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CTBUH Update -- June 2007

Dear Colleagues:

As the Burj Dubai heads on into the sky at level 137, the Shanghai World Finance Center is close to topping out and, when complete, will claim the title of the "tallest occupied floor" for a short while. Meanwhile construction of the upper levels of the dramatic CCTV Tower in Beijing is well underway and the finishing touches are being made to the Bahrain World Trade Center, with its spectacular form and exposed wind turbines. Now is a great time to be in the tall building industry, when projects such as these are clear indicators of the opportunities and potential that the industry has to offer.

However innovations and new developments are not just happening on these mega-projects but on many medium sized tall buildings around the world, where architects, engineers and builders are honing their skill. Indeed some 40 story buildings can be just as interesting and challenging as the 100 story tower and certainly, they all offer potential for innovation in design and in construction.

What is exciting to me is that today's modern architects are showing that there are many new forms and options that have yet to be explored in the design of high rise buildings. Similarly modern engineers keep discovering ways to make buildings perform better and to be more efficient, more sustainable and less costly and easier to build.

We expect to learn all about these issues and more at the World Congress in Dubai next year. Despite the fact that most of the international design community is extremely busy designing tall buildings, we have had an excellent response to the initial Call for Papers for our World Congress in Dubai, and many commitments from the industry to submit papers. Our plan is to have papers from a wide range of city planners, government officials, developers, architects, engineers and builders, and that these shall be published in a physical congress proceeding for the benefit of each delegate. The deadline for receipt of papers is 30th September 2007, within the themes of Tall Building Sustainability, Mega Projects, and Tall / Articulated Towers. If you have a paper or an idea for a paper I would encourage you to contact Antony Wood, who is leading the peer review panel at awood@ctbuh.org.

This is an exciting couple of months for the Council. Having hosted the international height criteria meeting in May (see below), June will see the first print of the Congress brochure and the launch of the new Congress web site. We are also about to go to print on the long awaited next edition of the CTBUH Journal, whose production has been delayed somewhat by a complete reformatting of its contents. It now looks excellent and I hope that you will want to showcase your work there in the future.

Sincerely,

David Scott

Chairman, CTBUH
Principal, Arup

CTBUH NEWS

CTBUH 8th World Congress - "Tall & Green: Typology for a Sustainable Urban Future"
(Dubai, March 3-5, 2008)

Watch out for the launch of the Congress website, due by the end of June. The website will be the primary vehicle for delegate registrations and will contain all salient information, including a downloadable version of the Congress brochure. We are currently organizing site tours around buildings in Dubai and the surrounding states, and these will be of great interest to attendees. The 'call for papers' is ongoing. For more on this, and downloadable author guidelines and a template for papers, see www.ctbuh.org. If you plan to submit a paper, please notify Antony Wood at awood@ctbuh.org. Salient dates for the Congress are summarized below:

Call for Papers

15 Apr 07

Deadline for Submission of Initial Papers

30 Sept 07

Comments back from International peer-review board

30 Oct 07

Deadline for Submission of Final Papers for publication in Proceedings

31 Dec 07

Congress

3-5 Mar 08

 

International Height Meeting

(Chicago May 24, 2007)

A full report from the height meeting will be published in the next Journal issue and one of the upcoming newsletters. In addition, we hope to post a video capture of the meeting - together with a full meeting transcript - on the CTBUH website soon. The meeting - attended by 27 representatives from 5 countries - was extremely lively and interesting. Consensus on some issues was hard to reach, typifying the complex factors involved in the determining of height, and the title of 'the world's tallest'. As well as the debate on the role of spires, antennae and other rooftop features, discussion embraced the variable conditions at the base of tall buildings, the importance of 'highest occupied floor' in determining height and whether a building owner could change the height of a building after it was completed.

Over the next few weeks, the issues arising out of the meeting will be discussed and refined amongst the committee, with a view to making a number of statements about future height definitions to the CTBUH community and international public. Special thanks to those meeting attendees who traveled a long way to attend the meeting, in particular Bill Maibush, CTBUH Country Leader for Qatar, Tom McCool, CTBUH Country Leader for Russia, Steve Watts, Davis Langdon UK and member of the CTBUH Steering Group and Georges Binder of Buildings + Data, Belgium.

CTBUH Web Site - On line Papers

Last month we added over 100 new papers to our web site. Members may web-publish all their papers that are not protected by copyright. If you have a paper that you would like to be found by most search engines then please send a pdf file to gkery@ctbuh.org

CTBUH Awards Dinner

(Chicago 25, 2007)

We are pleased to confirm that the chairman of this year's CTBUH Awards Committee, Tim Johnson of NBBJ, has assembled an impressive expert panel to judge and assess the submissions for this year's awards. The panel includes:

Prof Vivian Loftness Carneige Mellon School of Architecture, Pittsburgh
Jim Forbes Hyder Consulting Pty, Sydney
Fiona Cousins Arup, New York
Shahzah Nasim Meinhardt, Singapore
James Goettsch Goettsch Partners, Chicago

The 2007 awards will include, for the first time, CTBUH awards for the Best Tall Building and the Best Sustainable Tall Building, in addition to the Lynn S. Beedle Achievement Award and Fazlur Rahman Khan Medal. All nominations should be sent to committee chair, Tim Johnson at tjohnson@nbbj.com. For a list of the past recipients and the award criteria, visit the Council's website www.ctbuh.org

