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Two projects by ZHA up for CTBUH’s Best Tall Building 2021

Following recognition with two ‘Awards for Excellence’ each from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), Leeza SOHO in Beijing and One Thousand Museum in Miami are in the running for the ‘Best Tall Building’ at the CTBUH Awards 2021.

Founded in 1969, the non-profit CTBUH is the world’s leading resource focussing on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and future cities. The Awards aspire to provide a more comprehensive view of these important structures, while advocating for improvements in every aspect of performance, including those that have the greatest positive impact on the individuals who use these buildings and the cities they inhabit.

Leeza SOHO’s Beijing site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel at the intersection of five new lines currently under construction on Beijing’s Subway network. Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade. The space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world’s tallest atrium at 194m which rotates as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with Lize road to the north.

One Thousand Museum’s 62-storey concrete exoskeleton - a web of flowing lines integrating structural support with lateral bracing – reads from top to bottom as one continuous frame. Columns at its base fan out as the tower rises to meet at the corners, forming a rigid tube highly resistant to Miami’s demanding wind loads; its curved supports creating hurricane resistant diagonal bracketing. “The design expresses a fluidity that is both structural and architectural,” explains project director Chris Lepine. “The structure gets thicker and thinner as required, bringing a continuity between the architecture and engineering.” The design incorporates GFRC form-work which remains in place as construction progresses up the tower. This permanent concrete form-work also provides the architectural finish that requires minimal maintenance. Behind the exoskeleton, the faceted, crystal-like facade contrasts with the solidity of the structure. With its frame at the perimeter, the tower’s interior floor plates are almost column free; the exoskeleton’s curvature creating slightly different plans on each floor. On the lower floors, terraces cantilever from the corners, while on the upper floors, the terraces are incorporated behind the structure.