Commercial News » New York City Edition | June 5, 2018.

Chicago's Oasia Hotel Downtown Named "Best Tall Building Worldwide" for 2018.

This past week the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat announced the winners of the 16th Annual CTBUH Awards Program, which competed for winning distinctions at the 2018 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference last week at Aqua Tower in Chicago. The CTBUH Awards Jury has named Oasia Hotel Downtown the "Best Tall Building Worldwide", in addition to recognizing the winners of nine individual award categories. 

Oasia Downtown Hotel (c) Patarick Bingham-Hall

The winner of Best Tall Building Worldwide exhibited a number of characteristics that impressed the judges. The visually-striking Oasia Hotel Downtown stands out amongst the gray and blue high-rises of Singapore with its plant-covered façade of red and green, which connects to the green of the cityscape. Landscaping is used extensively as an architectural surface treatment, and forms a major part of the development's material palette, with a total of 54 species of plants climbing along the aluminum mesh façade screen. With a substantial commitment to outdoor communal space through the incorporation of "skyspaces" along its height, the tower provides respite and relief to its occupants, neighbors, and city. 

"This project won not only because it incorporates 60 stories of green walls along the exterior," said CTBUH Executive Director and Awards Juror Antony Wood, "But because of its significant commitment to communal space. The tower has given over 40 percent of its volume to open air communal terraces in the sky."

In addition to the regional and overall Best Tall Building winners, a number of other award recipients were recognized at the conference, including the World Trade Center Master Plan for the Urban Habitat Award; MULTI for the Innovation Award; The EY Centre for the Construction Award; New York Times Tower for the 10 Year Award (2007 Completions); and Shanghai World Financial Center for the 10 Year Award (2008 Completions). In all, the 10 awards winners were chosen from a group of 48 Finalist projects representing 28 countries.

Shanghai World Financial Center (Shanghai, China)

The CTBUH Tall Building Awards are an independent review of new projects, judged by a prestigious panel of experts. The Awards aspire to provide a more comprehensive and sophisticated view of these important structures, while advocating for improvements in every aspect of performance, including those that have the greatest positive impact on the individuals who use these buildings and the cities they inhabit. All projects recognized in the CTBUH 2018 Awards Program, including Finalists and Nominees, are featured in the first of a brand new book series, entitled Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat: Volume 1. 

CTBUH Best Global Award Winners of 2018 Include:

* Best Tall Building Americas - Winner

American Copper Buildings (New York City)

* Best Tall Building Europe - Winner

The Silo  (Copenhagen) 

* Best Tall Building Middle East & Africa - Winner

Zeitz MOCAA  (Cape Town, South Africa)

* Urban Habitat Award - Winner

The World Trade Center Master Plan in New York City 

* Innovation Award - Winner

MULTI, the world's first rope-less, multi-directional elevator, 

* Construction Award - Winner

The EY Centre  (Sydney, Australia)

* 10 Year Award (2007 Completions) - Winner

New York Times Tower (New York City)

* 10 Year Award (2008 Completions) - Winner

Shanghai World Financial Center (Shanghai, China)