Jessica Mairs | 1 December 2016
Kicking off our review of 2016, architecture editor Jessica Mairs looks back
at 10 skyscrapers that have bent the rules in the past year, ranging from a triangular tower in
New York to a Lego-like Singapore tower and the world's second-tallest building.
Via 57 West, US, by BIG
The pyramidal silhouette of Bjarke Ingel's 142-metre-tall "courtscraper" stands out from the grid
of rectilinear towers lining the banks of New York's Hudson River. Apartments are organised
around a huge well carved from the block's centre – which has the same proportions as Central
Park.
56 Leonard, US, by Herzog & de Meuron
Nicknamed the Jenga Tower after its stacked-box formation, Herzog & de Meuron's 56 Leonard tower
tapers towards a cluster of 10 unique penthouses at its peak. The glass cuboids give residents floor-to-
ceiling windows facing the New York horizon.
Sky Habitat, Singapore, by Safdie Architects
Aerial walkways link the two huge terraced towers that make up Moshe Safdie's Lego-like Sky
Habitat in Singapore. Balconies project away from the facades of the blocks, lending them the
same pixelated appearance as the architect's Brutalist icon, Habitat 67. Other features
include jutting balconies, a sky pool and elevated walkways.
432 Park Avenue, US, by Rafael Viñoly Architects
At 425 metres tall, Rafael Viñoly's 432 Park Avenue skyscraper looms head and shoulders above
Manhattan's already vertiginous skyline. One of a new breed of super-tall skyscrapers, when the
skinny tower completed earlier this year, it was crowned as the tallest residential building in the
western hemisphere.
Beijing Greenland Center, China, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Angled glazing covering the 260-metre-tall facades of SOM's Beijing Greenland Centre refracts
daylight to cast a pattern of shade across the skyscraper. The tessellating glass modules are made
from two types of trapezoid – one that tapes upwards and one that tapers downwards.
Torre Reforma, Mexico, by LBR&A Arquitectos
Mexico's tallest building is sheathed in concrete on two of its three sides, which feature just a
smattering of windows. But the third facade is covered solely in gridded glazing. The tower's
246-metre stature is a sharp contrast to the petite 1920s building incorporated into its base as a
lobby.
10 Hudson Yards, US, by Kohn Pederson Fox
The first tower to complete at New York's Hudson Yards development, this chamfered glass
block by Kohn Pederson Fox is the global headquarters for the fashion brand Coach. The glass-
covered block stands at one end of the High Line, giving workers within vistas along the green
corridor that runs along an abandoned railway track.
Hongkou Soho, China, by Kengo Kuma & Associates
Pleats of aluminium shroud the facade of the Shanghai skyscraper Kengo Kuma created for the
property developer Soho China. The slender strips of perforated metal angle to fit the form of the
building, creating a rippling texture that disguises the typical horizontal pattern created by floor
plates.
Shanghai Tower, China, by Gensler
The world's second tallest skyscraper – 632 metres tall with 121 storeys – actually completed at
the very end of 2015, but opened officially this year. Its distinctive twisting form is the result of
rigorous wind-tunnel tests that aim to offset the impact of Shanghai's typhoons. When it
completed, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat declared it a new "prototype for tall
buildings". It recently won the inaugural American Architecture prize.
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