult in terms each other for 300 years,” says Centre stadium. It’s designed style, and even though they committee, which is working on thing is the ground plane, of how you land a building. Jackson. “We want to remove to preserve the integrity of the are dwarfed by tall buildings, a publication about the spaces the podium and the way it One of the problems we see that blockage and replace it skyline as the city develops, there has to be some balance. surrounding tall buildings, due sits in the city. At all times of as we look at many of the tall with a more delicate footprint.” but the way buildings integrate Thinking about one without out in 2016. the week, this place is really buzzing.” buildings going up around the A super-tall giant that treads into the city at ground level the other is not making a great This is also a theme for 5 Aldermanbury Square, London world is that they can be very lightly on its surroundings: is an equal focus for Parakh: city.” Richards at the City of London He thinks that’s also why aggressive and alienating at perhaps that should be a model “You can’t ignore how these Toronto’s first super-tall Corporation. To gain planning Londoners have embraced ground level.” for high-rise development buildings meet the street. project has just been approved, approval, he says, new towers The Shard, even though it’s To create more permeable everywhere. We’ve spent a lot of time the Mirvish+Gehry proposal will ideally have some public on an unprecedented scale spaces, designers may need thinking about the scale of the for twin residential towers, at space at the top, and definitely for the city. “The success of to think radically about what individual in relationship with 82 and 92 storeys. “It’s going to at the base. Accessibility and The Shard is that it’s not an happens at ground level. the tall building.” Buildings play an important role on the permeability at street level is impenetrable tower, it’s actually “WE LIFTED THE BUILDING UP When it was completed back must fit within their context skyline, but approval was based a must. At 40 Leadenhall, for highly permeable. There’s a in 2007, EPA’s Stirling Prize- and transition down to lower- on preserving heritage and example, the ground floor plate whole range of mixed uses 9m SO THAT A PUBLIC STREET nominated 5 Aldermanbury scaled buildings and open getting adequate separation has been set back to leave that the public can explore at Square was pretty tall for space. Wind-tunnel testing distances, adequate light and more pavement and retail multiple levels, starting with CAN RUN THROUGH THE SITE London. As well as designing is mandated on all projects. privacy.” He is also chair of the space, and there is a restaurant the transport interchange. It’s the 20-storey office building, “Parks and historic landmarks Council on Tall Buildings and on levels 13 and 14. “If you just access to the public that makes UNDERNEATH” the practice also completely are very much part of our Urban Habitat take this building, there will be this a well-loved building.” NICK JACKSON, ERIC PARRY ARCHITECTS transformed the square in

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PUBLIC SPACE IN PRIVATE TOWERS: THE INVISIBLE /// LIMITS THE SKY AND OTHER

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER SERVICES CHALLENGE BY DAVID HEALY, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF

There’s a proliferation of The shapes of many The Shard’s façade is meant public space at the top of London towers are influenced to resemble pieces of broken “THERE IS ONLY tall buildings in London, as a by viewing corridors to glass leaning together, so rather requirement of many planning St Paul’s Cathedral. But than having a standard band approvals. For a building this also determines the of louvres to get air in and out ONE VERTICAL services engineer, the impact internal layouts of a building, of the building, we had to do of that space on the building is and even its ventilation something a little bit different. SIDE ON THE absolutely huge. philosophy. When buildings As the ’shards’ overlap to When I was working on lean, that has a significant create fractures, that creates an CHEESEGRATER, The Shard, this was a major effect on the mechanical and opportunity for winter gardens challenge because of the shape electrical services. There is on the office floorplates, which WHICH ALMOST of the building. The floorplates only one vertical side on the are naturally ventilated, and shrink as the building gets taller Cheesegrater, for example, on the plant levels we could DICTATES but there are massive peaks which almost dictates where use them to get air in and out in occupancy at the mid-level the core has to go. The public of the building. Just one of WHERE THE restaurant and the viewing space at the base and the the impacts of that is that you gallery at the top – so the need to keep that free of need to designate a particular CORE HAS greatest concentration is where columns impacts the structural fracture for bringing air in or the floorplates are smallest. If engineering, and that pushes out because you don’t want to we had followed standard fire the core further to the back of cross-contaminate it. It may TO GO” escape provisions by using the building. Once you offset not be immediately obvious multiple stairs, there wouldn’t the core, that creates a little to everyone else, but there’s have been much room left for bit of lower value floor space. some real gymnastics to get anything else. Our solution was So instead of a ventilation this to work. that some of the lifts would be strategy where there are central used in a fire or emergency. air-handling units at the top That too had a massive knock- and at the bottom, feeding up on effect, and introduced a through risers, you end up with range of constraints because on-floor handling units serving we needed to provide each tenant separately. pressurised lobbies where people can wait for lifts, and install an independent cooling system for the lift motor rooms and other elements that would ensure the lifts could be safely used in an emergency.

“THE SUCCESS OF THE SHARD IS THAT IT’S NOT AN IMPENETRABLE TOWER, IT’S ACTUALLY HIGHLY PERMEABLE” KEN McBRYDE, HASSELL

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IT BEGAN WITH A MULTIBILLION-DOLLAR SUBWAY EXTENSION. NOW ONE OF MANHATTAN’S FEW FORGOTTEN QUARTERS IS THE SCENE OF THE US’S

BIGGEST EVER DEVELOPMENT: HUDSON YARDS /// WEST SIDE STORY FAR DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER FAR WEST SIDE STORY

udson Yards is a part of the city,” says Greg a challenge,” says Kelly. “We undertaking improvement H New York story, a Kelly, president and CEO of wanted to grow Manhattan works across the rest of story and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Far West Side was network. “The MTA had a an urban regeneration story. in the US, Central & South one of the last frontiers, but pretty full plate with some But most of all, it’s a transport America, which led the we needed a transportation mega-projects that were very story – of how a $2.4bn planning and design of the solution.” far along, so this one was going investment in infrastructure has subway extension and the land Extending the 7 line was to require some innovative given birth to the largest real use strategy at ground level deemed the most efficient approaches,” says Kelly. “The estate project that the US has for joint developers Related way to connect the site into question was how we could ever seen. Companies and Oxford the existing network. Running capture the value of the land A completely new Properties Group. “That was east to west, the 7 crosscuts that would be developed over neighbourhood is taking really the underpinning of 18 other north-south lines the next 15 years.” shape on the western edge this project: using transit as a and serves Grand Central The solution was New York’s of Manhattan, on a long- catalyst for development. Not Station. From being one of first tax increment financed neglected railway site next to just to take the subway to the the worst connected parts of project, and one of the largest the . Over the west side, but to use it to create the city, Hudson Yards would undertaken in the US. The next ten years, that thick forest real growth and an economic suddenly be one of the best. municipal government issued of rail tracks will disappear benefit for the region.” But constructing the first new bonds to fund the $2.4bn from view, to be replaced by It all began around the turn section of New York subway in project, which will be repaid 20 million ft2 of office, of the millennium. Although more than 80 years did throw with property tax revenues residential, retail and leisure the site was only a mile and a up some surprises along the from future developments space. The masterplan half from the lights and energy way. The 7,000ft (2,133m) in the area. “That provided envisages 16 tall and super-tall of , it couldn’t tunnel had to be threaded certainty that the public sector “WE WANTED TO buildings – all effectively built have felt further away. The through a dense below-ground would deliver the infrastructure on stilts, supported by two problem was accessibility. network of existing tunnels and improvements that were super-strong, highly complex There was no subway line building foundations – some of planned, and that they weren’t GROW MANHATTAN platforms over the tracks, while and it was, at best, a 10 or which were not on the as-built subject to the whims of politics the trains continue to roar 15-minute walk from Penn plans. The bedrock in this part or policy,” says Andrew Cantor, AND THE FAR WEST on underneath throughout Station, trekking across four of Manhattan is softer too, so vice president of development construction. long city blocks. The Far West the ground had to be frozen at Related. “Infrastructure SIDE WAS ONE OF The Hudson Yards scheme is Side lagged behind the rest to allow the tunnelling to take projects typically take longer not the first attempt to unlock of Manhattan on residential, place. To minimise the impact than any single official’s time in THE LAST FRONTIERS, the potential of this tantalisingly commercial and retail use, of the station at ground level, office. If bonds are issued, there underutilised space, but it is with around one-third of Kelly’s team also used inclined are contractual obligations that BUT WE NEEDED A the first to succeed. What the density elsewhere in the elevators, believed to be a first must be met and that creates has made the difference is city, and almost double the for the US. a lot more confidence for TRANSPORTATION the city’s decision to extend amount of low-grade garage The extension required investors.” the 7 subway line, and the and storage space. On a small significant rezoning, as SOLUTION” innovative funding mechanism island with some of the most well as a new funding that has been used to pay for sought-after real estate on the mechanism because New GREG KELLY, WSP | PARSONS it. “Infrastructure has driven planet, it stood out as a major York’s Metropolitan Transport BRINCKERHOFF vertical development in this missed opportunity. “We had Authority was already

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Today Hudson Yards is a sea Last year, Related opened residential, hotel, office and will come , to-ceiling glass in every space like an than a New of cranes, with phase one of just to the retail space. Then there’s the at 1,296ft (395m) the tallest and as many outdoor spaces York subway. Right now, few the build well underway. The south of the Eastern Yard, a Culture Shed, an expandable building on the site and the as we can build in throughout passengers remain on the platform over the Eastern Yard building with structure on rails that will host second tallest office building in the buildings. That was a critical train after Times Square, but section of the site is almost 400 units for rent overlooking large travelling art exhibitions the city. Anchor tenant Time requirement.” the considerable size of the 2 complete, and 10 million ft the . It is fully and New York Fashion Week, Warner has signed up for 38 Public space at ground station offers a clue as to the of buildings are now coming occupied, and commanding which has committed to of its 90 floors, while at the level is also a key feature of plans for the neighbourhood: /// WEST SIDE STORY FAR out of the ground. But the the highest rents in Related’s relocate from the Lincoln top, the city’s highest outdoor Hudson Yards. In all, there will when the whole scheme is DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER area around portfolio. “That’s a dramatic Center uptown. There will also is expected be 14 acres, laid out by British complete in 2024, 65,000 Hudson Yards has already change – it used to be the be a seven-storey mall, where to draw 2 million visitors each designer Thomas Heatherwick. visitors are expected every day. changed beyond recognition. Upper East Side that had the Related secured something of year. Over the subway station “Getting the public space right “Beforehand everyone said it’s Five years ago, the anticipated highest rents.” a coup when it tempted luxury itself, will sit is probably one of the most going to feel too crowded,” arrival of the subway, combined Abington House looked department store Neiman at the centre of the scheme, important things to make a says Cantor. “Now everyone with investment in green tall when it was first built, Marcus to open its first New and is being marketed at tech, project feel authentic and says it feels too spacious, which spaces including the conversion but not for long. Now under York store. professional services and law exciting,” says Cantor. just goes to show that you can’t of an old elevated rail track firms. “Most office space in please New Yorkers. But it’s construction, 15 Hudson There are three office The new station at 34th into the High Line park, began New York is more than 50 ready for the development that Yards will offer 70 storeys of buildings under construction. Street opened in September to draw companies including years old, so the idea here was is forthcoming.” apartments, and be one of The first, , will 2015. Taking the 7 line to Google, Sony and IAC to to build something that will be the tallest residential buildings open in March, and be home Hudson Yards is quite an locate there. It is now growing first rate and world class,” says in the city. to tenants including L’Oreal, experience – the slick new five times faster than the rest Cantor. “That means floor- will follow in 2019, more than Coach, SAP and Boston station is more of Manhattan, and has become 1,000ft tall with a mix of Consulting Group. In 2019, the number-one destination for galleries, restaurants and parks. “Business now recognises this as one of the most appealing areas to be,” says Cantor. “The companies that are growing in New York are moving to the west side, for a variety of experiences you can have beyond just having a typical office building.” The average household income of the neighbourhood is on a par with the rest of Manhattan, but it’s skewed towards a younger, single demographic, he adds. “Millennials are really driving the neighbourhoods that are coming. They’re looking for a mixed-use experience, and that’s what we’re going to deliver.”

