Shanghai Tower Tallest Chinese Building, Skyscraper Images, Architect, Opening, Design, Height

Shanghai Tower Tallest Building in China

CTBUH Chinese Skyscraper Award: 632m Tall Development Opening – design by Gensler

2 May 2016

Shanghai Tower Official Opening

Design: Gensler, Architects

Official opening of Shanghai Tower

A “soft opening” of the Shanghai Tower took place on April 27, 2016 with access to the ground level – featuring models and interactive displays – and limited reservations with special admittance to the observation tower.

Official opening is pencilled in for June with permitting completed.

“Unequivocally, Shanghai Tower will be one of the most sustainably advanced designed and built skyscrapers in the world,” says Marshall Strabala, the Tower’s Chief Architect, who works for its developer, Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co., Ltd.

“When future skyscrapers are created in coming decades, they will surely look to Shanghai Tower for guidance as it will ‘set the bar’ for ‘green’ energy-saving features, cost-effective leading-edge materials, and environmentally responsible design”

Marshall Strabala is doing a TedTalk on May 7th inside the Shanghai Tower.

7 Jan 2016

Shanghai Tower News

Design: Gensler

CTBUH Recognizes Completion of Shanghai Tower, Now the Second-Tallest Building in the World

January 7, 2016, SHANGHAI – The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has recognized the completion of Shanghai Tower as the tallest building in China and the second-tallest building in the world. The tower was finished in late-2015 at a height of 632 meters, becoming the third building in the world to achieve the “megatall” (600-plus meters) designation.

The completion of the Shanghai Tower Building is especially notable for pushing Chicago’s 442-meter Willis Tower (originally Sears Tower), once the world’s tallest building, out of the Top 10 list for the first time since it completed in 1974.

Willis Tower was among the Top 10 Tallest Buildings for 41 years, in which time the tower was overtaken by skyscrapers constructed primarily in Asia and the Middle East.

Given the rapid development of urban centers in these regions and the new heights that are being realized by contemporary tall buildings, CTBUH data projects that it will be less than five years before Willis Tower also falls out of the Top 20 Tallest Buildings.

Photos: Blackstation ST

As the third tower in the trio of signature skyscrapers at the heart of Shanghai’s Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, Shanghai Tower embodies a new prototype for tall buildings.

Placed in close proximity to Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center, the new tower rises high above the skyline, its curved façade and spiraling form symbolizing the dynamic emergence of modern China.

But its twisting form goes beyond just creating a unique appearance; wind tunnel tests confirm a 24 percent savings in structural wind loading when compared to a rectangular building of the same height.

The tower’s program is unique for being organized into nine vertical zones. Each of these “vertical neighborhoods” rise from a sky lobby, a light-filled garden atrium that creates a sense of community and supports daily life with a varied program catering to tenants and visitors.

Shanghai Tower Tallest Building in China photos from Gensler

Photos below by Zhonghai Shen:

About the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world’s leading resource for professionals focused on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and future cities. A not-for-profit organization, founded in 1969 and based at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology, CTBUH has an Asia Headquarters office at Tongji University, Shanghai, and a Research Office at Iuav University, Venice, Italy. CTBUH facilitates the exchange of the latest knowledge available on tall buildings through publications, research, events, working groups, web resources, and its extensive network of international representatives. The CTBUH also developed the international standards for measuring tall building height and is recognized as the arbiter for bestowing such designations as “The World’s Tallest Building.”

Shanghai Tower Tallest Building in China images / information from The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)

Website: Shanghai Tower Design Update by Gensler

Shanghai Tower – World’s fastest Elevators

photograph : Jason Zhou