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.

Thornton Tomasetti won two awards at the Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington’s (SEA-MW) Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards Gala on February 26, 2011 at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C.

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.

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.

Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm with practices in building structure, building skin and building performance, was the structural engineer for three Midwest-based projects receiving top honors from Midwest Construction magazine.

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.

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.

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.

The three Zenith towers top out at 988 feet, but their wide stance and butterfly-shaped core walls shrug off blasts from storms over the China Sea.

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.

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.

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”.

Construction of the Zenith Towers in Busan, South Korea which began in 2007, is nearing completion.

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.

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.

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

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

An increasingly common approach to all-glass facades is to use multiple types of glass with varying performance characteristics. Such a strategy was employed by New York City–based Audrey Matlock, AIA, for the design of the Chelsea Modern, a 47-unit residential building on a tight midblock Manhattan site.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Timeless is an easy word to apply to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Its ubiquitous influence, self-assured world view, and complete severance with historic models of building have made Wright’s work a very fresh and singular oeuvre. But, as Paul Harding, FAIA, can tell you, elements of Wright’s work, like its natural predilection towards contemporary notions of sustainability, put his work firmly in the now.

MANY new luxury condominium buildings blur together. Whether gut renovations or new construction, they seem to offer similar amenities, comparable open kitchens and en suite bathrooms. Yet, two new projects seem to stand out in the crowd. One, the Chelsea Modern, at 447 West 18th Street, is new construction with a wide undulating facade and angled windows that catch the light and animate the city street.

What with demand for housing and offices seemingly as far as ever from being saturated and land plots in permanently short supply, it’s clear that the real estate market is going to drive Moscow upwards.

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.

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.

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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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.

One notable exception to this sad state of affairs sits northwest of the Loop in the River North neighborhood, a growing residential area with light-industrial roots. The 25-story Erie on the Park, with its steel chevron braces, parallelogram shape, and remarkable transparency, is as eye-catching as the views of the city it offers.

Steel framing provides flexible layouts in this recent mid-rise residential condominium project in Chicago. The building facade features exposed steel elements that mirror the structure behind the sleek steel and glass curtain wall.