“GETTING THE PUBLIC SPACE RIGHT IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO MAKE A PROJECT FEEL AUTHENTIC AND EXCITING” ANDREW CANTOR, RELATED

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/// WEST SIDE STORY FAR DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER

55 HUDSON YARDS SOARING ABOVE THE SUBWAY

Being close to transport links integration with infrastructure WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is usually a major asset for a and complexity below-grade.” used several tricks to reduce high-rise development. But 55 Hudson Yards is a the weight of the concrete, from a ’s 40-storey tower set back on creating a structure that is light point of view, there is perhaps a nine-storey podium, which enough to meet strict load such a thing as being too close. incorporates a six-storey requirements while also being At 760ft (232m), 55 Hudson ventilation shaft building very strong. They specified a Yards is not the tallest building for the subway. One of the 12,000psi high-strength mix, on the site, but it is one of the biggest challenges was how to using lightweight aggregate, most complicated. It sits not weave the support structure and the floor slabs were on the Eastern Yard deck, but for all of this through the post-tensioned – a common on the subway station itself, substantial subway escalators. technique in other markets but and the brief for the office is mainly supported believed to be the first major space was also very specific. on 10 caissons, 100ft deep use in New York. At the very Co-developers Related and with diameters of up to 6ft, top of the building, a system Oxford Properties Group which had to be driven very of outriggers links the core to wanted column-free corners, accurately. perimeter columns spaced 30ft apart. All of this allows the a 10-foot clear ceiling and no The building was only able to floor slabs to be very thin – just penetrations on the core touch the rock below in two 9 inches – even with spans of apart from the openings to thin strips that do not even 40ft and 35ft off the core. The the elevators. span the whole site. Otherwise, post-tensioned system was “All of these things allowed it lands on the MTA facility in carefully planned to leave free for much better planning and predefined locations with areas so that interconnecting much more efficient layouts predefined loads. The problem stairs could be added anywhere for our tenants, but they was that those predefined throughout the floor plate. compounded the challenges points were based on a As Smilow explains: “Every facing the engineers,” says completely different design. engineering decision that we Andrew Cantor at Related. The previous plans for the site, made had to keep in mind “We wanted to have large for which WSP | Parsons flexibility for tenants.” openings for future stairs as Brinckerhoff was also the well as setbacks for double- structural engineer, envisaged height terraces throughout.” a steel-framed tower with a They also wanted the building diagrid structure. Now they “OF ALL THE PROJECTS WE’VE DONE to be constructed out of had to work out how to land concrete – unusual for a a concrete building with a commercial building in New completely different form in OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS, THIS York. “But that was the easy exactly the same way. part,” says Jeffrey Smilow, “Generally speaking, if you HAS BEEN THE MOST COMPLEX executive vice president of compare a typical concrete building structures at WSP | office structure to a steel- IN TERMS OF INTEGRATION Parsons Brinckerhoff in New framed building you’re dealing York. “The difficult part was with roughly twice the load.” WITH INFRASTRUCTURE AND what lies underground. Of all explains Smilow. “But we the projects we’ve done over had to match the steel COMPLEXITY BELOW-GRADE” the last 30 years, this has been building’s loads, and in the the most complex in terms of right locations.” JEFFREY SMILOW, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF

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AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE /// EVERY FROM AN ICON DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER

ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER IS A LANDMARK LIKE NO OTHER. FROM ITS MONUMENTAL EVERYARCHITECTURE AND AN ICON GROUNDBREAKING STRUCTURE TO THE EMOTIONAL ROLE IT’S FROMANGLE PLAYED IN THE LIVES OF NEW YORKERS, THIS IS THE STORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

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“DESIGNING A BUILDING IS NEVER EASY. DESIGNING A SUPER-TALL BUILDING IS EVEN HARDER. HERE WE WERE FACED WITH AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE /// EVERY FROM AN ICON

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER DESIGNING A SUPER-TALL BUILDING IN WITH THE WORLD WATCHING US” TJ GOTTESDIENER, SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL

he goal was always to “create a T better version of New York,” says Janno Lieber, president of World Trade Center Properties. Lieber is describing ’ redevelopment on the former site of the twin towers in , height of 20ft, it begins to gently taper judgement call, says Yoram Elion, senior an epic 14-year journey that has seen a cast at the corners. By the time it reaches the vice president of building structures at of thousands overcome technical, logistical uppermost 104th storey, the floor plan WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in New York. and, not least, emotional challenges as is again a square, but slightly smaller “We didn’t want to make new rules that New Yorkers watched with bated breath. and twisted through 45 degrees. At its would be too conservative and cause a The 16-acre site will comprise five midpoint, it is a perfect octagon. From dramatic increase in costs. It all had to towers as well as the National September base to parapet, the building is also the be reasonable but obviously address the 11 Memorial and Museum, but it was the same height as the twin towers – 1,368ft issues.” Gratifyingly, when the new building completion of One World Trade Center [417m] – before its crowning mast takes codes were finally produced, many of the in November 2014 that was perhaps the it up to the symbolic height of 1,776ft solutions that the team came up with had biggest milestone both for the project [541m], reflecting the year of the signing been adopted. team and the city. This super-tall tower of the Declaration of Independence and The design of One WTC is very now stands proudly on the skyline, making it the tallest tower in the western different to that of the twin towers. While filling the void left by the destruction hemisphere. they were held up by external steel of the original World Trade Center on “We always thought this building should columns, it has a hybrid concrete-and- 11 September 2001 and reinstating an be about simplicity and geometry,” says steel structure. The key to its strength is a important landmark. What is less obvious architect TJ Gottesdiener, managing massive, extremely strong concrete core. is the revolutionary impact the project partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill This rises all the way to the uppermost has had on structural engineering itself, (SOM), who led the design team. “We storeys, acting as the building’s primary redefining the way towers are constructed tried to make it look as clean, strong, support to resist gravitation, wind and in New York. As the project team worked monumental as possible and that meant seismic loads and impact, as well as housing to make One WTC the safest ever built, making it look as simple as possible – all means of egress. Steel beams set into they have developed new technologies although this is far from a simple building.” the concrete core support the floors, and techniques that have since been One aspect that was always going to enabling vast column-free expanses. The adopted into the city’s building codes and be complicated was the structural design. core contains two interlinked access stairs in buildings worldwide. The team had to create a landmark that and a dedicated first-responders’ stair – to There was never any question that the would restore confidence in tall buildings allow first responders to climb the building World Trade Center would be replaced. and make people feel safe – but with New quickly in the event of an emergency, while It may have taken almost seven years Yorkers eager to see results at the site, people escape – a feature that is now for One WTC’s superstructure to finally the design of One WTC had to proceed standard in New York building codes. become visible from behind the vast while this thought process was ongoing. The core is made of ultra-high- hoardings, but the rebuilding plans began “After 9/11, construction just stopped,” strength concrete, at 14,000psi the almost immediately. “That fateful day says Ahmad Rahimian, director of building strongest ever poured in New York. the World Trade Center was lost was structures at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff “It’s much stronger than any rock you described by many people as ‘putting in New York, who led the structural design could find,” says Rahimian. This strength a hole in our heart’,” remembers Steve of One WTC. “The entire engineering also helped to reduce the thickness of Plate, deputy chief of capital planning and and construction community was trying to the walls, maximising the lettable area, director of WTC construction at the understand what had happened and see while minimising the weight of materials Authority of New York and . what lessons we could learn to make future required. Replacing more than 50% of the “We needed to replace it as quickly and buildings better. We knew that current cement content with industrial by-products expeditiously as we could. We needed to building codes would not be sufficient, so further cut the carbon footprint of the make a statement in the form of a building, we had to design a building for a future building, and more than 95% of the steel in but driven by people. Now that that had not been written yet.” the structure is recycled, contributing to a has itself become a catalyst for the whole To do this, the team reviewed best LEED Gold environmental rating. of Lower Manhattan.” practice from around the world and As impressive as the above-ground One WTC begins from a 200ft square consulted the emergency services and structure is, the tower also has a significant footprint – exactly the same dimensions the designers of emergency systems. – and challenging – mass below ground, as the original twin towers. From a But fundamentally, it came down to a which was a Herculean task in itself. The

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AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE /// EVERY FROM AN ICON DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER

“WE NEEDED TO COMMEMORATE WHAT HAD BEEN HERE AND THE PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN LOST, BUT WE ALSO NEEDED TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT REPRESENTS THE CHARACTER OF NEW YORK, ITS DYNAMISM AND ITS HOPES FOR THE FUTURE” JANNO LIEBER, SILVERSTEIN PROPERTIES

