About the Council

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, based at the Illinois Institute of CTBUH Journal Technology in Chicago, is an international International Journal on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat not-for-profi t organization supported by architecture, engineering, planning, development, and construction professionals. Founded in 1969, the Council’s mission is to disseminate multi-disciplinary information on Tall buildings: design, construction, and operation | 2014 Issue I tall buildings and sustainable urban environments, to maximize the international interaction of professionals involved in creating Tree House Residence Hall, Boston the built environment, and to make the latest knowledge available to professionals in a useful Skyscrapers and Skylines: 1885–2007 form. The Social Sustainability of High-Rises The CTBUH disseminates its fi ndings, and facilitates business exchange, through: the Midcentury (un)Modern publication of books, monographs, proceedings, and reports; the organization of A Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013 world congresses, international, regional, and specialty conferences and workshops; the Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas maintaining of an extensive website and tall building databases of built, under construction, New York’s New Delirium and proposed buildings; the distribution of a monthly international tall building e-newsletter; the maintaining of an international resource center; the bestowing of annual awards for design and construction excellence and individual lifetime achievement; the management of special task forces/ working groups; the hosting of technical forums; and the publication of the CTBUH Journal, a professional journal containing refereed papers written by researchers, scholars, and practicing professionals.

The Council is the arbiter of the criteria upon which tall building height is measured, and thus the title of “The World’s Tallest Building” determined. CTBUH is the world’s leading body dedicated to the fi eld of tall buildings and urban habitat and the recognized international source for information in these fi elds.

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

S.R. Crown Hall Illinois Institute of Technology 3360 South State Street Chicago, IL 60616 Phone: +1 (312) 567 3487 Fax: +1 (312) 567 3820 Email: [email protected] http://www.ctbuh.org

