Friday, November 21, 2008

Shanghai tower named year's best skyscraper

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Shanghai World Financial Center, the world's second-tallest building that some say resembles an elegant bottle opener, was named on Thursday by architects as the best skyscraper completed this year.
"The simplicity of its form as well as its size dramatizes the idea of the skyscraper," said Carol Willis of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international group of architects and engineers.
The Shanghai tower was design by architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, which was founded in New York and has offices worldwide.
Architect Tim Johnson, who led the council's selection committee, cited the building's innovative structural design. Steel trusses gird against the forces of wind and earthquake and "made the building lighter, made it use less steel, and contributed to its sustainability," he said in an interview.
The tower's tapered form creates the impression it is dissolving into the heavens, he added.

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