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building’s five underground storeys go coating that creates a constantly changing time, because there’s so much natural light down 70ft. The masterplan demanded kaleidoscope. The corners are clad in flooding in.” “AFTER 9/11, THERE that the tallest tower be built in the laser-finished that glints in Fittingly, the new World Trade Center

north-west corner of the site – but this the sunlight. “It reflects the sky and the performs a vital civic role too. The ANGLE /// EVERY FROM AN ICON DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER WAS CONCERN meant threading the columns through the buildings around it, and when the light hits masterplan created by Studio Daniel tracks of the fully operational train station it a certain way you can see right through Libeskind envisaged a diverse district, with underneath. “There is a whole city below it,” says SOM’s Gottesdiener. “Sometimes the National September 11 Memorial & ABOUT TALL that extends way beyond the footprint of it glows a bright orange or red. It’s got a Museum at its heart. More than half of the tower,” says Elion. “One World Trade very beautiful quality to it.” the site is now given over to public space, BUILDINGS. THAT Center has about half-a-million square Of course, notwithstanding its symbolic and the historic streetscape has been feet below grade – that itself is bigger than and monumental role, One WTC is a reinstated to make the development much WAS IN OUR MINDS many tall buildings.” commercial office building. On entering, more permeable. As well as office space, While this is largely hidden from public workers are immediately faced with the there are retail and leisure uses to create CONSTANTLY AS view, back above ground the architects interior’s most impressive feature: a 50ft- a thriving, vibrant community throughout were responsible for perhaps the most high atrium. Above that, there are four the day and evening and at weekends WE LOOKED FOR highly visible façade on the planet. levels of mechanical space, before the too. A new transportation hub is under Aesthetics were therefore of paramount office floors begin on the 20th storey. After construction, expected to serve 200,000 WAYS TO REINSTATE importance. Aside from the sheer size of 71 storeys, there are further mechanical commuters each day. “We wanted to the building, it’s the way that it catches the floors topped by a three-storey public make the World Trade Center a model light that makes the greatest impression, observation deck on levels 100-102. “It has of what New York can and should be, and THAT CONFIDENCE the luminescence of the structure to function as a very stable, very efficient I think we accomplish that by creating somehow lightening its monumental environment where people want to come a more dynamic streetscape with great IN HIGH-RISE presence on the skyline. This is thanks to and work,” says SOM’s Gottesdiener. Key accessibility,” says Lieber. “That’s what the floor-to-floor glazing – the exterior of to this appeal are generous 9ft 6in ceiling makes it different and special.” CONSTRUCTION” the building is composed of 1 million ft2 of heights and column-free expanses of up This is already clearly visible in the MIKE MENNELLA, specially developed glass. This has a very to 45ft from the core to the perimeter, buzz around the site, which has become TISHMAN CONSTRUCTION high U-value to maintain comfortable as well as the floor-to-floor glazing. “We a focal point for both New Yorkers and conditions inside the building and support wanted to allow as much natural light to visitors to the city. “In the last 10 years, the LEED Gold rating, but it’s also highly penetrate the building as possible. People downtown has evolved tremendously,” says transparent, with a reflective, mirror-like don’t have to turn on the lights 90% of the Eric Engelhardt, vice president of leasing

for One WTC at the . 2 WTC has been designed by Bjarke users and stakeholders. There are major “When I started in real estate, downtown Ingels, and will be the second-tallest on retail areas, major transportation areas always became a bit of a ghost town the site at 1270ft (387m). As well as One and major pathways for trucks, and we’re when everyone went home. Now it’s WTC, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is the involved in engineering most of these become a 24/7/365 live-work-play structural engineer for towers 7, 2, 3 and the components.” neighbourhood. It’s attracting tenants memorial and museum, and conducted Rebuilding the World Trade Center has from a wide range of industries, from a peer review on tower 4. The WSP | been a vast undertaking, made possible by financial services to law firms, technology, Parsons Brinckerhoff team also ensured the an unprecedented level of collaboration advertising and publishing.” overall stability of the enormous ‘bathtub’ and cooperation. “One of the challenges The towers that those new tenants perimeter walls that encircle the entire site on any project is making sure that you have will occupy have been designed by a below ground to keep the waters of the the right people on your team and that prestigious list of international architects. adjacent Hudson River at bay. they can all work together,” says Rahimian SOM designed not only One WTC but “What you don’t see below ground is at. “But on this project, we all knew it was a also the first building to complete in 2006, just as massive as what’s above ground,” once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bringing 7WTC. November 2013 saw the opening says Jeff Smilow, executive vice president everyone together was easy.” of 4 WTC, by Pritzker Prize winner of building structures at WSP | Parsons ; Richard Rogers, another Brinckerhoff in New York. “ Pritzker Prize winner, has designed is roughly 75ft below grade, and it’s The National September 11 Memorial 3 WTC, due for completion in 2018; composed of multiple levels with multiple

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ONE OFFICIALWORLD TRADE BIOGRAPHER CENTER OF

BY JUDITH DUPRÉ,

Picture courtesy of Joe Woolhead AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE /// EVERY FROM AN ICON DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER IT HAD

TO STAND TALL WHILE AVOIDING ANY APPEARANCE OF HUBRIS – A JANUS TASK FOR A 104-STOREY

For more TOWER the Port one of the biggest technological advances than a decade, Authority in how towers are built in Manhattan today. One World Trade of New Set in a public plaza in one of has occupied York & New most solemn places in the city, One had centre stage in the global Jersey, itself a to appear dignified and approachable, imagination. Its structural bi-state agency with while disguising the reality that it is an challenges were those inherent in a complex governance impenetrable building. Moreover, while the realisation of any super-tall, but structure. many towers have retail shops on the street were exacerbated at this location by a The original Twin Towers level, which naturally attract people, One number of tangible and intangible factors were an urban North Star: one did not have that advantage. Instead, its that made the project unlike any other. quick glance up and they’d orient you. 186ft-high (56.7m) concrete podium is One’s massive size, encompassing That too was gone in their wake, leaving covered in sparkling glass panels. Its four 3.1 million ft2 (288,000m2), was determined a gap that was felt viscerally. New Yorkers transparent entrances, oversized to convey by the need to replace the office space lost wanted their skyline restored – yesterday. hospitality, are ingeniously threaded with a on September 11. The masterplan placed Consequently, One’s progress was closely flexible cable-net grid that will deflect the the tower in the most damaged corner of scrutinised, with any delay fanned by the effect of an explosion. Just beyond them the site. There, below-grade conditions media, creating additional stress for those are secondary concrete walls that are clad were complicated further by the need to involved. Few understood the sheer size of in dichroic glass, a specialty glass that splits build over four curving rail lines, which had the substructure, which, at a half-million ft2 the spectrum of light into shimmering to stay operational during construction, (46,451m2), is larger than many buildings. patterns of colour and makes the entrances and by constraints imposed by the Architects, contractors and tradespeople – as welcoming as a spring morning. adjacent structures, with which One shares everyone spoke of the relief they felt when One World Trade Center holds our foundations and mechanical systems. It the superstructure finally emerged above impossible wish: to have back everyone had to meet security parameters that had ground on 17 May 2008. The larger site, who was lost on September 11. Of all never been demanded of any skyscraper, similarly intricate, is a subterranean Rubik’s the challenges that it faced, perhaps the anywhere. Cube of nine interdependent structures biggest one is exorcising the ghosts of Infinitely more challenging was One’s with shared foundations, utilities and the structures that it replaced. Spurring duty as a symbol of all that was lost, mechanical systems. Dozens of designers, innovative design and construction and reclaimed, on September 11. It contractors and owners had to weigh in on methods, new standards and had to provide solace and inspiration every wall and opening. groundbreaking safety measures, One to millions, most of whom had wildly Given One’s height and slenderness, also provides thousands with a place to divergent opinions of how that could be WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff had devised remember, reflect, work, eat and shop. That accomplished. It had to stand tall, while a concrete-core structure, an effective all those things have been accomplished, avoiding any appearance of hubris, a solution that would shield internal systems thanks to brilliant solutions and strenuous Janus task for a 104-storey tower. Some and mitigate shearing forces. However, in effort, qualifies it as a masterpiece. 8 million New Yorkers actively debated New York, because of jurisdictional issues its design and clamoured to help. The peculiar to its powerful unions, which

project was uniquely bound and slowed govern how steel and concrete crews Judith Dupré is an architectural historian and a New by this preponderance of good will, and work together, concrete cores were less York Times bestselling author. One World Trade hindered too by the mandates of dozens frequently used. Ultimately, the unions Center, Biography of the Building will be published of city, state and federal agencies that had agreed that the concrete core could be by Little, Brown and Company in April 2016. OneWTCBook.com jurisdiction over the site, which is owned by constructed ahead of the steel framing –

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/// THE RISING CONTINENT DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER THE RISING CONTINENT

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200m proposed or under to stand 317m tall. Under the been building towers upwards It may not reach the heights construction, 33 are in new planning regime, it would of 30 or 35 storeys. Now all of a of other mega-tall locations, Melbourne. A report by have been limited to 43 storeys, sudden we’re doing many that but is still developing

a Melbourne city council or have to be much thinner or are between 80 and 90 storeys. at a rate, and in a style, that

planner found that its high-rise located on a much larger site. We’re now going from high- would be more familiar to apartments were being built But Sydney, Australia’s rise to super-rise and that’s the residents of Asian cities