ISSN: 1946 - 1186 Inside

News and Events Features 18 History, Theory & Criticism Skyscrapers and Skylines: cities are “strategic substitutes”: if City 2 sees that City 1 is heavily engaged in construction, New York and Chicago, 1885–2007 builders in City 2 fi nd that reducing Architects consider each city to have its own construction is the most profi table response. This paper investigates skyscraper competition between New York City and In general, markets in which a handful of fi rms “style, its own way of shaping its local 02 This Issue 38 Tall Buildings in Numbers Chicago from 1885 to 2007. Skyscraper rivalry between these cities is part of all produce a similar commodity will exhibit environment, its own individualistic U.S. historiography, yet little work has explored the veracity of this belief. Using this strategic-substitutes property. a newly created data set on skyscrapers, a series of statistical tests were contributions to the history of architecture. Yet Companies, for example, are frequently performed to see whether there is, in fact, competitive interaction across moving their corporate headquarters, based these contributions were not developed in Dennis Poon, Trustee 2013: A Tall Building Review cities. First, the results show that each city has “positively” responded to on which city provides the best “bundle” of Jason Barr decisions in the other city, suggesting that residents in each city have a desire offi ce space, employees, and access to isolation. There is a considerable amount of to build more and taller than the other. Second, height regulations for each markets and suppliers (Strauss-Kahn & Vives Author city have periodically reduced the size of each city’s skyline, and have spurred 2009). If these companies see an opportunity competitive interaction between architects, Jason Barr, Associate Professor to move to a city with newer offi ce space, Department of Economics increased building activity in the other city, providing evidence that Rutgers University they will do so. contractors, and developers in both cities. Newark NJ 07102, United States skyscraper space is substitutable across cities. t: +1 973 353 5835 ” f: +1 973 353 5819 However, if building height has non-expressly- e: [email protected] Introduction competition is about luring businesses and economic purposes, such as advertising, local Chicago and New York Chicago in 1885 (see Figure 1), was the fi rst www.rutgers.edu residents, and promoting job growth and pride or ego satisfaction, then relative height to incorporate an iron-skeleton structure to Since the late 1880s, New York and Chicago profi ts. is an important strategic variable. If developers With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, bear the load of the building; it paved the 04 CTBUH Latest 48 Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas & Jason Barr Jason Barr is an associate professor of economics have been two of the world’s premier in one city go particularly tall, builders in the and the settling of Chicago in the 1830s, New way for the city’s early skyscraper boom. at Rutgers University, Newark, and the Director of skyscraper cities. By 1929, New York and However, because of their symbolic and other city will respond “positively” by adding York and Chicago became trading partners. Architects, engineers, and builders who “cut Graduate Studies for the economics department. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University Chicago contained 68% of the nation’s aesthetic nature, skyscrapers can also be used height to their buildings. In this case, building Capital, imports, and settlers fl owed west, while their teeth” on Chicago’s fi rst generation of in 1992, and his PhD from Columbia University in buildings of 20 stories or greater in height to express psychological or sociological heights can be called “strategic complements,” agricultural goods fl owed east. But as the skyscrapers were later employed in New York 2002. His research interests include urban and real Antony Wood, David Gianotten estate economics. In particular, Dr. Barr studies the (Weiss 1992). Of the 10 current tallest needs. A tall building can be a monument to in the sense that heights in the two cities relationship developed, they also became rivals. as well. This interaction has lead John economic determinants of skyscraper height since buildings in the United States, four are in local pride or a work of civic art that enhances move together. Since Chicago and New York Zukowsky to write: “Chicago and New York the late 19th century. His work has appeared in prominent economics journals, such as the Journal Chicago and four are in New York; six would citizens’ sense of place. The skyscraper can were the fi rst skyscraper cities in the United In 1871, Chicago’s Great Fire destroyed much of – these are often thought to be the two of Regional Science, the Journal of Economic History, be in New York, if the Twin Towers had not advertise the city, as a form of “urban States and were linked economically, we can the city’s offi ce space, and gave it the chance great superpowers of American architecture. and Real Estate Economics. He is currently writing a book on the history of the Manhattan skyline. been destroyed (Skyscraper Center 2013). boosterism,” drawing tourists, and placing it look to these two cities to test these to build a modern, fi reproof business district. Architects consider each city to have its own Executive Director The New Context of Tall within the national and international competition theories. The Home Insurance Building, completed in style, its own way of shaping its local Ever since the telegraph and railroad created a conversations on cities. environment, its own individualistic national market in the mid-19th century, contributions to the history of architecture. businesses and residents have had much Additionally, tall buildings can be used to Yet these contributions were not developed greater mobility and locational choices. Given express developers’ desire to engage in in isolation. Throughout the 19th and 20th the ability of labor and capital to go where the conspicuous consumption (or investment) to centuries there has been, and still is, a returns are greatest, we would expect this to project economic strength, and achieve a considerable amount of competitive generate some competition between leading higher social status. But the need for pride-, interaction between architects, contractors, cities. If residents of one city see its rivals ego- or advertising-based construction is also and developers in both cities” (Zukowski growing rapidly, they may feel compelled to a competitive process, since the height and 1984:12). 05 Debating Tall: respond. size of these projects mainly serve their purposes only relative to the height and size The list of past and present interactions is Historically, skyscrapers have embodied two of other projects. long, but here are a few important examples. types of competition. The fi rst is regional In the early period, Louis Sullivan, arguably Antennas vs. Spires competition for employment and industrial The two forms of competition can lead to two Chicago’s most famous skyscraper architect, growth. Economic activity must be housed diff erent outcomes. On the one hand, if designed one of his signature buildings in somewhere; if developers don’t provide the developers in City 1 go on a building spree, it New York – the Bayard-Condict Building, in space in one location, developers in another will reduce the price of building space. If 1899 (see Figure 2). Builder and skyscraper place will. As the economy evolves, buildings developers in City 2 see a falling price, the pioneer George Fuller and his fi rm built age and become functionally obsolete. The rational response is to hold off on skyscrapers such the Monadnock (1893) and CTBUH needs of businesses and residents change, construction because of declining revenues the Rookery (1888) in Chicago, and the New and, again, if one city doesn’t supply these from new projects. This “negative” response by York Times (1904) and Flatiron (1902) needs, then another city will. Thus, builders means that skyscrapers in the two Figure 2. Bayard-Condict Building, New York, 1899. © Figure 3. Flatiron Building, New York, 1902. © Marshall building (see Figure 3) in New York, the latter Figure 1. Home Insurance Building, Chicago, 1885. Antony Wood Gerometta

06 Global News 18 | History, Theory & Criticism CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I History, Theory & Criticism | 19 Highlights from the CTBUH 52 New York’s New Delirium Global News archive Daniel Safarik

