Shanghai Tower in progres, Shanghai, Gensler

Shanghai Tower, Shanghai, Gensler - When it opens in early 2015, Gensler’s Shanghai Tower will be the second-tallest building in the world. At 2,073 feet, the skyscraper will surpass its immediate neighbors, SOM’s 1,379-foot Jin Mao Tower and KPF’s 1,614 foot Shanghai World Financial Center, to complete a trio of supertall buildings in Lujiazui, the main business district of the city’s Pudong area. Shanghai Tower’s twisting, tapering, triangular form without a typical “look-at-me” cap on top will appear as if it could continue skyward forever.

International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong, Kowloon, KPF

International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong, Kowloon, KPF - The latest supertall addition by architects KPF reaches an altitude of 484 meters above the Victoria Harbor in Kowloon. Located atop the new Kowloon Station, a transportation hub that feeds a network that ferries over 11 million passenger journeys per day, the International Commerce Centre is an integral part and centerpiece of the Union Square reclamation project.

Al Hamra Firdous Tower, Kuwait, SOM

Al Hamra Firdous Tower, The tower was completed late last year, though work on tenant spaces and some of the public areas continues. But even before completion, some observers compared its striking silhouette to a figure wrapped in a cloak or a dishdasha, the floor-length robe worn by Kuwaiti men. The tower's project team, however, says any such associations are purely coincidental. “It's the product of parametric study,” says Gary Haney, SOM design partner, referring to the computational process used to generate Al Hamra's form. The tower's geometry is based on a set of criteria that took into account the clients' leasing strategy as well as environmental factors such as solar exposure and wind loading. “The tower responds to its context and cannot be repeated elsewhere,” confirms Farid Abou Arraj, projects development manager for Ajial Real Estate & Entertainment, the owner's representative.

The Shard, London,Renzo Piano

The Shard design - another Renzo Piano work, (1,016 feet) would register as a small fry, more than 20 stories taller than its closest rival, One Canada Square, 12 miles away at Canary Wharf. And while One Canada Square huddles in a scrum of office towers, the Shard rises all by itself in Southwark, a changing but still gritty area with few buildings more than 15 stories high.

CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, OMA

CCTV Headquarters, Beijing - Rem Koolhaas and his colleagues at Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) grabbed international attention in 2002 when they won the competition to design a huge headquarters in Beijing for China Central Television (CCTV).

Lotte Tower, Soul, Korea | KPF

Architectural Design : Lotte Tower | Architectural Firm : KPF

Click image for larger

Burj Khalifah, Dubai | SOM

Northeast Asia Trade Tower | KPF

Architectural Design : Northeast Asia Trade Tower | Architectural Firm : KPF

Click image for larger

The Desert Wave, Dubai | Lohan Anderson, LLC

Park Fifth Pershing Square, Los Angeles | KPF

Architectural Design : Park Fifth Pershing Square | Architectural Firm : KPF

click for larger image