at four times the maximum largest city, could easily go down to a strong presence of than most European or /// THE RISING CONTINENT densities permitted in some of mega-tall. WSP | Parsons Asian developers.” American ones. One of its DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER the world’s most crowded cities, Brinckerhoff has just opened Brisbane’s tallest building biggest projects is Queen’s such as , New York a new structural engineering used to be the 91m clock tower Wharf, a A$2bn riverside and . office there. The company on its town hall, completed in resort with six residential and WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff is already providing building 1930. Its first towers in the leisure towers, the tallest has been involved in 22 of systems design on the and 80s were commercial, but 200m, as well as a casino those new projects, and Greenland Centre, a 235m it was a boom in inner-city and shops. The Destination Hennessy notes that in contrast tower due to complete in 2017, living that really transformed Brisbane Consortium behind the scheme includes Hong RISING to previous development, and set to be the city’s highest the skyline. Since 1970, the A NEW GENERATION OF RESIDENTIAL TOWERS almost all of the new wave of residential building. That city’s population has more Kong-listed developer Far East towers are residential. This could be dwarfed by what’s than doubled, from 800,000 Consortium and a subsidiary of IS TRANSFORMING AUSTRALIA’S SKYLINES – AND reflects a massive increase in still to come. “We see Sydney to 1.8 million. “The 200m jewellery giant Chow Tai Fook SHOWING HOW CITIES ONCE DESIGNED IN AN city-centre living, he says. At as a huge emerging market tower market has been driven alongside Sydney-base Echo the turn of the millennium, for high-rise,” says Hennessy. by residential development,” Entertainments. AMERICAN IMAGE ARE BEING RESHAPED BY most Melbournians lived in “There’s great potential to build says Gaskin. “Between 1997 Described as a “world city” in the suburbs. “Now towers significantly in excess of and 2007, there were 18 new development, Queen’s Wharf THE CONTINENT ASIAN INFLUENCES there’s a trend for people to 300m, 400m, potentially even residential and hotel towers in is intended to encourage move to the city, and a huge 500m. Sydney is definitely the Brisbane, as well as 11 in Gold international tourism. It aims to trend for people to live in an next wave. The current market Coast.” celebrate Brisbane’s heritage, apartment, which wasn’t the is predominantly residential Like Melbourne, a key with 12 football fields of norm before.” The population but population growth and constraint on the height of public space and 50 bars and of the central business district urbanisation will also impact on Brisbane’s towers is the nearby restaurants, but it also brings has grown from just 7,500 in demand for office space.” Brisbane Airport, which also something very new to the city, n paper, Australia standards of living and a These new market entrants for Americanisation,” he says. 2001 to more than 42,000 The number of cranes on restricts how they are built. and perhaps to Australia – a O is one of the most stable economy that remained are particularly comfortable “The equivalent for the 21st today, an increase of more a city skyline is often used Above 90 storeys it is difficult glitzy, dense and emphatically sparsely occupied largely unscathed by the global with high-rise projects, both as century will be Asianisation. than 550%. This is predicted to indicate the health of the – but not impossible. One vertical mode of living and places on the planet. It’s a recession. developers and buyers of the That’s what we’re experiencing to almost double again by construction market, and the of the city’s biggest projects spending leisure time. 2036. Within the next five small nation living on a vast This is driving a massive resulting product. It is this that in Australia now. It’s a western wider economy. In October is , a 263m Brisbane is traditionally years, there will be 24,000 continental landmass, with a boom in high-rise development: is driving the race to the skies continent but it’s being 2015, the Rider Levett Bucknall commercial tower that will be regarded as a pleasant more apartments, and 18,000 population only slightly larger “Australia has more skyscrapers across Australian cities. “China rapidly transformed by Asian Index identified 220 on occupied by the backwater, with little to teach its more will be needed to than the New York metro area per person than any other is way ahead of everyone in influences.” Sydney’s skyline – the highest government. Brookfield peers in Australia or elsewhere. accommodate growth over the in an area the size of Europe country in the world with a the scale and the volume of Australia’s cities initially recorded since August 2012, commissioned But Queen’s Wharf is a prime next two decades. and India combined. population greater than 5 high-rise that’s happening right followed the American and more than any other city an independent consultant example of how styles of But the reality of the world’s million,” says Mark Hennessy, now,” says Hennessy. “Cities model, defined by low-density All of this is drastically in the world apart from . to carry out an aeronautical development pioneered in Asia sixth largest country is that director at WSP | Parsons such as New York were centres sprawl built around the car changing the city’s skyline. If The number of cranes across examination, and successfully could be adapted for western much of its 7.7 million square Brinckerhoff in Melbourne. of excellence for high-rise, but and self-sustained satellite Melbourne was developed to Australian cities rose by 26% negotiated a three-month cities – creating a hybrid most of the mega-tall buildings the maximum capacity allowed between April and October window to penetrate the urban model that may be kilometres is an uninhabitable But population growth is not cities. In contrast, Kebel says, are in eastern cities.” under the current planning 2015 to 539, with more than Brisbane Airport Corporation implemented around the world desert, and its 24 million the only factor. Much of the Asian countries have tended regime, its massing would 80% on residential projects. limit with the tower cranes for as the century progresses. people are clustered in a thin development taking place in It’s not just Australia’s to concentrate development become considerably denser. the project. Other cities might want to green fringe along its southern Australian cities is due to the proximity to Asia that makes around transport nodes and Over 100 of those cranes According to a projection watch closely. coast. Nearly two-thirds of arrival of deep-pocketed Asian it a pioneer over the US or collective amenities. Now cities were in Brisbane, capital of the by XO Projects, there could Australians live in its five largest investors and developers. Europe, says Igor Kebel, design such as Melbourne and Sydney state of Queensland, which be an extra 170 towers, four cities, and these are currently According to property firm director at architect Elenberg are shifting rapidly from a also has ambitious building million square metres of the scene of some of the Knight Frank, Asian investors Fraser and co-founder of XO horizontal plane to a vertical plans. Australia’s third most gross floor area and nearly world’s densest development. have spent more than A$22bn Projects. “Australian cities are one, as people reject long populous state is home to 21,000 apartments, and the While the habitable on core Australian property younger, a lot less established commutes and congestion in 4.5 million people, and six of CBD population could reach portion of the country is, if over the last two years, making and a lot more exposed than favour of more compact living its tallest buildings. Brisbane 140,000. “AUSTRALIA HAS MORE anything, shrinking due to it the third-largest investment old world countries. Some spaces with essential amenities already has more than 50 climate change, its population destination behind the US and things are only possible here. If on their doorsteps. Melbourne’s potential as towers over 100m in height, SKYSCRAPERS PER PERSON growth is far outstripping UK. Sydney and Melbourne you want to see what the new Melbourne is Australia’s a super-high-rise city to rival topped by the 249m Infinity. most comparable countries. were the primary targets, urban world is going to be like, fastest growing city, and Hong Kong or Shanghai is, Surfer magnet Gold Coast is Between 2011 and 2015, but as the market heats up, you have to go to Australia.” arguably the one experiencing however, limited. Building the site of the country’s tallest THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN Australia’s population grew investors are now looking Kebel believes that the the greatest Asianisation heights are constrained building to date, the 323m-high by an average of 1.6% a year, further afield to Brisbane, densification taking place in right now. Its double skyline around the 300m mark by , a residential tower THE WORLD WITH A POPULATION compared to increases well Perth, Canberra and Adelaide. Australian cities is a foretaste – running along the east and flight paths, and Victoria’s new completed in 2005. below 1% for much of Europe Foreign buyers accounted for of what we can expect west banks of the state government is imposing “Asian money is certainly a GREATER THAN 5 MILLION” and the . A between half and two-thirds elsewhere as the century – already boasts 32 buildings much stricter city planning big driver in the Queensland MARK HENNESSY, large proportion of this is from of sales of higher-density progresses. “During the higher than 150m. It’s also rules on development density. construction economy,” says net migration. Both talent residential sites in Sydney, 20th century, the world was home to the lion’s share of Construction has just begun John Gaskin, Brisbane-based WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF. and investment are pouring Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth developed by globalisation, Australia’s future towers. on , a 100-storey non-executive director at into Australia, lured by high in the year to August 2015. which is an alternative term Of 49 buildings over apartment building that is set Brookfield Multiplex. “We’ve

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“IT’S IN A PRIME LOCATION, AND , IT’S GOT A VERY DISTINCTIVE MELBOURNE 249m VARIABLE FORM” /// THE RISING CONTINENT DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER PETER HINDMARCH, One of Melbourne’s tallest extensively in a wind tunnel.” WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF and most prestigious There is provision for a tuned developments, this project is mass liquid damper at the top best known for its inspiration: of the building, to further slow the Beyoncé video ‘Ghost’, the movement, and this will which features writhing also double as the fire tank. dancers tightly shrouded Melbourne’s construction in fabric. industry is predisposed to The result is an elegant, concrete. This is always amorphic form, designed by post-tensioned, reducing Elenberg Fraser, that sits on an floor-to-floor heights and island site opposite the city’s adding strength – spans main train terminal. Expected of 8m x 8m are typical for to rise to 78 storeys, it will apartments. At Premier Tower, include no less than 1 million ft2 the flat plates are 200mm of space, comprising 780 one- bonded post-tensioned slabs, and two-bedroom apartments allowing floor-to-floor heights and 180 hotel suites, as well as a of 3m, with ceiling heights of range of leisure facilities. about 2.7m. The shape of the Recreating those sinuous floorplates varies throughout curves in glass, concrete and the building, so walking steel was no mean feat for the columns were used to transfer structural engineer, especially loads to different parts of while minimising intrusion the structure. At the deepest on the usable floor area and curves, the slab edge on the internal layouts. line of the corner columns varies by 5m. The internal edge “It’s in a prime location, of the columns remains in the and it’s got a very distinctive same place, while the external is variable form,” says Peter stepped to support the longer Hindmarch, director at cantilevers. The result is that WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff the corner columns change in in Melbourne. section from 800 x 800mm to Premier Tower is also a 3,950mm x 300mm in six steps. slender structure – the ratio of Along the shallower curves, its height to structural width is the internal columns walk in 8.3 from the ground up, but a and out to fit around internal much more challenging 10.8 layouts and doorways. above the podium. To maintain Below ground, there are the building’s movement in four levels with car the wind within acceptable parking. These are broader levels, mega-columns on the than the tower, so the columns façade maximise the width of transition horizontally as the stabilising structure, and they reach the podium, by these are tied to the core by approximately 4.5m over a two- or three-storey outriggers height of 18m, or six storeys. “If concealed in party walls, and we’d kept the column locations secondary outriggers at the the same as in the tower above, mid-height plant floor. “The they would have clashed with mega columns are sized to the aisle in the car park,” says carry both gravity and wind Hindmarch. “By transitioning loads,” explains Hindmarch. them, we can locate them “The wind load forces can be between parking bays instead. equal to the weight supported This also increases lateral by the column. Controlling stiffness, and it meant we didn’t the acceleration is the most use any transfer beams, which important thing for a residential reduced structural height and building, so we tested it construction time and cost.” Images courtesy of Elenberg Fraser

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/// SOCIETY THE VERTICAL DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER

IN THE FACE OF RISING URBAN POPULATIONS AND RAPIDLY CHANGING LIFESTYLES, THE CHALLENGE IS NOT SIMPLY TO BUILD HIGH-RISE STRUCTURES. WE NEED TO BUILD HIGH-RISE COMMUNITIES THE SOCIETY VERTICAL

“THE NEW HIGH-PERFORMANCE BUILDING IS NOT JUST A TECHNOLOGICAL MARVEL, IT’S ALSO A CULTURAL TOUCHSTONE, IT’S A BRAND BEACON, IT’S AN INNOVATION ACCELERATOR” PETER WEINGARTEN, GENSLER

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a famous MIT study that began in the vertical form. Woods Bagot is designing dominant group in and /// 1970s: “If you work on the same floor a ‘vertical ’ for a client in , , and this will be the fastest- as someone, you have a 95% chance of which features a broad range of amenities growing profile worldwide between 2014 running into them in the course of your in the base and a series of interconnecting and 2030. day. We know that face-to-face interaction atria spiralling down the building to bring The majority of these households is the key driver behind innovation so people together (see page 54). are to be found in cities. The biggest

