Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, has received an American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) IDEAS2 Merit Award for its work on Cincinnati’s Great American Tower at Queen City Square roof-top tiara.

Thornton Tomasetti Irvine Principal Leonard Joseph, P.E., S.E. and New York Senior Principal Hi Sun Choi, P.E., LEED AP have been named co-chairs of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Outrigger Design Working Group.

Aine Brazil, vice chairman and managing principal of Thornton Tomasetti, was recently honored by Real Estate Forum as part of the publication’s annual Women of Influence feature in the July/August 2011 issue.

Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, has been selected as structural engineer for Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which when completed will be the world’s tallest building at 1,000+ meters.

Four design professionals from Thornton Tomasetti, Inc., the international engineering firm, have been named to Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) Top 20 Under 40 list, which recognizes outstanding contributions of AEC professionals under the age of 40.

Four New York City projects by Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm with practices in building structure, building skin and building performance, were selected as among the city’s top 12 projects honored by the Greater New York Construction User Council (GNYCUC) at its 2010 Chairman’s reception on June 15 on the Green Roof at 250 Hudson Street in Manhattan.

Dennis Poon has been named one of the 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business for 2010.

Several engineers at Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm with practices in building structure, building skin and building performance, are featured speakers at the 2010 North American Steel Construction Conference (NASCC).

Thornton Tomasetti received Diamond and Platinum Awards for Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC New York) Engineering Excellence Awards for the structural design of Comcast Center in Philadelphia and Carrasco International Airport in Uruguay.

A Thornton Tomasetti team of engineers, architects and risk assessment specialists has mobilized in Chile, to assist clients in evaluating property damage resulting from the February 27 earthquake that measured 8.8 on the Richter scale.

Dennis Poon, managing principal of Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm with practices in building structure, building skin and building performance, will be a featured speaker at the “Shanghai Skyline” lecture series at the Skyscraper Museum in New York City.

Richard Tomasetti and Dennis Poon will both be presenting to this year’s Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s “Evolution of the Skyscraper” Conference in Chicago, IL.

On May 21, 2009, Tower B, completed in 2008, was honored with the prestigious International Real Estate Federation “FIABCI Prix d’Excellence” award in the office building category, awarded to Mirax Group – Federation Tower’s well known Russian developer.

We are honored to share with you the attached news on the recent ground-breaking for the Thornton Tomasetti-engineered Shanghai Tower.

Poised to become the second tallest building in the world and featuring structural design by Thornton Tomasetti, Incheon 151 Tower-a 151-story mixed-use tower in Incheon, South Korea-has broken ground.

Shelbourne Development Group, Inc. announces its team to build “The Chicago Spire,” a landmark 2,000 foot tower on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago. The building, designed by famed international architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, will be the world’s tallest residential skyscraper.

It takes some seriously smart engineering to build so high. Here are the key challenges for the Kingdom Tower as its builders go for the record.

An American firm approaches the design of its 121-story, mixed used tower now rising in Shanghai as a vertical collection of neighborhoods.

The Vista Xchange Integrated Civic and Cultural Hub was named one of the 11 Best Architecture Moments of 2011 by the Huffington Post.

Seoul has recently become a financial capital in Northeast Asia, and now enjoys a status similar to that of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and other Asian cities.

Construction is ready to begin on the $1.2bn Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, says Adrian Smith, the lead architect. The building, to be the world’s tallest, will include a six-storey “sky palace”.

Advances in BIM and software interoperability are helping propel a boom in supertall building construction.

When plans were announced last month to construct the world’s tallest building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it was not surprising that much of the focus was on the sheer height of the structure.

Speaking to ConstructionWeek, Bob Sinn, principal at engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, said: “At extreme heights, the main challenges are along practical and architectural lines, not material or structural.

WTTW talks with Chicago architect Adrian Smith, who, along with his firm, has been picked to design the world’s tallest building — to be built in Saudi Arabia.

