Singapore's Parkroyal on Pickering not only has tiers of greenery draped in its contours, but the ample open air space for the outdoor plazas and gardens at the base of the building make it look like the hotel is floating. The design allows the building to max out on space: The 15,000 sm of plantings, water features, waterfalls, terraces and green walls come out to 215% of the site's area.
This week, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) named the Parkroyal on Pickering the Urban Habitat Award winner for 2015. The award, which was founded in 2014, recognizes tall buildings' contributions to the urban realm.
The five-star hotel and four other finalists were chosen "for their exemplary designs that are intelligently influenced by both their environmental and cultural context, and which add to the social sustainability of both their immediate and wider settings," according to a CTBUH press release.
The winners and finalists will be celebrated at an awards ceremony at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago on November 12. The symposioum will have presentations from the owners and architects of each building.
The four other finalists were:
• Chatswood Transport Interchange (CTI) in Sydney, Australia
• d’Leedon in Singapore
• Jing An Kerry Centre in Shanghai, China
• Tour Carpe Diem in Paris, France
Related Stories
| Jun 20, 2013
Virtual meetings enhance design of University at Buffalo Medical School
HOK designers in New York, St. Louis and Atlanta are using virtual meetings with their University at Buffalo (UB) client team to improve the design process for UB’s new School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
| Jun 19, 2013
Architects upbeat about the construction market
Following the first reversal into negative territory in ten months in April, AIA's Architecture Billings Index bounced back in May, reaching 52.9.
| Jun 19, 2013
NSF Sustainability begins verifying EPDs that can be used for LEED V4
NSF Sustainability has verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for nylon carpet styles and colors manufactured by Mannington Commercial and for J+J Flooring Group’s Kinetex® flooring product and Invision brand modular styles that use eKo® backing.
| Jun 19, 2013
Florida is latest battleground over LEED standards centered on certified wood
A nationwide battle over forest certification standards continues to be played out nationally and in Florida with legislation passed this month.
| Jun 19, 2013
Construction site safety improved in 2011
On-the-job construction fatalities dropped from 802 in 2010 to 781 in 2011, and recordable injuries fell from 4.7 per 100 workers in 2008 to 3.9 per 100 in 2011, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
| Jun 19, 2013
New York City considers new construction standards for hospitals, multifamily buildings
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration has proposed new building codes for hospitals and multifamily dwellings in New York City to help them be more resilient in the event of severe weather resulting from climate change.
| Jun 18, 2013
Report: HVAC occupancy sensors could slash building energy demand by 18%
Researchers at the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory conclude that significant energy savings can be achieved by varying ventilation levels based on the number of people in a given space.
| Jun 18, 2013
Turner report: Activity in urban markets driving construction cost increases
Turner Construction Company announced that the Second Quarter 2013 Turner Building Cost Index – which measures costs in the non-residential building construction market in the United States – has increased to a value of 859. This reflects a 1.18% increase from the First Quarter 2013 and 4.00% yearly increase from the Second Quarter 2012.
| Jun 17, 2013
First look: Austin to get first high-rise since 2003
Developer Cousins Properties broke ground on the 29-story Colorado Tower in downtown Austin, Texas, the city's first high-rise building since Cousins' completed the Frost Bank Tower a decade ago.
| Jun 17, 2013
DOE launches database on energy performance of 60,000 buildings
The Energy Department today launched a new Buildings Performance Database, the largest free, publicly available database of residential and commercial building energy performance information.