The Awards Ceremony & Dinner took place at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel.
After two days and 13 speaking sessions with presentations from 48 Award of Excellence recipients, the CTBUH 2018 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference came to a rousing conclusion at the Awards Ceremony & Dinner in the Atlantic Ballroom at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. The Award of Excellence recipients and other attendees, including members of the press, the CTBUH Board of Trustees, and Event Sponsors, enjoyed a three-course meal while members of the Awards Juries announced the conclusions of their intense deliberations across 10 award categories.
The dinner program opened with a speech by CTBUH Chairman Steve Watts, Partner, alinea Consulting, where he presented Larry Silverstein, Chairman, Silverstein Properties, with the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award, and bestowed the Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award upon Aine Brazil, Vice Chairman, Thornton Tomasetti. Watts then congratulated all the Award of Excellence recipients for their work in advancing the tall building industry with their projects. CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood then joined Watts onstage, taking a moment to individually recognize each discipline within the project teams, rather than simply acknowledge the lead architect and developer, as he noted it takes a diverse range of professionals to bring such massive projects to fruition. He also noted that in coming years, discipline-specific engineering awards will be included in the Awards Program.
Wood then proceeded to introduce the first categories of the night’s awards program: the 10 Year Awards. These two categories honored projects completed in 2007 and 2008, respectively, that have made a lasting impact on their cities, and demonstrated proven value by continued high performance a decade after their completion.
CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood presents the first categories of the evening.
He invited CTBUH Trustee Dennis Poon, Vice Chairman, Thornton Tomasetti, onstage to open the envelope containing the recipient of the first 10 Year Award (2007 Completions), which went to the New York Times Tower. The NYT Tower has had a positive influence on workplaces by influencing team-cohesion and transparency, and continues to observe high energy-efficiency standards with its second skin of ceramic rods that deflect the sun’s glare, keeping occupants comfortable, despite an ultra-clear, water-white glass façade. Terry Hayes, Senior Vice President of Labor Relations & Operations, New York Times Company, accepted the 10 Year Award.
The Award of Excellence recipients in the 2008 completion category included Lumiere, Poly Real Estate Headquarters, and the San Francisco Federal Building. CTBUH Trustee Timothy Johnson, Design Partner, NBBJ made the announcement that the Shanghai World Financial Center had won the 10 Year Award (2008 Completions). The iconic tower is instantly recognizable by the 43-meter-wide aperture at its crown, which offsets the wind’s powerful gusts. Hiroo Mori, Director & Executive VP, Mori Building, accepted the award stating, “As some of you in this room know, building a big project and monitoring it for 10 years at a high level – in China, it’s not easy.”
Carla Swickerath, Partner, Studio Daniel Libeskind, remarks on the value of collaboration and compromise as she accepts the Urban Habitat Award for the World Trade Center Master Plan.
The next category was the Urban Habitat Award, which recognizes design that is imminently contextual and honors both people and place. This suite of presentations included the Barangaroo South / International Towers, Greatwall Complex, Oasia Hotel Downtown, SKYPARK, SOHO Fuxing Plaza, and the World Trade Center Master Plan. Urban Habitat Jury Chair James Parakh, Manager of Urban Design for Toronto and East York District, was invited onstage to make the announcement, saying “we on the jury were inspired by [your] dedication to the urban habitat.” The award went to the World Trade Center Master Plan, crafted by Studio Daniel Libeskind, which exemplified contextual significance by honoring what was, is, and will be during the rebuilding of New York City’s Lower Manhattan following September 11. Carla Swickerath, Partner, Studio Daniel Libeskind, remarked that, “I think [this award] goes in the spirit of collaboration, compromise, and working together,” while accepting the honor.
Michael Cesarz, CEO MULTI, thyssenkrupp, accepts the Innovation Award for the rope-less elevator system, MULTI, which reduces wait time.
Watts then returned to the stage to introduce the Innovation and Construction Award categories. The first of these two, the Innovation Award, recognizes projects that demonstrate cutting-edge and sophisticated advancements in the construction, technology and efficiency of tall buildings. Among the Award of Excellence recipients, whose presentations were divided between two sessions, presenters detailed how their designs saved material, labor and energy, while disrupting an industry with a fresh, out-of-the-box take on how to improve our high-rise future. CTBUH Vice Chairman David Malott, Founder and CEO, AI., announced the recipients of the Innovation Award, which was the German company thyssenkrupp for their project MULTI, a new rope-less elevator, which circulates around an interior loop, saving elevator shaft space and delivering riders quicker in large high-rises. In a statement released after the event, Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO, thyssenkrupp said, “To be recognized by the world’s premier authority on tall buildings is not only a great honor, but also reinforces the powerful impact MULTI is poised to make as urbanization demands continue to increase.”
Jason Vieusseux, General Manager, Design Management & Construction, Mirvac Construction, notes the importance of acknowledging industry best practices as he accepts the Construction Award for EY Centre.
Watts then announced the next award category, which was the Construction Award. This group of Award of Excellence recipients was recognized for superior efficiency, methodology or material in the construction of featured projects that make waves in the industry as a whole. Contenders included 56 Leonard, 111 Main, 461 Dean, The EY Centre, and Ping An Finance Center. In the end, a tough deliberation yielded Sydney’s timber-clad EY Centre as the award’s recipient, announced by Technical Juror Rene Lagos, Rene Lagos Engineers. Jason Vieusseux, General Manager, Design Management & Construction at Mirvac Construction, thanked the Council for the award, stating, “It is tremendously important that there is [an awards program] that acknowledges the great work that is done throughout this industry, not only the construction industry.”