that’s a very important statistic.” If people There will also be a greater range of occupier groups for the high-rise buildings SOCIETY THE VERTICAL are on different floors, this drops to 5%, amenities in the high-rise residential of the future will be young singles or DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER and if they’re in different buildings, it’s just buildings of the future. This is partly down couples, successful business people 0.02%. “You’re lucky if you see them at to density – there simply won’t be room without children, and retirees, says Igor all as you’re traversing the asphalt of the to build duplicate spaces for everyone. Kebel, design director of Elenberg Fraser, to get to your car.” Where there But it’s also down to a combination of which has a number of tower projects in are no constraints on space, companies demographic and social trends, which the booming Melbourne market. “The would ideally want floorplates to be as are causing household sizes to shrink. world is turning around,” he says. “That big as possible – Apple’s new Cupertino Millennials are settling down later, fertility makes the demographics very specific campus will have circular floorplates with rates are declining, divorce rates are and sets different parameters for design. a circumference of more than a mile, with climbing, and older people want to remain It allows us to develop new products approximately 840,000sqft of space on independent for as long as possible as for new lifestyles.” His use of the word Design for a sky street by Woods Bagot each of its four floors – but recent studies life expectancy rises. According to data “product” is deliberate, he adds. “I use show that there is a diminishing return after from Euromonitor, one- and two-person the analogy of a smartphone, where there a certain point. households will see the greatest growth are many communal services that allow Such expansiveness clearly isn’t possible globally between 1980 and 2020 – both you to customise your social space and he future is not just taller. walkable and well-connected. Millennials in the dense grid of a city. But designers up by 183%, compared to an increase social preferences.” T It’s also more crowded, more “CHANGING are now luring employers back into cities are finding other ways to create the of just 91.7% for couples with children. diverse, more collective – and too. During the 20th century, many firms interactivity of a horizontal campus in Single-person households are already the more solitary too. DEMOGRAPHICS ARE left downtown areas in favour of suburban Anticipating the future has always been – a paper for the National a challenge for designers, developers and Bureau of Economic Research in the planners, but high-rise buildings bring SETTING DIFFERENT US found that the proportion of jobs in these questions into sharp relief. The sheer American city centres fell from 63% in scale of super and mega-tall towers is a PARAMETERS AND 1960 to just 16% by 1996. This trend has “IF YOU WORK ON THE SAME completely new typology for humankind – begun to reverse – according to the people have never attempted to live, work ALLOWING US TO Brookings Institution, the number of city FLOOR AS SOMEONE, YOU or play together at such heights, in such centre jobs grew steadily by 0.5% a year numbers. And the energy and expense DEVELOP NEW between 2007 and 2011, compared to an HAVE A 95% CHANCE OF involved in demolishing tall towers means annual loss of 0.1% on the peripheries. that they will have much greater longevity, PRODUCTS FOR Not-for-profit Smart Growth America RUNNING INTO THEM IN and will have to accommodate much carried out a survey of 500 companies more change than conventional buildings NEW LIFESTYLES” who had moved back into cities, and found THE COURSE OF YOUR DAY. over their lifespan. The towers we build that by far the biggest reason was to attract today may still be standing in cities that are IGOR KEBEL, ELENBERG FRASER and retain talent: being located in a vibrant, almost unrecognisable. This means they amenity-rich neighbourhood with good WE KNOW THAT FACE-TO- need to be designed with one eye on the public transport links was seen as a Weingarten has noticed that millennials future, and enough flexibility to adapt to key differentiator. FACE INTERACTION IS THE KEY have very different priorities to the post- whatever else comes their way. Millennial culture is characterised by war babyboomers now reaching retirement a blurring of the lines between work DRIVER BEHIND INNOVATION” One of the most significant trends age: “Boomers wanted to own stuff. and leisure, which is inevitably reshaping already influencing designers is the They were encouraged to value domain. PETER WEINGARTEN, GENSLER corporate structures too. Companies coming-of-age of the ‘millennial’ What’s my status at work, where’s my are adopting less hierarchical models, generation, born towards the end of the house, do I own a car? Now it’s not about says Weingarten, and workplaces have 20th century. By 2020, millennials will the ownership of things, it’s about the to adapt. “Employees are no longer just comprise half of the global workforce, and experience of things.” This is partly through workers, they’re entrepreneurs, and there’s they already outnumber older colleagues necessity, as recession has diminished the much more of a sense of community- in the US. prospects of home ownership for many. based coaching and mentoring in the Millennials are characterised as But it’s also because digital technology workplace. We see this all the time when footloose city-dwellers, overturning many makes it easier than ever before to we sit down with our Fortune 500 clients decades of suburbanisation. They are temporarily acquire things people who are looking to go into these mega- also ‘digital natives’ who have grown up previously aspired to own. ‘Collaborative towers and super-tall buildings. They with the internet, mobile phones and consumption’ apps such as Airbnb and leverage mobility and technology, but want social media, and it is this that will have Uber give smartphone users instant access to see more true connectivity than just the furthest-reaching consequences, says to homes and cars anywhere in the world what is offered by technological solutions, Peter Weingarten, principal at Gensler in with just a few swipes and taps. so the new high-performance building is Oakland, . “It’s not about age, With a world of instant information not just a technological marvel, it’s also a it’s about the experiences you have that in the palm of their hands, millennials cultural touchstone, it’s a brand beacon, it’s influence who you become as a human also demand more from the spaces they an innovation accelerator.” being. Clearly the context of digital occupy physically. They prize quality of life The quest for innovation is also driving technology has had a profound impact and easy access to shops, entertainment higher occupancy levels and much bigger on how people perceive experience.” and places to spend time with friends, floorplates, says Weingarten. He quotes and prefer to live in urban areas that are

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Lotte Tower, These are not necessarily public spaces collective spaces, for the good of society formula, it’s mandated by the city,” explains /// Image courtesy of KPF but hybrids, funded privately and used and our own sanity. “When we see this kind von Klemperer. “But the point is that it is collectively. Apartments themselves will of density, we immediately think of the possible to provide truly public space of a “THE POINT IS THAT have small kitchens, but residents would need for something more than occupied civic sort within the complex section of a IT IS POSSIBLE TO have on-demand access to a larger one space, sold space, work space, living space high-rise building.” if they were throwing a party or having – something more public or collective that A mix of facilities is important for

family to visit. “It’s hotel amenities in a could animate such a mass of habitation keeping highly skilled workers in cities SOCIETY THE VERTICAL PROVIDE TRULY residential package, so people live in a or work,” says James von Klemperer, as they grow older, adds Steve Burrows, DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER hotel-like environment and pay an extra president and design principal of Kohn executive vice president at WSP | Parsons PUBLIC SPACE OF fee for that. Residents will have their own Pedersen Fox Associates. The ideal is Brinckerhoff in San Francisco. “We need cinemas, meeting spaces, dining rooms, to infuse large structures with a series of to consider all the things that make a living A CIVIC SORT living rooms, lounges, spas – you name it. places where people could wander or city,” he says. “Sport for example – are With the ageing population, you would congregate, just as they would in a city stadiums civic buildings? Should they be WITHIN THE not go wrong with a karaoke room.” Kebel streetscape, “to create a very complex, downtown? And how do hospitals and 2 typically allows between 2.5-4m additional inviting and interesting set of sectional schools fit into vertical cities? In order COMPLEX SECTION amenity space for each apartment: “Clients experiences”. to capture families, something’s got to will pay for it because sales are higher.” In mega-projects, architects can create change. How are our cities going to The other reason why these spaces ‘vertical cities’ by taking advantage of the become liveable for people throughout OF A HIGH-RISE will be so important is because the future gaps between different uses to create their entire life cycle?” is potentially a much lonelier place, says gathering places. KPF’s JR Central Towers One of the phrases von Klemperer BUILDING” 2 David Symons, director of sustainability project In put almost 5 million ft uses is “building community” – a concept JAMES VON KLEMPERER, KPF at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in the UK, of retail, office, hotel and public space that will become more and more relevant who is leading its ‘Future Ready’ initiative. stacked on top of a bullet-train station – as the life of towers extends throughout “Advances in technology mean you could it holds a Guinness World Record as the the day and night and people spend potentially work from home and have your largest station building in the world. There increasing amounts of time in high-rise shopping delivered to you – there might is a range of public and outdoor spaces developments. This is something that be a certain group of people who live on throughout the building, as well as Sky Woods Bagot has also been considering their own and never leave the house. That’s Street – a huge concourse on the 15th in the context of the vertical campus. not necessarily a good thing. Interaction floor of the podium joining the two towers, “You have to think about what makes a then becomes really important – people which offers panoramic views to anyone strong community,” says global workplace will value it much more in the future.” who takes the from the station. leader Steve Hargis. “It’s not just an office Buildings will need to be designed to “Part of the challenge is to show the – you have to supplement that with all compensate for more solitary lifestyles, vertical transportation in a very visible way the services and experiences that people he says. “In many tall apartment buildings, at the front to bring people up naturally,” need.” In the design of these buildings, there is scant interaction with other says von Klemperer, “so that they feel not he thinks that the role of architecture residents – you just go up in the lift, come compelled but interested in achieving crosses over into . “We out into your stairwell and go into your these higher levels where they could do are in the middle of an unprecedented house. That’s not encouraging interaction things not necessarily programmed by migration to urban centres, so it’s up to us or providing a design that is good for their rental agreements but by some sort as a profession to build something that is interaction.” of public street.” sustainable, where people want to be, that Symons cites the example from a At Hysan Place in Hong Kong, another supports the kind of community life that 2 book by Charles Montgomery, principal mixed-use scheme of 716,000ft , the we’re all looking for.” at urban laboratory Happy City, of a building is conceived as a series of shifting “When you think about high-rise office wealthy Vancouverite who swapped forms to create a series of vertical gardens development over the last 20 or 30 years, the panoramic views from his fabulous over the height of the project. Here too, a lot of the metrics are consistent,” adds but lonely apartment for a cramped the escalators are clearly expressed on the Woods Bagot principal John Britton, townhouse where he could get to know his outside of the building, zigzagging up the based in San Francisco. “Critical factors neighbours. The townhouse neighbours façade and “beckoning to the crowds to include floorplate efficiency, tightness were not inherently more sociable than the find retail space at the upper levels”, says of the core, effectiveness of elevatoring, apartment dwellers, but they each had a von Klemperer. appropriateness of lease spans. Now porch overlooking a shared garden, which “It’s finding opportunities to make there’s this increasing focus on the human provided regular opportunities for easy spaces. The melange of tunnels and aspect of a development – a chance to contact with other people. This reflects the walkways that go through this project look at buildings through the lens of an ‘soft edges’ promoted by Danish urbanist becomes a sort of jungle gym for a series occupant, at the quality of life that the Jan Gehl in his seminal 1971 study, Life of truly public spaces through this mixing building can help them to achieve. For us, Between Buildings. He argued that houses chamber of retail, and ends up in pockets that’s a new challenge and a new way to should have semi-private front gardens to of space above that are semi-public. look at buildings.” bring residents outdoors to engage with So there’s a pallet of interior spaces that neighbours and passers-by. For maximum animate this sectionally articulated piece interaction, they should be small enough of the city.” to allow conversation but large enough so It’s not easy to create genuinely public there is space to retreat – Gehl’s research spaces in mega-projects – but it can be showed that the optimal size was 10ft 6in. done. KPF’s design for the 555m Lotte Translating these lessons from horizontal World Tower in Seoul includes a cultural spaces to vertical ones will be the next centre, kids’ park, jazz bar and aquarium as great urban design challenge. When cities well as a 2,000-seat concert hall, which will are denser and buildings much larger, high- be the home of the National Orchestra rise developments will need to offer more of Korea. “It’s not a piece of commercial

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saturation. So how do you become the go- /// to building? What sets your development “THE IDEA IS TO GET apart from the next? It’s a future-proofing discussion.” THIS SPIRALLING The vertical campus may even offer an advantage over the horizontal version,

suggests Hargis, especially where it CONNECTIVITY, MORE SOCIETY THE VERTICAL includes apartments too. He has watched DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER Silicon Valley campuses grow from a few COLLABORATIVE buildings to dozens, sometimes hundreds. “It was used to be about being compact SPACE, BREAKOUT and secure, and controlling your future – you could expand across the street, or you SPACE, DYNAMIC could contract,” he says. As companies have grown, distances between buildings SPACE, MORE become unwieldy and circulation is increasingly about bikes, buses and cars. LIGHT AND AIR The distances between spaces on a vertical campus are significantly shorter in comparison. THROUGHOUT “The proximity of residential really changes the game,” says Hargis. “That’s THE BUILDING” something that the corporate world is really JOHN BRITTON, struggling with on a horizontal campus. In a WOODS BAGOT denser urban environment, it’s much easier to get that work-live-learn-play model, which is one of the key components of making a campus work.”