CTBUH 12th Annual 54 24 Social Issues Awards Events Improving the Social Sustainability of High-Rises population” (Polese & Stren 2000). Also, social communities are defi ned as “places where There appears no good reason for people to move to suburbs in search of a people want to live and work, now and in the better life. If cities can offer them substantial reasons to keep coming back, future. They meet the diverse needs of such as jobs, entertainment, and amenities, the city should be able to provide existing residents without compromising on Case Study those of the future, by being sensitive to their Daniel Safarik, Payam Bahrami & a socially sustainable habitat. With adaptations from low-rise environments, tall buildings would soon be a desirable format to live in. This paper studies environment and contributing to a high quality of life.” the social benefits of horizontal neighborhood communities, and explores the Suruchi Modi difficulty of transferring them into a vertical format.” Social sustainability is now of paramount concern alongside mankind’s withdrawal from Dario Trabucco Authors Recent trends of urbanization have caused a Residential Tall Buildings’ Re-emergence traditional social structures. This has Suruchi Modi, Associate Professor Sushant School of Art & Architecture dramatic increase in the worldwide urban happened with the invasion of electronic Ansal University population. The failures of the tower block Today the world is facing escalating rates of social networking and the diminishment of 12 Tree House Residence Hall, Sector 55, District Gurgaon 122 003, Haryana, India schemes of the 1960s made living in urbanization and exponential growth in the outdoor spaces in which children can play t: +91 7838 332 206 high-rises unpopular in Europe and North use of energy and resources. The world and adults can interact. Technology enables e: [email protected] www.ansaluniversity.edu.in America. For much of the last century, population presently stands at 6.9 billion – a leisure and work from home but is making developers have historically found tall fi gure expected to reach 10.1 billion by the people less social in the physical world (Beld Suruchi Modi buildings appropriate only for offi ce and year 2100 (United Nations 2011). Furthermore, 2012). A defi cit of social support, reduced Boston Suruchi Modi is currently an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean at Sushant School of Art & commercial uses. However, limited buildable statistics indicate that “… in developing exposure to divergent views, the lack of ability CTBUH on the Road Architecture, India. She is a gold medalist with a land resources have inevitably changed city countries, the urban population is expected to consider opposing viewpoints and the 59 double masters in Urban Design from Cept University Figure 1. Urbanization trends. Source: UN, Department of Economic and Social Aff airs. 2012. growth patterns from outward horizontal to double from 2.6 billion in the year 2010 to gestation of mistrust or general and Tall Building Design from the University of World Urbanization Prospects, the 2011 Revision. Nottingham, United Kingdom. She has received spread to vertical growth. The re-emergence 5.2 billion by 2050. Developed nations show disengagement from the community are all the Sir Patrick Geddes Award for her innovative of the high-rise as a housing typology an increase in urbanized populations from 0.9 Dense urban living proves better for the high-end luxury apartments, the experience results of reduced physical interaction. A B. K. Boley and Tamara Roy project – revival of the mixed land-use concept as a tool to develop a sustainable city model. She is also presents the opportunity to consider the billion in 2010 to 1.1 billion in 2050. However, people and the city in terms of retaining of high-rise aff ordable housing has not been generation conditioned to isolation could an international award winner of the Passivhaus CTBUH events around the skyscraper design for New York City, facilitated at the mistakes of the past and address the during the same period the world’s rural countryside, saving time and money on travel, as satisfactory. Despite the middle class’ have devastating eff ects on society. University of Prague. Modi has worked on large-scale demands of a wider population. population decline is 0.6 billion”(ibid). This has reducing infrastructure, and allowing people increasing diffi culty in purchasing homes, and masterplanning and urban revitalization projects throughout India, and has been actively involved in been the principal cause of the ever- to enjoy the vibrancy of city life. However, a the fact that the designs of residential academia and research on sustainable architecture The current trends of residential living in the increasing demand for homes – a challenge