The 1km-high Kingdom Tower to be built in Jeddah represents “an evolution and a refinement of an architectural continuum of skyscraper design,” according to Gordon Gill from Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG).

Saudi Arabia unveiled plans Tuesday to build the world’s tallest tower — a mixed-use structure that will rise two-thirds of a mile high — in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

Taipei 101, one of the world’s tallest buildings, is also now the world’s greenest skyscraper.

Designed to become a strong local landmark Villa In The Sky tower by noted Henning Larsen Architects will span over 34 floors on a special location in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyad.

SEA-MW held its fifth annual awards gala at the Willard Intercontinental in Washington, DC on Saturday, February 26, 2011.

A promo of the eight acre (5.4 million-square-foot) development in South Korea.

The 121-story Shanghai Tower is more than China’s next record-setting building: It’s an economic lifeline for the elite club of skyscraper builders.

The project team built a new steel frame to hold an independent glass wall system around one of Indianapolis’ most recognizable buildings, replacing a surface damaged by storm winds.

Much of the state is still slogging through a slow-to-recover economy. But in Fayetteville, the broader region around Fort Bragg and even as far away as the Triangle, planners are bracing for an influx of about 40,000 people who are expected to come with – or follow – two major Army commands moving to Fort Bragg.

Back in 2007, when the government here announced its plan for “the world’s first zero-carbon city” on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, many Westerners dismissed it as a gimmick — a faddish follow-up to neighboring Dubai’s half-mile-high tower in the desert and archipelago of man-made islands in the shape of palm trees.

The Masdar Headquarters will be the world’s first positive-energy building, producing more energy than it consumes and surpassing the standards for LEED Platinum™ sustainable design certification.

The Korean CTBUH Conference 2010 was held at Seoul Olympic Parktel Olympia Hall and hosted by CTBUH Korea on August 27, 2010. The conference was deemed a success with 350 experts and professionals participating from a variety of disciplines, including academia, architecture, and building construction. Many tall buildings, such as “Shanghai Tower”, “Kingley Finance Tower”, and “Incheon 151 Tower”, were discussed under the conference topic “A New Generation of Tall Buildings in Asia”.

Designers of the 121-story Shanghai Tower, with its record-tall composite steel-and-concrete structure, are helping craft China’s first superskyscraper building code.

The tiara was placed on the Great American Tower at Queen City Square on Tuesday, July 13, 2010.

With hundreds of guests and well-wishers on hand, 200 Fifth Avenue marked its 100th birthday on June 17th with a giant cake shaped in its likeness and a host of achievements to celebrate.

There was plenty of buzz (but not of the Lightyear kind) last night on the roof of 200 Fifth Ave, formerly known as the International Toy Center. L&L Holding Co., the owner of the historic property, held a party to celebrate the building’s 100th birthday and completion of a $135M renovation.

“Landlord vows to restore fire-damaged bank” mentions our role in the restoration of a three-story Wachovia bank at 123 S. Broad St. in Philadelphia.

Mirax Group will continue the construction of a Moscow skyscraper set to be one of the tallest buildings in Europe, an executive said on Wednesday.

Senior Principal Gary Mancini is interviewed in the television news segment “PIX Investigates: Building Safety Inspection,” which discusses the requirements for building façade inspections under New York City’s Local Law 11/98. The segment was in response to a recent fatal accident that occurred in Manhattan when a residential balcony railing failed. Mancini points out (2:43) that balconies and railings are particularly vulnerable because of their exposure to the elements.

When it comes to considering a costly and disruptive façade replacement, it always pays to get a second opinion. That’s what the condominium association at Water Tower Place in Chicago found when faced with ongoing façade deterioration.

This nearly 800-foot-tall tower’s pleated curtain wall is more than just an intriguing design gesture.

Always famous yet never in the limelight, John Portman, 86, is an architect who made his stamp on the world through hotel atriums and Atlanta’s Peachtree Center.

