Session 3A: 10 Year Award 2008
Chair: Lynn Osmond
President & CEO, Chicago Architecture CenterSpeakers
Click a presenter to see a video of their presentation, and the accompanying paper and PowerPoint presentation.
Vice President of Development, Liberty Property Trust
Partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Managing Director, Burkart Verwaltungen
CEO, JAHN
Building Energy Management Engineer, Manitoba Hydro
Founding Partner, KPMB Architects
Director & Executive VP, Mori Building
Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Session Summary
The session encompassing the 10 Year Award (2008 Completions) put forward buildings that have been successful in multiple dimensions, across multiple disciplines. More than simply pushing boundaries in terms of architecture, aesthetics or energy efficiency, this series of presentations, chaired by Lynn Osmond, President and Chief Executive, Chicago Architecture Foundation, inspected the role of a building on its surrounding community, and its iconography in the globe at large. The presentation began with Philadelphia’s Comcast Center, which contained the largest tuned liquid column mass damper in North America at the time of completion.
The Comcast Center presentation, led by Serge Nalbantian, Vice President of Development, Liberty Property Trust, and Meghan McDermott, Partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, demonstrated that this ten-year-old project had a keen awareness in 2008 of the energy-efficiency measures we would find in many of our buildings in 2018, such as interior lighting that responds to natural light levels with sensors in order to conserve energy. The project is significant for its connection to the outdoors, and its reduction in consumption of resources, such as water and electricity.
The next presenters, Helmut Jahn, CEO, JAHN, and Laurent Burkhart, Managing Director, Burkart Verwaltungen, detailed the crystalline Hegau Tower, which is notable for its exterior windproof sunshade that reduces solar gains, while still allowing views to the outdoors. The shade also protects against other elements that could cause damage to the building over time. “This shade was made to withstand winds up to 120 kilometers per hour,” said Jahn.
The emphasis on dual and triple uses for the same elements is key to the sustainability and overall popularity of the Manitoba Hydro Place project, according to Bruce Kuwabara, Founding Partner, KPMB Architects. By commissioning a new headquarters with a strong sustainability brief, Manitoba Hydro created green space, increased the use of non-auto transportation, and fostered a sense of community. The government-owned utility company building has hosted birthday parties and bridal showers, for instance.
"The most important goal for the Manitoba Hydro was that they wanted to achieve a 60 percent reduction of energy consumption from our national energy code, which had never been done before for a large building,” said Mark Pauls, Building Energy Management Engineer, Manitoba Hydro. “One of the values of Manitoba Hydro is that it’s an exemplar that can inspire thinking and innovation. We were able to reduce our rate to 1.25 sick days per employee because of the 100% fresh air ventilation. Use of non-solo-driving transportation – that included carpooling, cycling and public transportation – increased among staff from 10 to 84 percent.”
The final presenter in a session commemorating tall buildings that have stood the test of time spoke about the Shanghai World Financial Center, a mixed-use, high-rise building that has shaped the growing Shanghai skyline. Hiroo Mori, Director and Executive VP, Mori Building Company, and William Pedersen, Principal at Kohn Pederson Fox, described how the “city within a city” has become a cultural bastion as well as a world-class office building, where thousands of international employees cross paths each day. The presenters also talked about cultural literacy, noting that the original circular design of the signature aperture at the tower’s top was deemed to be too similar to Japan’s “Rising Sun” flag. “I called an emergency meeting with the deputy mayor of Shanghai,” recalled Pedersen. After the design team adjusted the aperture to a more squared-off design, alluding to two Chinese characters that represent heaven and earth, the epic Sky Walk, which soars across the top of the aperture nearly 500 meters above the city, was realized to mutual satisfaction.
The Shanghai World Financial Center took home the 2018 10 Year Award (2008 Completions.)
Session Photo Gallery
