Owners of some of Chicago’s skyscrapers are hoping to tap into new technology that — by dimming lights or lowering water temperature on a massive scale — would dramatically cut energy usage and save millions of dollars. Interesting stat: 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions occur in urban areas with buildings accounting for 70%. via chicago tribune [RK]
evolo magazine‘s winners of the 2010 skyscraper competition. since 2006, the annual skyscraper competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organization. the award seeks to discover young talents whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.
above: first place. a project for a vertical prison examines the possibility of creating a prison-city in the sky, where the inmates would live in a “free” and productive community with agricultural fields and factories that would support the host city below. globalization, sustainability, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution, were some of the multi-layered elements taken into consideration. the designers are architecture students chow khoon toong, ong tien yee, and beh ssi cze, from malaysia.
above: second place. the project is the ‘ciliwung recovery program’ which aims to purify and repair the ciliwung river habitat. the building is designed as an ingenious habitable machine that would collect garbage, purify water, and provide housing to thousands of people that live in the slums along the river. the designers are rezza rahdian, erwin setiawan, ayu diah shanti, and leonardus chrisnantyo, from indonesia.
above: third place. the project ‘nested skyscraper’ explores robotic construction techniques for a structure of carbon sleeves and fiber-laced concrete. the building is a system of multiple layers of composite louvers which thicken and rotate according to solar exposure, ventilation, and materials performance. the designers are ryohei koike and jarod poenisch, from the united states.
the 2010 jury: mario cipresso, kyu ho chun, kenta fukunishi, elie gamburg, mitchell joachim, jaeyoung lee, adelaïde marchi, nicola marchi and eric vergne. the Jury selected 3 winners and 27 special mentions among 430 entries from 42 countries.
recently [greened] Bank of America Tower, New York’s second tallest building and a possible contender for the ZEROprize.
What is the ZEROprize ? Awarded to the first re-skinned & retrofitted building of a certain size to achieve a net zero footprint while operating for a minimum of one year. The prize will go to the first registered project to maintain a triple zero for a year. US entries must be built between 1945 and 1990, must be made of steel-reinforced concrete and must house either 150 units or have a usable floorspace of at least 9,300 square feet.
Designer: Cook+Fox Architects and Gensler
via sunfiltered
Resources:
bank of america tower, nyc
Chicago’s AFL-CIO investment trusts take a pass.
When Chicago was in the running for the 2016 Olympics, the local AFL-CIO Investment trusts signaled interest in helping foot the bill for an Olympic Village in Chicago. The trusts represent 24 trades.
But two union funds identified by a local labor leader and a Spire spokeswoman as having expressed interest, the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust and the union-backed life insurer ULLICO Inc., are taking a pass, according to top executives there. Representatives of two others, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and the Multi-Employer Property Trust, say the Spire isn’t a suitable investment for them.
“It’s not something we’re able to do,” says Edward Smith, president of ULLICO. “Unfortunately, these are just very difficult markets.”
The idea of putting union funds to work, to provide work not as popular in Chicago as one might think. The boo birds vocal on this one.
below: the 2,000-foot-high 150-story condominium tower has remained a large hole in the ground for over a year ever since financial woes stopped construction work.
below: the latest 3D renderings.
For $40,000,000 you can get the 10,000 square-foot penthouse condo, which by-the-way was bought by Ty Warner, creator of the Beanie Baby toys; for $750,000 a bottom-end 543-square-foot starter unit. The average per-square-foot cost of a bit under $2,000 marks a new top price point in Chicago.
below: the latest 3-D interior renderings.
above: santiago calatrava, the architect, in the Chicago Spire sales office in NBC Tower.
The Spire was supposed to be finished by 2012 and the Irish developer staged a global marketing campaign. Buyers have snapped up a third of its 1,194 luxury condominiums to date.
Calatrava has placed a lien on the building, claiming that he was owed $11.34 million. But while in Chicago last month, he said it was his “personal wish” that the four-year-old project “was not dead,” noting that some of his projects have taken up to 13 years to complete.
Resources:
the chicago spire
blair kamin – not DOA yet
chicago architecture info
chicago real estate daily
lynn becker
savills
NYC’s top 10 crazy things that didn’t get built
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