challenge to architects and planners lies in high-rise solutions for this demographic are Evolution of Social Spaces in Residential for over 10 years. Her work aims to extend the realm of sustainability to the real estate-driven high-rise sky reveal that home buyers today hold a for all cities across the world (see Figure 1). translating this urban compaction into a not backed up by much research into the High-rises world. development of today’s cities. diff erent perspective on high-rise living. They sustainable future for our cities. In pursuit of actual experience of living in them. Many of expect a vibrant urban setting. They are History has witnessed various planning this goal, the beginning of the 21st century these projects still continue to resonate with The practice of living in multistory structures moving to developments that require little discourses intended to solve the problem of saw planners and municipalities choose the fears and problems of the past; they are dates back to ancient Rome, where such maintenance and provide communal space housing, such as “urban sprawl,” which loosely developments with smarter, more considered to be socially unsustainable. structures often appeared as mixed-use for recreation and socializing. As these shifts follows the principles laid down by Ebenezer community-focused plans. These movements buildings with shops for the rich on the lower occur, designers and developers have a Howard and Le Corbusier. This single-use, aim to achieve sustainable neighborhoods. fl oors and housing for the lower-class mission: to understand these needs and automobile-driven suburban development “Smart growth” does so by focusing on The Signifi cance of Social Sustainability residences above. Medieval city skylines also desires and translate them into sustainable, had dominated the urban milieu in the latter regional characteristics to foster a unique reveal such mixed-use towers. However, integrated residential places. half of the 20th century, which has been sense of place and community, off ering better Today, social sustainability is regarded as an purely residential tall buildings did not begin condemned due to its negative employment, transportation, and housing important pillar of sustainability in general. As to dominate the city skylines until after the 59 Diary environmental and social impact. By the solutions. Urban infi ll focuses on development per the 1992 UN Earth Summit and the 2000 Second World War. In the years that followed, Research 1990s, the “Compact City” model, based on of vacant, undeveloped, and underdeveloped Presidency Conclusions of the European social movements motivated architects to the principles of “New Urbanism,” was land parcels within an existing community Council, “social concerns will be taken up for conceptualize housing for the masses, as well A defi cit of social support, reduced exposure envisioned as a solution to urbanization. It and organizing populations densely, and due consideration in the sustainability as the growing middle class in the cities. The Upcoming tall building events promotes “mixed-use, high-density living, increasing work and play opportunities agenda” (United Nations 1993). Social Modernist, Humanist, and Rationalist to“ divergent views, the lack of ability to based on effi cient public transport systems, through adjacency. sustainability is defi ned as a “development movements laid out their visions of ideal walkable neighborhoods, increased that is compatible with the harmonious residential living, which reached their zenith in consider opposing viewpoints and the gestation opportunities for social interaction and an Such trends, when combined with scarcity of evolution of civil society, fostering an the 1950s and 1960s. This period was followed overall sustainable system with low energy land and increasing need for aff ordable environment favorable to the compatible by the oil crisis of 1973, which resulted in loss of mistrust or general disengagement from the consumption and reduced pollution” (Burton housing, are pushing high-density residential cohabitation of culturally and socially diverse of public funding and stagnation in the 18 Skyscrapers and Skylines: community are all results of reduced physical et al. 1996). buildings to the forefront. Though the idea of groups, while at the same time encouraging incomes of households, which had a direct living in supertall buildings has gained social integration, with improvement in the impact on the housing market. Such interaction.” momentum with the introduction of quality of life for all segments of the situations provided little incentive for New York and Chicago, 60 Reviews 24 | Social Issues CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I Social Issues | 25 1885–2007 Review of new books in the Jason Barr CTBUH Library