New Members - Donor Level

Mace.  Based in the UK, the Mace Group is currently delivering some of the most challenging management and construction projects around the world. http://www.mace.co.uk

Walter P Moore. Walter P Moore engineers environments in which millions of people safely work, play, travel, learn and sustain life every day. We help clients turn their ideas into structures and infrastructures that work. Consistently recognized for innovation and engineering excellence, Walter P Moore is ranked among the "best places to work" in the nation. http://www.walterpmoore.com/

New Members - Participant Level

Tekla Inc., located in Georgia, is the largest subsidiary of the Tekla Group, an industry-leading Building Information Modeling software company based in Finland. Tekla provides structural modeling and management solutions for design, fabrication, and construction. http://www.tekla.com

The Calvin Group, LLC specializes in luxury high-rise sales and marketing in Las Vegas, NV. Principal, Brenda Calvin, has sold residential high-rise condominiums in numerous states in the US for 20 years and has consulted internationally. She is a distinguished member of Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate world-wide. http://www.thecalvingroup.com

Hijjas Kasturi Associates Sdn. has been one of the premiere firms in Malaysia's construction industry since 1977, developing designs to reconcile contemporary space with a modern aesthetic quality. http://www.hijjaskasturi.com

Upgraded Membership - Supporting Contributors

NBBJ is a global architectural and design firm that helps companies and organizations create innovative places and brands. http://www.nbbj.com
 
Upgraded Membership - Patrons

Tishman Speyer Properties. Tishman Speyer is one of the leading owners, developers, operators, and fund managers of first-class real estate in the world, having managed a portfolio of globally recognized properties since its inception in 1978, including New York City's Rockefeller Center and Chrysler building, Berlin's Sony Center and London's Tower Place. http://www.tishmanspeyer.com  
 
Upgraded Membership - Contributors

Weidinger Associates. As a leading structural engineering and applied mechanics consultant, Weidlinger Associates designs and rehabilitates buildings, bridges, and infrastructure, and develops advanced analysis software. Weidlinger also offers special services in vulnerability assessment; risk analysis; forensic, earthquake, wind, and blast engineering; soil/structure interaction; and sustainability. http://www.wai.com

CTBUH special multi-disciplinary annual edition of the John Wiley journal - "The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings"

The special issue of the Journal will be published in December and distributed to all members. All papers have been selected for this issue. Thank you for your support.

In the News

Congratulations to CTBUH member Clark Manus on being elected as vice president of the American Institute of Architects. Mr. Manus is the CEO and design principal of Heller Manus Architects and is well recognized inside and outside the profession for his extensive community/urban design leadership in San Francisco.

NCE Conference on "Engineering Tall Buildings 2007"

(London, September 13)

With high-rise structures now widespread throughout major cities in the UK, and many innovative designs awaiting planning permission, the demand for structural engineering expertise is unprecedented. As a follow up to last year's successful conference, this year's one-day event will bring together leading professionals in tall building engineering to give you up-to-date information and latest techniques on optimizing tall building structures. David Scott, the Chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will give the opening presentation. For more information or to register, go to http://www.ncetallbuildings.co.uk.

International Urban Design Conference (Gold Coast, September 6-8)

With the theme "Waves of Change - Cities at Crossroads", the conference will address how environmental challenges will affect communities through global warming and sea level rises, and will examine the ability of urban centers world-wide to cope with the impacts of high level fuel costs. The three-day event includes workshops, debates and tours of South East Queensland, Australia's fastest growing regions. To register, or for more information, click on the graphic above.

PLAN TO ATTEND

MEED conference on "Efficient Design & Construction", Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For more information, visit here  

26-27 Jun 07

Conference on "Tall Buildings" - planning, designing, marketing and managing of sustainable skylines for current and future generations at the Grand Hyatt in Shanghai, China. Organized by Marcus Evans in partnership with CTBUH. For more information, visit here.

9-10 Jul 07

"Why Dubai?" continued Lecture Series. The Skyscraper Museum & The New York Academy of Sciences lecture series on the World's Tallest Building: Burj Dubai continues with a panel discussion on 'Why Dubai?' . The lecture will be held at the New York Academy of Sciences, 7 WTC, 40th Floor, New York, at 6:30 pm. Reservations are required. 18 Jul 07
International Urban Design Conference on "Waves of Change - Cities at Crossroads", hosted by the Gold Coast City Council, Gold Coast, Australia. For additional information go here.

6-8 Sept 07

NCE Conference on "Engineering Tall Buildings 2007", London, United Kingdom. For more information visit here.

13 Sept 07

CTBUH 6th Annual Awards dinner. Center Core, S.R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.

25 Oct 07

First meeting of the re-organized CTBUH Steering Group, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (to be held prior to the Awards dinner - details to be announced).

25 Oct 07

CTBUH 8th World Congress, Dubai: "Tall & Green: Typology for a Sustainable Urban Future". Call for Papers issued above.

3-5 Mar 08

CTBUH, S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3360 S. State Street, Chicago, IL 60616

phone: 312-909-0253 fax: 610-419-0014 email: info@ctbuh.org web: www.ctbuh.org