Hundreds of contractors and local leaders crowded together at the corner of Third and Sycamore streets Tuesday to look on as the final steel beam was lifted into place for The Great American Tower at Queen City Square.

Located in downtown Philadelphia right above the Suburban rail station, the Comcast Center has been awarded the title of “tallest LEED certified building in the US” after earning a Gold Certification for LEED-CS (Core & Shell).

Striking a balance between value and cost was paramount to the architects and designers of the Zenith Towers, an innovative, supertall, mixed-use development that features an 80-story, 984-foot tower as the centerpiece of a 6.1-million-square-foot complex located on the waterfront of Busan, South Korea.

A new addition to Colorado’s Crested Butte resort braves the weather, as well as building height restrictions.

Soaring 58 stories and 975 feet above downtown Philadelphia, the new Comcast Center, which was recently awarded LEED Core and Shell Gold Certification, now has the distinction of being the tallest certified green building in the United States.

All architecture, to a certain extent, is a response to the demands of external forces and interior programming. Eleven Times Square, however, a new speculative office tower designed by FXFowle now nearing completion on 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, goes further than most structures in deferring to its surroundings while catering to the needs of tenants.

Brad Malmsten provides an update on our work on Moscow’s Federation Tower, the tallest building in Europe, on page 34.

At a 975-foot height, Comcast Center is Philadelphia’s tallest building—a distinction that should last at least as long as the recession.

A 15,400 m2 project currently underway in London’s Strand Conservation Area, a historically important district in the city of Westminster, will bring modern design and engineering to a prominent structure without in any way detracting from its historical character.

Masdar announced today that it has chosen Chicago architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) to design its headquarters in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city fully powered by renewable energy.

If things go according to plan, it won’t be long before Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is the undisputed pacesetter for sustainable design practices.

With the completion of Eleven Times Square, at Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street, one of the final pieces of the Times Square redevelopment project will be in place. The redevelopment has transformed the once-seedy district into an international landmark of theater and glitz.

Thornton Tomasetti is mentioned as the structural engineer for the Shanghai Tower in their article titled “Gensler unveils China’s tallest building at Mipim”

Built From Disaster is a six part documentary series about man-made structures – and how engineers and designers across the world have learned the lessons from tragic disasters of design.

Singapore is three months closer to the realisation of a remarkable landmark on the island.

The New York Times building exemplifies the idea of transparency in reporting by wearing part of its structural frame on the outside.

Architect Renzo Piano made his mark along with his partner Richard Rodgers, in the design of the renowned Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Until recently, no buildings in Moscow surpassed the 240-meter Moscow State University—the tallest of the city’s “Seven Sisters” towers built at sites throughout the city during Stalin’s era. But a few years ago, Russia’s new wealth from natural resources started an upward rush.

Many different applications of concrete were used in the design of the tower within a framework of uncomplicated detailing and repetition of elements explain Tanya de Hoog, Les Postawa and Ben John of Thornton Tomasetti.

Defying signs that the global economy is in a major downturn, the 2,074-foot-tall Shanghai Tower, designed by Gensler, broke ground on Friday, November 28. The mixed-use glass-and-steel tower is slated to be the tallest building in China.

A 151-story mixed-use tower under development in Incheon, South Korea, is poised to become one of the world’s tallest buildings when completed, in 2014.

Shanghai Tower, a 632-meter (2,074 foot) building designed by Gensler, a leading global architectural design firm, advances sustainable design strategies and gives prominence to public spaces.

Groundbreaking ceremonies held today marked the start of construction of the Shanghai Tower, the city’s latest super-tall building. The 632-meter building, which as things stand will be China’s tallest, was designed by global architecture firm Gensler who say they have used sustainable design strategies and have given prominence to public spaces.

Architects’ strategies for turning some of New York City’s grandest old buildings into condos are proving their worth despite an erratic housing market.