THE VERTICAL CAMPUS ACROSS ASIA, campus mentality,” says John Britton, elevator.” The result is a series of three- about 40,000m2. Between each tier, principal at Woods Bagot, based in San storey atria spinning down through the there are two mechanical floors, and two INNOVATIVE TOWER Francisco. “They asked us to replicate the building, rotating from the common core transfer floors. “There is the qualities of a horizontal campus. They to balance the structural loads. Spaces potential to market a tier as a package ARE said, ‘What would it take to create a are connected by staircases to encourage to class A international corporate clients INCREASING THE workplace that would be unique for us?’ ” free movement between floors, and and allow them to tailor it to their uses,” The scheme is on the city’s main filled with natural light. “We’ve tried to says Britton. “So if a company wanted to CONNECTIVITY thoroughfare and currently comprises incorporate active uses, we want them to take a very campus-like approach, with BETWEEN FLOORS three buildings of 16, 22 and 48 storeys, be very active, very visible areas. We’ve breakout rooms, cafeteria, small theatres, linked by a multi-storey podium. “There got meeting pods and work areas on the they could capitalise on those interstitial TO MEET THE VARIED needs to be a fabric that links the buildings, ground floor of the atria, and we want spaces. There’s close to 6,000m2 available so the podium provides all those amenities people to come down and collect in these on each set of transfer floors, so there’s an NEEDS OF MODERN that you would see across a horizontal various spaces.” opportunity in how you develop them.” BUSINESS campus – everything from gathering The PT Telkom tower is a tailor-made “The client was very interested in the spaces, to food and beverage, theatres, response to one organisation’s needs. application of atria to the project. There medical clinics and gyms. The horizontal But Asian developers are also leaping on are a lot of different strategies for how While 20th-century workplace trends spine connects the three buildings, but it’s vertical campus ideas to set their schemes you do that, and it does not have to apply were led by US companies, the high-rise, also the cultural connection.” When the apart from the competition. Woods in every tier if the market demands larger high-tech offices of the future are being distribution of amenities is mapped out on Bagot is also designing the speculative floorplates. But the idea is to get this pioneered in Asia. Architect Woods paper, the vertical campus doesn’t look too Tradewinds Square development in Kuala spiralling connectivity, more collaborative 2 Bagot has designed a ‘vertical campus’ different to the horizontal one. Lumpur, which will comprise 500,000m space, breakout space, dynamic space, in Jakarta for PT Telkom, ’s What really sets a vertical campus apart and have a population of 18,000. There will more light and air throughout the building.” largest telecommunications company. from a conventional office tower is the be a 625m office tower and a 325m mixed- The campus approach may mean When completed, it will bring together connectivity between different floors. “We use tower of residential and serviced sacrificing office space, but it also helps 8,000 staff in 25 corporate entities from did a survey with the client to find out apartments, again linked by a podium with you to stand out in a crowded market, says 2 buildings all over the city, partly in order the maximum number of floors people 100,000m of retail and amenity space. Steve Hargis, global workplace leader at to get them talking to each other. “They would be willing to walk, and it turned out The design envisages the office building Woods Bagot. “There’s quite a bit going were very interested in having a corporate to be about three before they got into an as five 15-storey tiers, each one comprising on in KL and there is potential for market

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THE WAVE OF SUPER-SLENDER RESIDENTIAL to withstand wind and seismic forces – but the structural TOWERS RISING OVER MANHATTAN COMBINES components must also be kept as unobtrusive as possible THE LATEST STRUCTURAL GYMNASTICS to maximise usable space and uninterrupted views. A WITH THE GRACE OF NEW YORK’S CLASSIC SLENDER /// RETURN TO building’s core is an important ART DECO SKYSCRAPERS source of stiffness but this

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER can be proportionally smaller in a residential tower than a commercial one. Conversely, the higher a tower and the ou might think WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff more people living there, the Y that 111 West 57th in New York, the structural greater the elevator capacity Street is an extremely engineer on the project. “It’s needs to be, and the amount thin building. going to be a world record. of mechanical, electrical But we are working on others and plumbing infrastructure But 111 West is increases. “All of this can swell undeniably slender in high- that are going to be even more slender.” the core and encroach on living rise terms – a super-slender space,” says Fatih Yalniz, vice building certainly, and perhaps The logic of slender president of building structures even a ‘mega-slender’ one. In buildings is to derive the at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff the global race to build tall, it’s greatest possible value in New York, who carried out no longer all about height. The from expensive, constrained analysis to establish the most other number that everyone city-centre plots. So it’s no effective frame for 111 West wants to know is the aspect surprise that the super-slender 57th Street. ratio: the relationship between revolution began in New a building’s height and its York, a pioneering skyscraper Hundreds of metres above width. 111 West 57th is one of city with some of the most the ground, wind flows are a new breed of towers that are sought-after real estate on completely different – more pushing that ratio to previously the planet and a clamouring akin to what an aeroplane impossible levels. global customer base. “There’s would experience. In managing something unique about living the building’s response, their New York building codes goal is not to eliminate all consider a building to be in Midtown and having that perfect view,” says Koster. movement, but to control the slender when its height is more pace of acceleration. Marcus than seven times its width at “Everyone understands the beauty and value of being able likens it to being in a car: the narrowest point. But the passengers only sense the recent crop of luxury residential to build something like this in this location.” movement when accelerating towers in the city’s Midtown go or braking, not when travelling far beyond this. In 2014, Where these towers differ at a constant speed. “It’s raised eyebrows with an aspect from previous generations is impossible to stop a building ratio of 8:1, becoming the that they are not commercial from moving, but we can tallest residential building in the but residential – typically, each control that movement so the city at 1,005ft (306m). It has floor comprises a single luxury majority of people will not feel been quickly overtaken in both apartment. This only adds to it.” As residential buildings, senses by 432 , its the challenge for the structural these towers must meet more 1,396ft (426m) height 15 times engineer. High-rise engineering stringent standards than the width of its base. There are is a very specialised discipline, offices: there is no question of more under construction: 56 and many of the technologies evacuating an apartment tower Leonard Street (10.5:1), 30 Park used in conventional low-rise in the event of a hurricane, and Place (12:1) and 53W53 (13:1). construction would be too people need to feel safe and But beats heavy, inefficient and expensive comfortable in their homes no them all with a staggering if applied to tall buildings. But matter the weather. “A person aspect ratio of 24:1. Rising from super-slender changes the coming home to the 50th floor a plot of just 80ft by 590ft, it is game yet again. There is no does not expect to move in 1,435ft tall (437.5m). theoretical limit to how tall a the wind,” he points out. “It’s almost three times more building can be, but the taller “Slender towers have such a slender than what used to be you go, the stiffer and stronger small plan area, we have to considered a slender building,” the structure needs to be. A mobilise everything possible says Silvian Marcus, director of skinny building will also need to to achieve that.” building structures at be stronger than a broad one “IT’S GOING TO BE A WORLD RECORD. BUT WE ARE WORKING ON OTHERS THAT ARE GOING TO BE EVEN MORE SLENDER” 111 West 57th Street, New York Image couretsy of JDS SILVIAN MARCUS, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF RETURN TO RETURN TO SLENDER

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“THERE’S SOMETHING UNIQUE ABOUT LIVING IN MIDTOWN AND HAVING THAT PERFECT VIEW” SIMON KOSTER, JDS DEVELOPMENT GROUP

111 West 57th Street, New York Image couretsy of JDS

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As in the last golden age of either solid, in the case of a Commission to relocate the This is what they have tried unique shapes repeating across says Getman. The bronze 57th Street. “We don’t want to these are exactly the sorts New York skyscrapers, every , or liquid, tower further back on the to recreate with the material the façade in an undulating has also been left unfinished see cracks on plaster, or glass, of thing that prospective developer wants to set their as with a slosh damper. As the site. It’s really set back so palette of 111 West 57th Street. pattern, which will create a so that it will age gracefully or leaky windows because the residents want to know. “Future building apart with an iconic building moves, the weight you don’t really perceive it “These amazing shear walls pattern of shadows from a with the building. building is moving too much.” homeowners ask questions design as they compete to moves too but more slowly – from the street, and instead gave us some solidity to play distance. The filigree adds a Enormous care has been The ultimate success for about where they’re going attract the attention of a very thus slowing the acceleration of we’re creating a very open with, so we had the opportunity level of detail that only will be taken over the appearance of the engineer is when their art to live,” says Koster. “We’re discerning global client base. the tower. atrium that frees to do another style that revealed as you get closer, as 111 West 57th Street, and the goes unnoticed: the goal is for having conversations about SLENDER /// RETURN TO a homage to the rich façades the structural damper, shear “Every building is unique and For 111 West 57th Street, building to be read in its wasn’t just glass,” she explains. whole design team has a role to building occupants to live in

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER of New York’s classic Art Deco walls, the overall stiffness of it needs a unique structural WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff historic context.” This lower The building is very finely play in ensuring the integrity of total comfort, unperturbed by buildings. “We’ve been working the building, movement, sway, concept,” says Hezi Mena, has achieved the necessary section of the scheme will tapered – Getman describes these finishes over the life of any movement. But as people hard to find that balance slenderness … All these things senior vice president of strength with two shear walls offer shared recreation spaces, is as “feathered” rather than the building. “The structure are living greater distances between the ‘handedness’ that are just starting to become part building structures at WSP | running the height of the a lobby and high-end retail. stepped back – which gives it itself will be able to flex, but above the ground, there is an you find in the old buildings of the residential buyer’s lexicon Parsons Brinckerhoff in New east and west elevations of Above, there will be 77 floors of a human scale despite its giant other elements are not as increasing awareness of the – so the terracotta has five in New York.” York. “There is no set formula.” the building. This leaves the luxurious apartments. size. Each of these small steps flexible unless we coordinate systems and the strategies that different glazes to give it a bit There are however some others completely clear, so that When SHoP looked is marked by a solid terracotta their design and engineering,” make high-rise living possible. more texture – but at the same proven strategies, which residents can enjoy unimpeded around at the city’s best-loved pilaster, with a curving bronze says Cynthia Liu, senior vice Koster says that while office time, it’s developed using state- Mena and his colleagues vistas of to buildings, a common theme filigree stretching between the president at WSP | Parsons occupiers rarely concern of-the-art technology to track have refined as they have the north and Midtown and was “their shadow, their depth, pilasters to climb the building. Brinckerhoff in New York and themselves about the structural the pattern across the façade,” achieved increasingly slender downtown Manhattan their solidity”, says Getman. The pilasters are made from 23 project manager for 111 West systems of their workplaces, designs. The first step is to to the south. There is also a stiffen the structure. For this tuned mass damper at the top reason, super-slender towers of the building, concealed by are invariably concrete rather the lightweight steel structure than steel. Using concrete for that completes its delicate “SUPER-SLENDER IS the core of the building and tapering form. connecting shear walls enables Dana Getman, associate A RETURN TO THE the engineers to minimise principal at SHoP Architects, structural elements within the the lead designer, argues that PROPORTIONS OF CLASSIC apartments themselves, giving far from being a new typology the occupants maximum for New York, super-slender flexibility on layouts and is just a return to its classic era NEW YORK SKYSCRAPERS. preserving those all-important of skyscrapers. “That’s what’s views. interesting about this new WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY But strength alone is not generation of towers,” she enough. “Brute force does not says. “Pre-war, before air- TO LOOK BACK TO HISTORIC work here,” says Jeff Smilow, conditioning, buildings tended executive vice president of to be thinner to get people BUILDINGS AND WHAT building structures at WSP | closer to light and air. In these Parsons Brinckerhoff in New new buildings, because they’re MAKES THOSE SO SPECIAL” York. “We have fewer residential, light and air again engineering opportunities so becomes an issue and we have DANA GETMAN, SHoP ASSOCIATES we have to be more innovative. an opportunity to look back We have to work with the wind to historic buildings and what instead of fighting it. The goal makes those so special.” is to find out what works, what With this in mind, SHoP shape responds best to the has approached 111 West 57th wind and reduces the Street with the ambition of acceleration, not just to add creating a classic Manhattan structure unnecessarily.” skyscraper. In fact, while the One option is to adjust the building’s super-slender form shape of the building to make it may look startlingly new, it is more aerodynamic, introducing itself a heritage project. As openings to allow the wind to well as the construction of the pass through or adding curves tower, the scheme involves the at critical locations along the complete restoration of the façade to minimise the ‘vortex 1923 Steinway building, an Art shedding’ response which Deco landmark for the city. causes high acceleration. The tower has been carefully WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff located in deference to its works closely with architects to historic neighbour. “We could refine the shape of a building, have built a tower directly using wind tunnel analysis. adjacent to the Steinway The engineers can also building without city approval, reduce the acceleration of the but it wasn’t what was right movement by using a damper, for the landmark and it wasn’t similar to the shock absorbers right for the tower,” explains in a car. This is a heavy weight Getman. “So we worked with CGI interior of , New York 111 West 57th Street, New York placed high up in the building, the Landmarks Preservation Image couretsy of JDS