24 Improving the Social 61 Comments 40 A Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013 Small Increase in Completions The city of Goyang, Korea, has debuted on construction in 2013. A total of 37 two- Feedback on past Journal the world skyscraper stage with eight hundred-meter-plus buildings were Sustainability of High-rises Marks Return to Upward Trend 200-meter-plus buildings completing in completed – 50% of the global total – up 2013. from 24 in 2012. The sum of heights of all Report by Daniel Safarik and Antony Wood, CTBUH; Research by Marty Carver and Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH 200-meter-plus buildings in China in 2013 was

Note: Please refer to “Tall Buildings in Numbers – 2013: A Tall Building Review” in conjunction with this paper, pages 38–39 Europe has two of the 10 tallest buildings 8,876 meters, compared to 5,823 meters in issues completed in a given year for the fi rst time 2012, an increase of 52.4%. Suruchi Modi By all appearances, the small increase in the that the slight slowdown of 2012, which Across the globe, the sum of heights since 1953. total number of tall-building completions recorded 69 completions after 2011’s record 81 of all 200-meter-plus buildings completed These buildings were spread across 22 cities. from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to – was a “blip,” and that 2013 was more globally in 2013 was 17,662 meters – also Panama added two buildings over 200 Shenzhen proved to be the most active the prevalent trend of increasing completions representative of the general upward trend. the second-ranked in history, behind the meters, bringing the small Central skyscraper city, doubling its number of each year over the past decade. Perhaps 2012, 2011 record of 21,642 meters (see graph on American nation’s count up to 19. It had completions from the previous year, from two with its small year-on-year drop in Of course, each year is extraordinary in its own page 38). none as recently as 2008. to four. It was closely tailed by Chongqing and completions, was the last year to register the way. Here are some of 2013’s key milestones: Shanghai, which tied at three. Nanjing, full effect of the 2008/2009 global financial Of the 73 buildings completed in 2013, 12 Of the 73 buildings over 200 meters Shenyang, Suzhou, Hefei, Tianjin, Nanning, crisis, and a small sigh of relief can be let out 2013 was the second-most successful year – or 16% – entered the list of 100 Tallest completed in 2013, only one, 1717 Xiamen, and Guangzhou each claimed two 62 Meet the CTBUH in the tall-building industry as we begin 2014. on record for completion of buildings 200 Buildings in the World. Broadway in New York (see image bottom completions. Of these, Hefei and Xiamen are 32 Midcentury (un)Modern meters or greater in height. In 2013, 73 such right), was in the United States. first-timers; these cities have never completed At the same time, it is important to note that buildings were completed, second only to For the sixth year running, China had the buildings of 200 meters or more until 2013. 2013 was the second-most successful year the 81 completions of 2011 (see most 200-meter-plus completions of any ever, in terms of 200-meter-plus building completions graphic on page 39). nation, at 37 – located across 22 cities. Key Worldwide Market Snapshots of 2013 The tallest building to complete in China in Richard Witt completion, with 73 buildings of 200 meters 2013 was the 332-meter Modern Media Bill Browning, Alice Hartley, or greater height completed. When examined For the fourth year running, nine supertalls The tallest building to complete in 2013 Asia Center in Changzhou. in the broad course of skyscraper completions were again completed in 2013. These 36 was the 355-meter JW Marriott Marquis Asia completely dominated the world since 2000, the rate is still increasing. From supertalls, built over the last four years, Hotel Dubai Tower 2 in Dubai, UAE (see tall-building industry, at 74% of worldwide Korea had the next-largest number of tall 2000 to 2013, the total number of 200-meter- comprise nearly half the total number of image on opposite page). completions with 53 buildings in 2013 (see completions in the Asian region, though its plus buildings in existence increased from 261 supertalls that now exist (77). region pie chart on page 39), against 53% figure of nine buildings was almost entirely 2013 Tallest #1: JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai Travis Knop, Christopher Tower 2. © JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai to 830 – an astounding 318%. From this point Three of the fi ve tallest buildings with 35 buildings in 2012. Asia now contains due to the opening of an eight-building of view, we can more confidently estimate completed are in the United Arab Emirates, 45% of the 100 Tallest Buildings in the World. complex, the Tanhyun Doosan project, whose for the second year in a row. subtitle, appropriately enough, is “We’ve the

01 JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai Tower 2 China remained the heavyweight and overall Zenith.” Goyang, a city of 1.5 million near CTBUH Organizational Dubai, 355 m/1,116 ft undisputed champion of tall-building Seoul, is now on the world skyscraper map, in 63 03 Modern Media Center Starkey & Curtis Wayne Changzhou, 332 m/1,089 ft =05 Deji Plaza 11 United International Mansion Nanjing, 324 m/1,063 ft Chongqing, 287 m/942 ft 02 Mercury City Tower 04 Al Yaqoub Tower 07 Cayan Tower 13 Shimao International Center Offi ce Tower Moscow, 339 m/1,112 ft Dubai, 328 m/1,076 ft 10 Dongguan TBA Tower Dubai, 307 m/1,008 ft 12 Chongqing Poly Tower Fuzhou, 273 m/896 ft Dongguan, 289 m/948 ft 15 Bicsa Financial Center =05 The Landmark Chongqing, 287 m/941 ft Panama City, 267 m/876 ft Abu Dhabi, 324 m/1,063 ft =08 East Pacifi c Center Tower A =08 The Shard 14 Suzhou Center Shenzhen, 306 m/1,004 ft London, Suzhou, 17 Jing An Kerry Centre Tower 2 =18 The Metropolitan Offi ce Tower Member Listing 306 m/1,004 ft 268 m/879 ft Shanghai, 260 m/853 ft Tianjin, 258 m/846 ft 16 East Pacifi c Center Tower B Shenzhen, 261 m/856 ft =18 Radisson Plaza Hotel =18 Garden Square Xiaoshan Tower 1 Shanghai, 258 m/846 ft Hangzhou, 258 m/846 ft 40 A Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013

2013 Tallest #40: 1717 Broadway, New York City, North America’s only 200 m+ building in 2013. © Tectonic Photo Figure 1. The tallest 20 buildings completed in 2013.