Before the announcements of the final five award categories and winners, Wood took a moment to recognize His Excellency Mohamed Alabbar, Founder and Chairman, Emaar Properties, and a member of the Trustees Jury who was unable to attend the conference, for his involvement in the earlier stages of the award selection process.
The Americas was the first regional winner announced for the Best Tall Building Awards category. The Award of Excellence recipients in this category included 35XV, 150 North Riverside, American Copper Buildings, and Gaia Building (the first project from Ecuador). The award, announced by Main Jury Chair Karl Fender, Founding Partner, Fender Katsalidis, went to the American Copper Buildings, two “dancing” towers united by a three-story, fully programmed skybridge. The towers, which were designed by SHoP Architects, represent the tallest copper-clad buildings in the world, and are intended to patina over time to match the hue of the Statue of Liberty.
From left: Hong Wei Phua, Director, WOHA Architects; Wanling Lee, Development Manager, Far East Organization; Mun Summ Wong, Founding Director, WOHA Architects; Main Juror Kamil Merican, CEO, GDP Architects.
The Best Tall Building Asia and Australasia announcement followed, recognizing the nine outstanding projects up for the award. Chaoyang Park Plaza, International Towers, Lotte World Tower, Ping An Finance Center, Huangshan Mountain Village, Marina One, Oasia Hotel Downtown, Poly International Plaza, and Tencent Seafront Towers were all Award of Excellence winners in this category. Main Juror Kamil Merican, CEO, GDP Architects, took to the stage to announce the winner, which was Oasia Hotel Downtown, a tropical “living tower” which incorporates greenery and open, communal spaces into its design. Hong Wei Phua, Director, WOHA Architects, while accepting the award, stated, “It’s one of those few projects that you start off with a very clear and wonderful idea, and when you finish it’s almost exactly the same pure idea.”
Wood then introduced the Best Tall Building Europe category, saying it, along with the regional Asia and Australasia category, “was the most difficult to judge.” The Award of Excellence recipients included two adaptive reuse projects, Angel Court and The Silo; a residential tower, Canaletto; and a courthouse, Tribunal de Paris. CTBUH Secretary Tim Neal, CEO and President, CallisonRTKL, announced the award. It was the first (but not last) win for a reformed grain silo this evening, when the winner – The Silo in Copenhagen by COBE architects, took home the honor. The residential high-rise with its prismatic, galvanized steel facade was praised for its unique approach to maintaining a sense of history in its surroundings, while also inviting trendy, modern architecture into a creative, active neighborhood.
Accepting the Best Tall Building Middle East & Africa award for Zeitz MOCAA, were (from left): Mark Noble, Development Director, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, and Mat Cash, Group Leader, Heatherwick Studio. To their right is Main Juror Dario de Luca, President, Pacifica Enterprises.
The remaining regional category award, Best Tall Building Middle East and Africa, followed shortly, announced by Main Juror Dario De Luca, Founder and President, Pacifica Enterprises. The deliberation process yielded the first ever overall regional winner from Africa, which was South Africa’s Zeitz MOCAA, a former grain silo whose interior was carefully carved and renovated to better suit new functions. The building’s top received a luxury hotel, while the bottom portion became the world’s first international museum dedicated to contemporary African art. Mark Noble, Development Director, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, remarked, “Not bad for a building that’s nearly 100 years old,” as he was accepting the award.
Leslie Robertson, Founder, LERA, blows out a candle on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
The final announcement of the night was the recognition of Oasia Hotel Downtown as the recipient of the Best Tall Building Worldwide award, selected from the Award of Excellence recipients from each regional category. Hong Wei Phua, Director, WOHA Architects, remarked that this project was “one of the clearest ideas we’ve ever come up with—working hard on it, we actually [did] achieve the simplicity and the clarity of the idea.” The award was announced by CTBUH China Board Member Jianping Gu, General Manager, Board Member, Shanghai Tower Construction & Development, who won the 2016 Best Tall Building Worldwide award with Shanghai Tower.
The CTBUH 2018 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference was rounded out with a final note, reminding attendees to register for the upcoming 2018 Middle East Conference in Dubai, and an enthusiastic birthday celebration in honor of Leslie Robertson, founder, LERA, a 90-year-old influential structural engineer.The CTBUH 2018 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference was rounded out with a final note, reminding attendees to register for the upcoming 2018 Middle East Conference in Dubai, and an enthusiastic birthday celebration in honor of Leslie Robertson, founder, LERA, a 90-year-old influential structural engineer.
Scenes from the 2018 Awards Ceremony & Dinner
CTBUH Trustee Dennis Poon, Vice Chairman, Thornton Tomasetti, announces the recipient of the 10-Year Award (2007 Completions), New York Times Tower.
CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood introduces the first categories of the Awards Ceremony & Dinner program: the 10-Year Awards.
Carla Swickerath, Partner, Studio Daniel Libeskind, remarks on the value of collaboration and compromise as she accepts the Urban Habitat Award for the World Trade Center Master Plan.
Mark Noble, Development Director, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, accepts the Best Tall Building Middle East and Africa award for South Africa’s Zeitz MOCAA.