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HEIGHT SUPER-LUXURY SERVICES AT BY GARY POMERANTZ, 425M EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT RETURN TO SLENDER /// RETURN TO ASPECT RATIO SUPER-TALL OF BUILDING SYSTEMS, DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER 432 PARK HEIGHTS WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF AVENUE 15:1 Apart from its extreme The mechanical or ‘drum’ slenderness, it is perhaps the floors also play a crucial role simplicity of 432 Park Avenue’s in making the building more structure that has already thermodynamic. Early wind- made it a favourite landmark tunnel testing showed that the on the skyline. structure was suffering from significant ‘vortex shedding’ Gary Designed by Rafael Viñoly, Pomerantz the building is a perfect square, even under relatively low winds. with sides of 28.5m, and this This effect occurs as wind A super-slender building has regularity is echoed by the 3m x moves past a building, creating a very small floorplate, so if 3m windows punched into the a fluctuating low-pressure we can minimise the space frame, six on each side of the area behind it and causing it to requirements of the MEP, building. “It’s quite astonishing vibrate. The engineers’ solution that’s a huge advantage for the to see a structure so pure,” was to leave the glazing out owner. Residential buildings says Hezi Mena, senior vice of the mechanical floors to are not designed like offices. president of building structures allow air to pass through the With an office, you want the at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff building at regular intervals, space to be very flexible so it in New York. “We tried to effectively making it more can accommodate different simplify the structure as much aerodynamic. “It’s similar to types of tenant, so you build as possible so as not to conflict making holes in the sail of a extra space into the ceilings with the architect’s vision.” boat,” explains Silvian Marcus, and mechanical rooms. With director of building structures The structural solution residential, it’s very specific. at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, developed by the WSP | Everything just needs to fit the principal in charge of the Parsons Brinckerhoff team perfectly. project. “Instead of making does have a pleasing simplicity, the building even stiffer to On these luxury towers, though this belies the extensive overcome the movement, we there’s a very sleek look that testing and refinement that flow with the wind.” There are has to be maintained and went into developing it. 432 also two tuned mass dampers we have to coordinate with want – they don’t have to work residence – if you’re 1,000ft up, The slenderness is not the Park Avenue is made of two on the 84th floor, weighing the architect’s vision. If you’re around the systems. But the you can’t open your windows only challenge with these high-strength concrete tubes. 1,300 tonnes. Supported on comfortable but you don’t see dimensions of the rooms are for fresh air because it’s a buildings – 1,400ft is a long The interior forms the cables and hydraulic cylinders, what’s making you comfortable, very large, so we have to work different climate zone up there. way to distribute power and building’s core, measuring these concrete weights counter that’s a good design. One of out how to distribute air around Last winter the temperature water. If you ran a column of 9m x 9m, containing the lifts the building’s movement the toughest parts of what we those spaces without breaking in New York didn’t rise above water up the whole length of and egress stairs. This is the and slow its acceleration to do is fitting everything in the them up or putting systems in freezing for six weeks. But the building, the pressures backbone of the building. acceptable limits. same space. A building like 432 the middle. You have to do it we have to make sure our would be enormous. At 432 Its reinforced-concrete walls Park Avenue is put together in a delicate way, rather than Park Avenue, we’ve essentially Floor-to-ceiling heights design provides comfort impart considerable stiffness, like a watch. One solution is to blowing air across the room everywhere in the space, no broken up the building so it’s their thickness varying from in the apartments are a very put the ductwork or pipework and giving people’s hair the really a stack of six smaller generous 3.8m, 1m higher matter what. It can’t be a little 760mm at the base to 300mm in the ceiling. But with 15ft 6in Einstein look. We carry out cold if you’re near the window, high-rise buildings. That at the top. The outer tube is than is conventional in New ceilings, you don’t want to give extensive modelling to simulate way we keep shaft sizes and York. This not only adds to the and these are big pieces of the tower’s perimeter beam- any of that up because that’s air flows, using the same glass, so condensation was a mechanical rooms smaller, and-column frame, which is prestige of the apartments, it what sells the space. programs that are used to and it allows us to control the also maximises lateral living real concern. We did many, also incredibly stiff, even with We designed the building design wings on jet aeroplanes. many studies on exactly how pressures better. the windows punched through space. The extra height allowed We also have systems to the engineers to add a second systems so that people can set to position the air slot so Every building is a prototype, it. At every 12th floor these up their homes however they introduce outdoor air into each that the air would bathe the but the systems we design for tubes are joined by stiffening return to the access stairs in the building’s core, helping to keep glass in warm air to minimise these super-tall luxury buildings beams, accommodated in the the downdraughts. We even will eventually filter down to double-height plant rooms it compact, and resulting in 2 introduced air down low in very the more typical ones. We’re to avoid encroaching on the 250ft of additional living space “IT’S SIMILAR TO MAKING “ONE OF THE TOUGHEST PARTS per floor. concealed devices so that if setting a new standard.” apartments themselves. In fact, any cold air does fall down the WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff has HOLES IN THE SAIL OF A BOAT… IS FITTING EVERYTHING IN THE glass, it hits that warm air on the managed to remove all interior floor and that warms it back up. columns, giving the occupants SAME SPACE. THIS BUILDING IS complete flexibility in how the WE FLOW WITH THE WIND” living spaces are configured. SILVIAN MARCUS, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF PUT TOGETHER LIKE A WATCH”

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HEIGHT HEIGHT 250M 320M 53W53 SLENDER /// RETURN TO ASPECT RATIO ASPECT RATIO DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER 56 LEONARD 10.5:1 13:1

56 Leonard Street has only The engineering team’s 53W53 is not just a super- investigated how to create the STREET just topped out but it’s solution is to use a very strong slender tower but a work of art same aesthetic in concrete already one of the most concrete structure, concealed – as befits a building that will instead – “the first time that distinctive landmarks on the to allow a completely glazed sit above New York’s Museum a diagrid structure of this Lower Manhattan skyline. exterior with views from almost of Modern Art, and even magnitude and complexity The building is a staggered every angle. The central house 50,000ft2 of additional has been done in concrete,” series of irregular boxes, with core is linked to the external gallery space in its lower floors. notes Oliveira. cantilevers ranging from columns by outriggers at the Rising gracefully to a height of Aside from the complex 10ft to 25ft, designed by mechanical levels 32 and 46. 1,050ft (320m) over Midtown, structural gymnastics, the team Swiss architects Herzog & de At the top, is the ‘swimming it tapers at gently shifting also spent considerable time Meuron – the practice behind pool’ – a slosh damper filled inclines. Randomly spaced evaluating how 53W53 could the ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic with 130,000 litres of water diagrids roam freely up the actually be delivered. Because stadium in Beijing. When to temper the building’s façade, to be reflected in the of its complexity, construction complete, it will provide 145 movement in the wind. unique geometry of each of will take more than five years, luxury apartments in the Supporting the cantilevers the 139 apartments. around double the programme TriBeCa district, conceived was one of the biggest But that diagrid is not only for a more conventional by the architect as “houses conundrums for Mena’s an aesthetic flourish. The design. One of the biggest stacked in the sky”. team. For the smaller ones, slenderness of the building challenges was designing the thickness of the concrete means that there is no room the nodes where different floor slabs provides sufficient for superfluous structure: structural components would support. For the larger ones high-strength concrete and join. Reinforcement for perhaps above 15ft, there are additional reinforcing steel will be used seven or eight elements had “EVERY FLOORPLATE HAS TO beams, and for the very to construct a shear-wall core, to fit into the same node, and largest, a Vierendeel truss – a but the façade has to play an then the concrete had to be BE ABLE TO SUPPORT ITSELF, perpendicular column that important supporting role too. able to flow freely to enclose it engages two floors, without This presented an interesting and produce a sound structure. SO WE HAD TO TREAT EACH obstructing layouts or views. challenge for the engineering Oliveira’s team worked closely Throughout the structure, there team, not least because not only with the architect but ONE IN AN INNOVATIVE, are many ‘walking columns’, architect Jean Nouvel was also the construction team, which where loads are transferred adamant that the building’s included commissioning a from one location to another complex façade should be mock-up of the rebar. “Rather IMAGINATIVE WAY” as they progress down the a genuine expression of the than just coming up with HEZI MENA, WSP | PARSONS building. There are no dividing structure beneath. “Normally solutions that looked good shear walls in the apartments on paper, we assessed the BRINCKERHOFF we are the ones dictating where at all, to allow residents to lay the columns go but this was the constructability of the job too. out their living spaces as they opposite,” explains Gustavo That’s not normally part of the The design started out as a wish, or to combine apartments Oliveira, vice president at engineer’s role but this is such relatively regular rectilinear horizontally or vertically. WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in a unique building, it needed a shape, but it evolved on a The greatest cantilevers New York. “We couldn’t add unique approach.” weekly basis until no two are at the top of the building. diagrids in, we had to mimic floorplates are alike. “Just by The uppermost 10 floors each what was on the façade, so it looking at the structure, you comprise just one apartment, was an iterative process with can see it presents many known as ‘sky ’. “It won’t the architect. We had never structural challenges,” says Hezi feel as if each occupant is approached a building that Mena. “It’s like a large sculpture. living in a high-rise building way before.” There was no simple solution but in a house in the country,” The other unusual feature for the whole building. Every says Mena. “They will have of 53W53’s diagrid is what it “THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT A DIAGRID floorplate has to be able to views all around, and they is made of. Nouvel’s original support itself, so we had to won’t really be aware of who’s design was intended to be built STRUCTURE OF THIS MAGNITUDE AND treat each one in an innovative, above or below them. It will be in steel. But the floor-to-floor imaginative way.” a very different experience to heights of a steel structure COMPLEXITY HAS BEEN DONE IN CONCRETE” your average New York City would have limited the number apartment.” of storeys too much, so GUSTAVO OLIVEIRA, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff

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/// CHINA IS LEADING THE NEW WAVE OF core* must be TOWERS RISING TO environmental less than 7%* 500m AND BEYOND.