For nearly a century, the New York Times Company and its most celebrated newspaper had been headquartered in the heart of Manhattan near Times Square. But when the media giant outgrew its site and the surrounding area underwent extensive commercial redevelopment, the firm’s owners decided to construct a new headquarters building. Their goal: a structure in which the levels of technical and architectural sophistication would mirror the firm’s leading role within the media industry.

A consortium led by Portman Holdings in partnership with Samsung C&T Corp., Hyundai E&C, and SYM-Associates is financing the development of a 151-story, 2,000-foot mixed-use tower in Incheon, South Korea, that, when completed, could stand as the world’s second-tallest building. Designed by Atlanta-based John Portman & Associates with Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer, Incheon 151 Tower will feature 30 floors of commercial offices, a 300-room hotel, apartments and condos, observation levels at 118 and 119, and sky restaurants at the top of the tower.

The planned 587-meter 151 Incheon has started the journey toward becoming one of the world’s tallest buildings. If all goes as planned, the 151-story mixed-use skyscraper, which broke ground in late June and is scheduled for a 2014 finish, would rank as the world’s second-tallest. But that is only if it beats the 609-m-tall Chicago Spire, which has a leg up on Incheon but is not yet out of the ground. The Spire’s finish, originally set for 2010, may be up in the air thanks to economic woes, say observers.

The 5.7-million-sf Incheon Tower, expected to be complete by 2014, is part of the $35 billion Songdo International Business District.

This announcement represents the accomplishment of a major milestone in the Tameer Towers project, a joint venture between Tameer Holding Investment LLC and Sorouh Real Estate PJSC.

The Plaza 66 Tower 2, in Shanghai, China, posed a number of engineering challenges, among them determining solutions for poor foundation conditions in an area that sees seismic activity and typhoons, evaluating settlement effects on the new tower and the existing tower on-site, designing a curved bridge to connect the two towers, and constructing a complex steel roof lantern with two-way slopes.

Richard inside Taipei 101, with a model of the massive building.

The International Toy Center always sounded like just about any child’s definition of heaven. But very few children — and not that many more grown-ups — ever got inside the two great fortresslike showroom buildings on the west side of Madison Square Park.

A 32,000m2 airport terminal designed by Rafael Viñoly is under construction at Montevideo airport in the architect’s home country of Uruguay.

The New York Times Building in Manhattan, New York, is the best in clever and yet subtle architecture but its designers have bucked the trend and not tried for LEED accreditation, opting instead to build for user comfort. Does this bode well for skyscraper design in the 21st Century?

Not long ago, the block between 17th and 18th Streets on JFK Blvd. in downtown Philadelphia was a parking lot. But thanks to positive market conditions and an increased demand for top-tier commercial development in this vibrant office district, the site was ripe for a world-class office building.

With a rich history dating back to the early 1800s, the Block 37 section of the Downtown Loop district has seen periods of activity and dormancy. Vacant since 1989, Block 37 is once again ready to become a central focus for downtown Chicago.

Tameer Holding, one of the region’s leading real estate developers, awarded a Dh170 million contract to Arabian Foundations Engineering LLC, to carry out enabling works on its flagship Tameer Towers project in Abu Dhabi.

Tameer Holding, one of the region’s leading real estate developers, awarded an AED 170 million contract to Arabian Foundations Engineering LLC, to carry out enabling works on its flagship “Tameer Towers” project in Abu Dhabi.

The intent of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus was to offer an environment that would stimulate researchers to exchange ideas.

Crested Butte is retooling its image and finding a new market for development, which is coming at a fast pace in this formerly sleepy ski resort.

Not too many years ago, Moscow’s skyline consisted of little more than the onion domes of the Kremlin and the Gothic spires of the Stalin-era buildings known as the Seven Sisters. But today, a forest of cranes dominates a 250-acre stretch along the Moscow River, where the 93-story Federation Tower — soon to be Europe’s tallest — is rising.