40 | A Year in Review: Tall Trends 2013 CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I A Year in Review: Tall Trends 2013 | 41

We are not contextualists in the sense of feeling obliged to be similar, “but we are contextualists in the sense that every one of our buildings is a comment on its context. Sometimes a comment is critical; sometimes it is supportive in enlisting that context into a greater whole.

”Rem Koolhaas, page 48

CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I Inside | 3 Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten The New Context of Tall On the occasion of receiving the overall Best Tall Building Worldwide award at the 12th Annual CTBUH Awards ceremony for Beijing’s CCTV Headquarters, Rem Koolhaas, founding partner, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), sat for an interview with Daniel Safarik, CTBUH Editor. Koolhaas was joined by David Gianotten, partner, OMA, who is intimately involved in the firm’s Asian projects. Rem Koolhaas David Gianotten One of the main things you also encounter is You recently completed the Shenzhen Stock the difference in how the procedures work Interviewees Exchange – it’s obviously a very different and the support the planning bureaus get. Rem Koolhaas, Founding Partner Office for Metropolitan Architecture building from CCTV, in a different city. In the The planning bureaus can just be testing and Heer Bokelweg 149 course of the decade or so since CCTV was approval bodies, but they can also really try to 3032 AD Rotterdam The Netherlands proposed the Shenzhen Stock Exchange help a client and make it more professional. t: +31 10 243 82 00 was completed. What has changed about The support of the planning bureau is very f: +31 10 243 82 02 e: [email protected] working in China? different for each city. It is much more formal www.oma.eu in Beijing, and much more design-oriented Koolhaas: I think a lot has changed, but there is and hands-on in Shenzhen. David Gianotten, Partner another issue, which is maybe even more Office for Metropolitan Architecture Hong Kong 14/F On Hing Building important, i.e., where a building or project is Gianotten: So, during the process, the client 1 On Hing Terrace located. In other words, the culture in Beijing is goes through a learning curve. In Shenzhen, Central, Hong Kong China very different from Shenzhen, which is a lot that was really a two-sided effort. OMA and t: +852 3691 8941 more comparable to Hong Kong or general the planning bureau really worked together f: +852 3691 8948 e: [email protected] Asian conditions. Also, the expectations of a and supported the client in its ambitions. www.oma.eu building and discourse about a building is less unique in Shenzhen than it is in Beijing, and In Beijing, the planning bureau supported the Rem Koolhaas that has a number of advantages. The technical effort, but more from a technical perspective. Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. expertise is more distributed and common in From the client’s perspective, it was at a He graduated from the Architectural Association in Shenzhen. You cannot say absolutely that the greater distance. That made a very big London and in 1978 published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. In 1995, his book quality is better in Shenzhen than in Beijing, difference in the process with the client, and S,M,L,XL summarized the work of OMA in “a novel but good quality is more common in also with the contractors. In the case of about architecture.” He heads the work of both OMA and AMO, the research branch of OMA, operating Shenzhen, and more present. Shenzhen, the client was looking for different in areas beyond the realm of architecture such as media, politics, renewable energy, and fashion. Koolhaas has won several international awards including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2000 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2010 Venice Biennale. Koolhaas is a professor at Harvard University where he conducts the Project on the City.

David Gianotten David Gianotten joined OMA in 2008, launched OMA’s Hong Kong office in 2009, and became partner in charge of OMA Asia in 2010. Gianotten oversees OMA Hong Kong and OMA Beijing and leads OMA’s development in China and Asia. Projects currently under his supervision include the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre, the Chu Hai College of Higher Education in Hong Kong, and the end stages of the construction of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing. In 2010 he delivered the OMA conceptual masterplan for the West Kowloon Cultural District, the biggest cultural project in Hong Kong to date, and the Edouard Malingue Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Hong Kong. Born in 1974 in the Netherlands, he studied Architecture and Construction Technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Before joining OMA, he was the Managing Director – Architect of SeARCH.

