CTBUH announces the 2014 Best Tall Buildings regional winners

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) revealed the regional winners of this year's Best Tall Buildings. Every year, a jury panel of industry experts acknowledge new projects that have contributed majorly to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment. Achieving exemplary sustainability is also recognized.

Out of 88 entries -- most of them submitted from Asia followed by Europe -- four winners were chosen:

• Americas: The Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building, Portland, OR, USA
• Asia & Australia: One Central Park, Sydney, Australia
• Europe: De Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Middle East & Africa: Cayan Tower, Dubai, UAE

During the CTBUH 13TH Annual Awards Symposium at Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology on November 6, an overall “Best Tall Building Worldwide” will be named from the four regional winners after presentations by the owners and architects of each building.

The symposium will be followed by the Awards Ceremony and Dinner in the Mies van der Rohe-designed Crown Hall.

Check out the winners below.

Middle East & Africa regional winner: Cayan Tower, Dubai, UAE

Project description: "The Cayan Tower is a 75-story luxury apartment building with a striking helical shape, turning 90 degrees over the course of its 304-meter height. Each floor is identical in plan, but is set 1.2 degrees clockwise from the floor below, giving the tower a distinctive form by way of an innovative, efficient, repeatable structure. In an environment where so many tall buildings lined up in a row against a humid and reflective backdrop can make massive buildings seem like cardboard matte cutouts, it takes an extraordinary design gesture to indelibly express the three- dimensionality of a building. Cayan Tower makes that gesture; happening upon its dancing form in the skyline is like encountering a hula-hooper on a train full of gray flannel suits."

Project details:

Completion Date: June 2013
Height: 306 m (1,005 ft)
Stories: 75 Area: 111,000 sq m (1,194,794 sq ft)
Use: Residential
Owner/Developer: Cayan Property Developments
Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill (design); Khatib & Alami (architect of record)
Structural Engineer: Skidmore Owings & Merrill (design); Khatib & Alami (engineer of record)
MEP Engineer: Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Project Manager: Currie & Brown Main
Contractor: Arabtec
Other Consultants: Alan G. Davenport Wind Engineering Group BLWTL (wind); Cerami Associates (acoustics); Fisher Marantz Stone (lighting); Lerch Bates (vertical transportation); Opening Solutions, Inc. (vertical transportation); Rolf Jensen & Associates (fire); Sako & Associates, Inc. (security); Shen Milsom Wilke, Inc. (acoustics); SWA Group (landscape); Van Deusen & Associates (vertical transportation)

Europe regional winner: De Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Project description: "De Rotterdam is the largest building in the Netherlands, at 150 meters’ height and 162,000 square meters of area. Its mass is broken down by three interconnected mixed-use towers, accommodating offices, apartments, a hotel, conference facilities, shops, restaurants, and cafes. De Rotterdam is an exercise in formal interpretation that is at once reminiscent of an imported mid- century American skyscraper, but epitomizes the off-center experimentalism of modern Dutch art of the foregoing century. The nighttime twinkling of the lights indicating different programs throughout the day lends dynamism and contributes to the humanization of the monoliths. It is as if the moai of Easter Island were constantly craning their necks and raising their eyebrows at the change all around."

Project details:

Completion Date: November 2013
Height: 151 m (495 ft)
Stories: 45 Area: 162,000 sq m (1,743,753 sq ft)
Use: Office/Residential/Hotel
Developer: MAB; OVG Projectontwikkeling
Architect: Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Structural Engineer: Corsmit Raadgevende Ingenieurs MEP
Engineer: Techniplan Adviseurs; Valstar Simonis
Project Manager: De Rotterdam CV; DVP
Main Contractor: Zublin
Other Consultants: ABT Delft (code); Arup (structural advisor at schematic stage); DGMR Raadgevende Ingenieurs (acoustics, fire, wind); Permasteelisa Group (façade); TGM (façade)

Asia & Australia: One Central Park, Sydney, Australia

Project description: "One Central Park uses two unusual technologies for tall buildings – hydroponics and heliostats – to grow plants around the periphery of the building at all levels. The shading saves cooling energy, while the heliostat directs sunlight for heating and lighting into or away from the building and the adjoining park when it is most needed. The project presages a future in which biomimicry is no longer a radical concept in architecture, while inverting a perception that tall buildings can only block light and rob the urban environment of natural greenery. Instead, it does just the opposite, strategically casting light about itself to reduce rooftop heat loads and stir visual interest at height and on the ground, while enshrouding itself in lush greenery. By showcasing the green art of the possible, One Central Park ascribes a tantalizing literalness to the expression 'a forest of skyscrapers.'”

Project details:

Completion Date: January 2014
Height: 116 m (381 ft)
Stories: 34 Area: 67,626 sq m (727,920 sq ft)
Use: Residential/Retail
Owner/Developer: Frasers Property; Sekisui House Australia
Architect: Ateliers Jean Nouvel (design); PTW Architects (architect of record)
Structural Engineer: Robert Bird Group
MEP Engineer: Arup
Main Contractor: Watpac Construction
Other Consultants: AIK-Atelier de Yann Kersale (lighting); Arup (environmental); Aspect Oculus (landscape); Davis Langdon (cost); Device Logic (environmental); Jeppe Aagaard Andersen (landscape); Kennovations (environmental); Patrick Blanc (landscape); Surface Design Pty Ltd (façade); Turf Design (landscape)

Click the thumbnails below for a selection of this year's finalists.