BUT LOCATING /// OF THE MEGA-TALL SECRETS

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER performance SERVICES SUCH AS LIFTS AND COOLING TOWERS WITHIN floorplate THESE SLENDER efficiency thermal efficiency GIANTS HAS REQUIRED SOME SERIOUS LATERAL (AND future-proof VERTICAL) THINKING against energy price rises electrical wiring?? SECRETS OF THE increasingtemperatures global

MEGA-TALLf America was the birthplace Jakarta … Every one of them wants to the buildings life day and night. A pure I of the skyscraper, China is be number one of some kind, so that the office tower has no life at night or at the undoubtedly the home of the whole world remembers their landmark weekend.” super-tall tower. The Council for Tall towers. That’s why developers and city For the services engineer, however, this Buildings and Urban Habitats defines a planners are building mega-tall.” makes buildings much more complicated. tower as ‘super-tall’ when it tops 300m. But buildings are not only getting taller, They must overcome not only the So far, 97 have been completed around they are also becoming more complex. gargantuan pressures involved in pumping the world and 36 are in China. Of the With architects and developers seeking to water up the best part of a kilometre into 41 super-tall towers under construction, stand out, ‘iconic’ shapes are the norm – the sky or the combined resistance of 27 are in China too. By 2020, it will be no two buildings are the same. And while hundreds of metres of electrical wiring, home to 14 of the tallest 20 buildings in 90% of high-rise buildings were single-use but also serve the potentially conflicting the world. offices before 2000, now 80% of the needs of different user groups, while fitting Vincent Tse has a front-row seat for mega-tall towers under construction are all the kit into the smallest possible space. China’s extraordinary high-rise boom, as multi-use, combining commercial space “As buildings get higher and higher, with managing director of building systems for with luxury hotels, service apartments, retail mixed-use, it’s like a jigsaw to fit everything WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in the China and leisure spaces. within the core,” says Tse. “The majority region. Of the CTBUH’s projection of This is partly for technical reasons, says of buildings have more than 100 storeys the world’s 20 tallest buildings in 2020, Tse, and partly commercial. “All towers and there might be seven different his team has worked on 11, providing full will change shape as they get higher to components.” What’s more, advances building systems design consultancy on six minimise the impact of the wind. The on one project can only ever serve as and partial consultancy on a further five. floorplates will be smaller in the upper inspiration for the next one: solutions can He sees the era of the ‘mega-tall’ floors, so most mega-tall towers will have never be replicated. “If you try to copy, you building of 500-600m fast approaching. hotels, CEO offices and observation decks will make a mistake.” “It’s mainly due to the competition among at the top. Or there will be apartments in CTF Financial Centre will be all major world cities – Seoul, , the middle of the tower rather than just 530m tall, with retail and parking space Dubai, New York, , Beijing, offices, to give a higher cash return. Having in the podium and 100 storeys of offices, Shanghai, , , Bangkok, multiple building functions also gives service apartments, a hotel and club all

Lotte World Tower in Seoul by KPF

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stacked on top, providing a total floor area The high costs of constructing mega-tall world record – for the fastest elevator of 350,000m2. The problem is that the towers means that space at their upper ever installed. This 530m tower will be “THE BUILDING IS space is not necessarily where the services reaches is typically only within reach of the city’s tallest building, and will include engineer would like it to be. “The most the wealthiest occupiers, which means grade A office space, service apartments, difficult thing when designing the services international grade AAA offices, 6-star a club and the Rosewood hotel. There will TAPERED NOT ONLY for tall buildings is always the shape,” says hotels and luxury apartments. There can certainly be no waiting around for the hotel Tse. “This is a very slender tower and by therefore be no compromise on quality guests, who will occupy the top 16 floors: AT THE TOP BUT AT

the time you reach the top, the whole either. The occupants of mega-tall towers the shuttle serving the hotel will climb at /// OF THE MEGA-TALL SECRETS

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER building shrinks like a bowling pin. At do not expect to have to queue for the lift, 20m per second, twice the speed of the lift THE BOTTOM TOO, SO the top levels, the floorplate is very small or to have to cram in once it arrives. Due to the observation deck of the and the core is only around 19m square.” to complete in 2016, the CTF Financial in Dubai. THE FLOOR AREA IS The smaller floors lend themselves to Centre in is about to set a hotel accommodation rather than offices, NOT THAT LARGE AT but how to fit the hotel lobby – and its considerable vertical transportation THE BASE” requirements – at the point where the core is at its thinnest? EDDIE LEUNG, The solution was to put the hotel at WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF the top, but with the hotel lobby below the service apartments, keeping the core as compact as possible. It is shaped like two square tubes, one inside the other. The inner part of the core contains all the building systems, local lift shafts and the fire escape stairs, and runs the full height of the building. The outer part of the core contains the shuttle elevators: “The big core stops when you get to the hotel lobby, and by the time you get to the hotel floors, everything’s in the small core, which is tiny,” explains Tse.

CBD Z6 Sino-Ocean Centre, Beijing

Architect ’s midway through, even when the design is crystalline design has chiselled setbacks, so relatively advanced. Beijing’s 406m CBD that the floorplates become progressively Z6 Sino-Ocean Centre will be the city’s smaller – which means that the core must second tallest building when it completes too. To make it as efficient as possible, a in 2018, and was originally planned as a vertical transportation system of shuttle single-use office building. Following a elevators will whisk building occupants to change of ownership, it now includes a six- sky lobbies at different heights. The offices star MGM hotel on levels 45-62, executive in the lower storeys will be served by a apartments on 65-67 and a club at the double-deck shuttle and local elevators, top. This meant a radical rethink of the while the service apartments, hotel and vertical transportation system in order to club on the upper storeys will have their make the overall building design function own separate shuttles. “When you need as it should. The 36 office floors are now more elevators and better performance, divided into four zones, with the lower two you need to increase the size of the core,” served by direct lifts from the base. To says Herbert Lam, director of building access the third and fourth office zones, systems at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff occupiers will now transfer via a double- “AS BUILDINGS GET in Hong Kong. “But the rule of thumb is deck sky lobby at floors 31 and 32. The that each floorplate must have a minimum introduction of the sky lobbies made all HIGHER AND HIGHER, efficiency of 70% usable office floor area. the difference, says Eddie Leung, director That’s a constant balancing act for the of building systems at WSP | Parsons WITH MIXED-USE, services engineer. It requires intelligent Brinckerhoff. “The building is tapered not planning to optimise the central core to only at the top but at the bottom too, so make sure the performance of elevators the floor area is not that large at the base. IT’S LIKE A JIGSAW and building systems is excellent, and at the We needed to minimise the number of same time that the floorplates are efficient lift shafts, and introducing the sky lobbies TO FIT EVERYTHING with high rental returns.” allowed us to eliminate two of them and As mega-tall projects are larger and take shrink the core.” WITHIN THE CORE” more time than smaller buildings, they are VINCENT TSE, WSP | PARSONS Guangzhou CTF Finance Center and Rosewood Hotel by KPF very vulnerable to changes in the market. BRINCKERHOFF Changes of use are not uncommon

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Managing pedestrian flow through Maintaining a comfortable internal the lobby is also critical with such a environment is not easy in a glass tower, large building. Leung’s team carried out especially where it’s not possible to open pedestrian modelling studies to identify the windows. In temperate climates, any pinch-points as people enter from outside air can be used for low-energy “IF YOU SHUT OFF THE AIR-CONDITIONING street level and from the subway below. night-cooling. But in a humid tropical To avoid overcrowding, the base is divided climate – in Singapore, for example – AND OPEN THE WINDOWS AT 7PM IN A

into three different lobby areas. One is allowing wet indoor air to enter at night /// OF THE MEGA-TALL SECRETS

DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER dedicated to the hotel, one to office would result in an indoor rainstorm zones 1 and 2, and the third for the other when the air-conditioning comes back WARM, HUMID CLIMATE, WHEN YOU office zones, the serviced apartments and on the next morning, as the liquid in the the club. air condenses on the cooler surfaces. COME BACK THE NEXT DAY, I GUARANTEE A challenge for all mixed-use towers “Opening louvres to ventilate a building is how to reconcile demand for some may work in New York, but not in warm, EVERYTHING WILL BE WET. functions to remain separate while others humid climates such as Singapore, VINCENT TSE, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF are shared. For example, the hotel at the Guangzhou or Taipei,” says Tse. “If you CBD Z6 Sino-Ocean Centre needed shut off the air-conditioning and open separate lift capacity for its guests, but the windows at 7pm, when you come had to connect directly to the communal back the next day, I guarantee everything service elevator too. The hotel also will be wet.” required a separate plant, while Instead, the first step is create a highly the hotel operator imposes even greater thermally efficient building façade to requirements on building systems. manage energy gain and optimise Achieving a 6-star level of service at such a daylighting, and design innovative building great height meant overcoming extremely systems to optimise energy consumption high hydraulic pressures – achieved by inside the building, such as variable speed splitting water systems into several zones. pumping and fan systems. Power can be “At the top, the walls incline at an angle of regenerated from elevator systems, and 4° so the floorplate shrinks every floor,” grid supplies supplemented with renewable says Leung. “All the pipework around the wind and solar energy. “With all of these guest rooms needed to be inclined. There’s techniques, it is possible to achieve LEED no typical floor.” accreditation,” says Tse. Tall buildings are often designed to But the most sustainable feature of maximise the potential of tight sites, a high-rise design is adaptability. “The which leaves little space for essential Building is 84 years old, and infrastructure. Their iconic nature also when it was designed there was no chilled means this must be hidden away. On water, no air-conditioning, no sprinkler Beijing’s 528m China Zun Tower, now systems, no IT,” he points out. “So we under construction, the location of the need to design buildings that are very cooling tower gave the engineers a major flexible. We have to ensure that the space headache. The building is on a tight site, provision for building systems will be it does not have a podium and the top is sufficient for future changes.” a sealed garden, so the only option was to locate it within the building itself. But a mega-tall tower must also be careful not to attract the wrong sort of attention: “In Beijing, the outdoor temperature in winter will be well below -10°, and if people see the plume from the cooling towers, they will think the building’s on fire,” says Tse. “So we have designed and developed a plume- less cooling tower instead by using the ice storage system, so that in the daytime, we will not need to operate the chiller or cooling tower.” There’s one more complicating factor: building systems engineers are on the frontline of improving environmental performance of buildings and reducing their energy and water use. This can no longer be ignored on projects – partly to mitigate climate change, but also to future- proof buildings against energy price rises, increasing temperatures and demand from global occupiers for ‘green’ buildings.

China Zun Tower. Image courtesy of KPF

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