CCTV, Beijing. © Butyrskii Igor

48 | Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I things, and was much more educated. They were really going for quality and had the financial means, and time built into the In the case of CCTV, you could say it is a schedule. In the CCTV building it was a little bit more traditional, in that the client was “very contextual building, but the context is not mostly invested in the schedule and the financial aspects, leaving the architect to yet visible. It is a building that will be advocate for design quality. That is a very surrounded by 300 taller buildings, so therefore, interesting difference, which also meant the speed of the two buildings was different. we realized from the beginning it was a losing Koolhaas: In Shenzhen, they have created a proposition to try to be taller. Therefore, we city of about 20 million now, in about 20 years. In Beijing, it is an ancient city that is decided to be different, which is a very modernizing now. So the perspective is also different. But what is interesting is that both contextual approach… had the same contractor. It wasn’t the same ” people working on the two buildings, but what was very clear was that they had done you have to judge the context. Sometimes not yet visible. It is a building that will be many more international projects in between there is a context that actually deserves surrounded by 300 taller buildings, so doing CCTV and the Shenzhen Stock recognition and acknowledgement. therefore, we realized from the beginning it Exchange. Doing SSE was more routine for Sometimes you have no choice. In the case of was a losing proposition to try to be taller. them than when they were doing CCTV. In Rothschild, we had no choice, because it is an Therefore, we decided to be different, which is the past seven years, the level of architectural incredibly medieval, delicate part of the city. a very contextual approach, I would say. design, the skill of contractors, and the Therefore you would not want to offend it or sophistication of clients has leapt create a contrast, necessarily. So you develop In Shenzhen it is also quite contextual, in the considerably. ways that generate sort of analogies, and you sense that the lifted podium actually works expose elements of the context that have quite well in capturing the environment and So, the quality is beginning to catch up never been visible before. making it play within an urban composition, with the speed? and within, a kind of public space. So, I think it I think in the case of CCTV, you could say it is a is always possible to work with the context, Koolhaas: Yes, I would say so. You really see very contextual building, but the context is and I think we are getting quite refined and that when there is this good collaboration between government, client, architect, and contractor, that the quality can be achieved, and it is similar to many places we know in Europe.

I have some questions around the word “context,” with which you have dealt harshly in the past. Looking at three of your tall buildings in three places – Beijing, Shenzhen, and the Rothschild Bank Headquarters in London, these are all quite different. Do you think there is a threshold of “bigness” beyond which buildings make their own context, and is that universal? Can or should they draw from their surroundings?

Koolhaas: It is really kind of childish to say so, but I think the quote “f––– context” has really been taken out of context. In every situation Shenzhen Stock Exchange. © OMA/Philippe Ruault Rothschild Bank Headquarters, London. © OMA

CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten | 49 delicate thing. It all depends on how you actually insists on stability. People think of it as describe “context.” Many people define a homogeneous place but it is far from it. The greatest virtue “contextual” as “similar to its surroundings.” Then the role of the architect becomes less Gianotten: Even within Beijing, identities are “of CCTV is that it important, because every owner or client very different. If you see how the CCTV wants to be different and stand out. building responds to the process of TV- does offer a whole making, and at the same time tries to find series of multiple Gianotten: At the same time, you of course almost a public place that is related to state have a responsibility to the neighbors and the television, it creates a combination of aspects identities, in a culture public that use the space. It’s a subtle balance that were never there before under previous between trying to find a context you can use leaders. What you see now is that everything that actually insists on for the benefit of your building, and at the becomes more public and visible. The process same time, find a way to detach the building gets revealed, and I think the building stability. People think from the context so that it is unique. contributes in its architecture to that development. It’s not that we want to take of it as a homogeneous Koolhaas: We are not contextualists in the that development on the shoulders of the place but it is far from sense of feeling obliged to be similar, but we building, but it definitely helps how people are contextualists in the sense that every one perceive CCTV. It’s in a much more dynamic it. of our buildings is a comment on its context. way than it was before, and it’s more Sometimes a comment is critical; sometimes recognizable, because it’s much more “there.” ” it is supportive in enlisting that context into a good at it, but in Europe, “context” is often greater whole. It’s certainly a complicated building that used as a pretext for an incredibly reflects that complexity. My impression conservative situation, to eliminate a whole When it comes to commentary – CCTV is a was that it was all done for one client. repertoire of possibility. state-run organization, and China is not a democracy. Some have interpreted the Koolhaas: Yes, but that client is already kind of Also, what is really important is not trying to twisting form of CCTV as a symbol of changing, and has been changing over the invent and or respond to all elements of the conflict of how China represents itself past ten years. There is now a quite context, but to use elements of the context internally and externally – is there anything considerable presence of other companies for the good and benefit of the building and to that? inside the company. Making of media is its surroundings. fragmenting, so I think you can see that in the Koolhaas: No, at least not consciously. I don’t building too. There are 60 or 70 different parts At the same time, one puts a clear contrast think there is anything to it, on the other of the building that have really different between the building and its context. You hand, for me in retrospect, the greatest virtue identities, groups of people dealing with very create a situation in which the building is of the building is that it does offer a whole different subject matter, and you really recognized and does not disappear. So it is a series of multiple identities, in a culture that recognize that. Of course it is the CCTV building, but right next to it is a Mandarin Oriental Hotel, broadcast studios, and plug-in locations for outside TV vehicles. It gives a very different environment an identity. I think you can say CCTV is one institution, but it has 76 different stations within it.