For the general public, mention of “forensics” most likely brings to mind television shows like the current CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Quincy, M.E., popular in the late 1970s and early ’80s. For design and construction professionals, however, the word is associated with tragic collapses, such as the 1981 walkway failure at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency, or this summer’s ceiling module collapse in a tunnel that is part of Boston’s Big Dig.

The first of its kind, the Janelia Farm Research Complex transforms accepted patterns of scientific research and typical designs for lab buildings.

Recipe for a structural challenge: take on basic office tower, ‘super size’ to world’s-tallest proportions, carve into a unique shape, fan (in typhoons) and shake well (in earthquakes)….serves thousands (of tenants and visitors)…this is Taipei 101 in Taiwan, Republic of China.

The Chrysler Building is an icon of Modern American Architecture and a personal
tribute to automaker Walter P. Chrysler,the building’s owner, Architect William Van Alen and the machine age, was opened in May 1930.

The 52-story tower will have large amounts of exposed steel elements supporting an innovative curtain wall, requiring an intensive fabrication and installation effort.

With its shimmering skin of high-quality clear glass and ceramic rods that will appear to change color as light hits from different angles, the 1.6-million-sq.-ft. New York Times building has a chance to become an icon of New York City’s skyline.

St. Petersburg native Sergei Tchoban doesn’t think his design for Europe’s tallest building will violate Moscow’s vertical integrity.

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Completed March 2004, ABN AMRO Plaza houses over 4,000 employees in Chicago’s
first high-rise building designated as a technology center.

The high-profile public ceremony in Moscow on February 9 officially set off construction on the “Federation” towers in the city’s future financial district. The “Federation” will be the kernel of the planned Moscow-City, an area four kilometers northwest of the Kremlin where most government and business activity will be relocated by 2010.

Tall buildings are getting greener. Or green buildings are getting taller. Either way you slice it, the sustainability movement in the U.S. has gone large-scale and skyward, and nowhere is this more apparent than in New York City.

The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, now the tallest buildings on earth, are among the architectural wonders of the world. The story of their construction is one of many challenges, and the resulting design, by Cesar Pelli & Associates, reflects a melding of East and West.

A 508-meter-tall skyscraper nearing completion in Taiwan’s capital has grabbed the title of world’s tallest building from the 452-m-tall twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Around the world, structural steel is the material of choice for innovative designs and tight construction schedules. From parking structures to chemical plants, bridges to tall buildings, steel is everywhere.

Taipei’s 508-meter-tall tower, destined to grab the record from Kuala Lumpur’s twin Petronas Towers when it opens late next year, is the safest place in town, says its structural designer.

At a news organization, truth is the top priority. The design of a signature, headquarters property for The New York Times Co., one of the most prominent news organizations in the world, required truth as well.

Silverstein Properties, Inc. has released engineering reports reflecting the results of a detailed and comprehensive examination of why the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood for as long as they did following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and why they ultimately collapsed.

It’s the largest trading floor in the world – 54 ft. high, 225 ft. wide and the length of two football fields – and it’s in Stamford, Conn.

Over many months, reams of analysis have piled up — a sometimes competing mix of calculation and deduction that suggests an array of answers to the questions of why and how the steel skeletons of the twin towers suddenly came apart in raging fires on Sept. 11. And with that increased understanding, the storms of emotion surrounding the grim, disturbing questions have quieted some.

But as scientists and engineers have gained these hard-won glimpses into the mechanics of a tragedy, there is one other question that almost all of them have carefully avoided asking: could another building, indeed any building, no matter how stoutly or cleverly built, have stood longer than the twin towers did, let more people escape or perhaps never collapsed?

Engineers who played a critical role in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero share their experiences and thoughts about the long-term impacts of Sept. 11.

In the decades since the World Trade Center was built, however, new materials and building techniques — some used on the more recent super skyscrapers like the Petronas Towers — may have given people more time to escape.