At 632 meters tall and 121 stories, this spiraling glass tower will be the second tallest building in the world when it’s topped out in 2015, and by design, the most intimate super-tall building there is. Along with the tower’s high-performance systems (which include a double-skin façade, wind turbines, and a cogeneration system) is a desire to make the 20,000 people who will populate the building on any given workday feel as though they’re part of a community, a vertical city.
Gone are the “pancake stacks” of floors that force people into compartments and anonymity. Instead, the building (which includes retail at its base, 71 floors of offices, and hotel and observation space on top) ascends to the sky in a series of neighborhoods that are defined by something not normally seen in super-talls: gardens.Placed every 12 to 15 floors are “skygardens,” light-filled atrium spaces that serve as town squares for occupants of the building. Cafes, restaurants, and small shops will be located here amid lush gardens, each of which will be planted differently, reflecting themes of water, earth, wood, fire, and gold. Because skygardens are open to the public, Shanghai Tower will invite the world into its vertical entirety. This is not just a very tall office building. It’s a different way for people–and cities–to experience a skyscraper.
Across the world in America’s Rust Belt rises another green skyscraper designed to “elevate” people.
Picture yourself sitting on a park bench with your laptop in your lap, shoes kicked off, and a breeze coming across your face. This is your workplace. This is the feeling we’re creating inside PNC’s new global headquarters, a 33-story, glass tower in downtown Pittsburgh set to open in 2015.
The people at PNC Financial Services Group clearly, adamantly want a building that drives performance, with all the bells, whistles, and energy efficiency that will entail. But the game-changer here is that they (and particularly Gary Saulson, PNC’s executive vice president and director of corporate real estate and a longtime advocate of sustainability) interpret “performance” differently than others. They include that “scene from a park bench” in their definition. Performance includes a building’s ability to make employees comfortable and happy and ultimately, hopefully, more productive.
Skyscrapers of the Future
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