Gianotten: Everything at CCTV is related to media. Also, with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, only about 40% of the building is occupied by the stock exchange itself. They rent the rest of space to companies that are related to that business.

Do you worry about the ability of instant, iconic skyscrapers to homogenize cities, in the sense of creating a piece of sculptural De Rotterdam in context. © OMA/Ossip van Duivenbode

50 | Talking Tall: Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue I iconography that could be dropped The more experience I have, the harder I find collectively lift the level of imagination, or anywhere? it to generalize. The Burj Khalifa, which should they are really the last and most extreme be the wrong kind of building that is only effort to scrape every little bit of advantage Koolhaas: I think CCTV could not happen interested in height, has actually established from the existing situation. anywhere else. I think that is one of the most its own context in a really wonderful way. If interesting things to see today, in that it is not you are there, it is not only amazingly strong Gianotten: The question is asked whether the completely orthogonal. It really has an ability as an individual building, but also for the kind “billionaire needle” in New York is trying to go to associate itself to everything else. It’s not a of effect it has had on the city of Dubai as a too far. If you look what the circumstances are sort of singular, isolated statement, but on the whole and on its immediate environment. It’s in Hong Kong, the thin and tall towers have contrary, it’s a kind of radiating octopus that created a center. Therefore, I wouldn’t want to been there since the 1970s. The center of almost has tentacles. be seen as a kind of “anti-height” type, Hong Kong really began developing in the because in certain conditions it is a really late 1970s when the MTR (metro) came into In the vertical dimension, the race for height is wonderful device. It’s ambitious, and that the city. It became a typology of its own that very often related to a context that is makes the difference. supports a very big part of the city. I am not completely irrelevant to the rest of the city. sure if the things that are happening in New You could envision these needles anywhere. You wrote Delirious New York in 1978. In York will not have a surprising outcome. That is also one of the criticisms OMA has the New York of today, we are seeing many Perhaps in 20 years it will be creating a totally about the race for height. It has nothing to do skinny skyscrapers that place billionaires different environment at different levels of the with the rest of the city. It’s only related to more than 1,000 feet above the ground. Do city. Maybe New York is capable of accepting your little corner of the world that needs 2,000 you think the city has entered a period of the typology and not making it only exclusive, square meter floor plates at height, and the delirium that is different from the one you and the buildings can deliver something that rest of the city doesn’t matter. What CCTV and diagnosed in the middle 1970s? How does makes the place more three-dimensional, and many of the OMA projects do is try to keep the city look different in the early decades makes it therefore, much more interesting. the connection with the city, and build a real of the 21st Century as opposed to the From the perspective of Hong Kong, that’s piece of the city, not something that totally terminal decades of the 20th? how we see it. liberates itself from the city. Koolhaas: Basically, I wrote two things about Koolhaas: A lot of the high-rise needles in So if you talk about the highest building, it is New York. One was Delirious New York, and the Hong Kong are public housing. The chance often something that detaches itself from the other was a piece for Wired called “Delirious that you would get a new kind of Peter city and could be anywhere, although I would No More,” to kind of talk about the effort to Stuyvesant Village going now in New York is, I be very careful about saying that in each launder the city, to clean up, and kind of would estimate, about zero percent. But continent. The race for height is, in every remove some of its urban unpredictability. eventually it could happen. Even when different continent, a very different race, and That was obviously, for me, not a great period. bridges exist between buildings at 8 or 13 based on very different background ideas of I think it is too early to tell now, but these stories, let alone 50 or 90, that brings along a clients. billionaire needles have the possibility to vibrancy that you almost cannot imagine. 

Hong Kong skyline. © Terri Meyer Boake New York skyline. Source: imgur.com

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