Each year, the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) celebrates the world's grandest towers with its Best Tall Building awards. Claiming top honors in 2018 was a striking red and green skyscraper in Singapore, with a pair of converted silos and conjoined New York towers rounding out the winners' list.
The Best Tall Building awards are split across different categories for four different regions of the world: the Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe and the Middle East & Africa.
With its greenery covered exterior that towers 60 stories above the island city state, Singapore's Oasis Hotel Downtown earned the global gong for Best Tall Building Worldwide. That foliage is meant to complement the greenery of the surrounding cityscape, and features a grand total of 54 different plant species within.
"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."
Taking out the Best Tall Building for Europe was a 17-story refurbished apartment building dubbed The Silo. Designed by COBE Architects, the high-rise was transformed from an old grain storage facility into a residential complex with 38 apartments, and the interior largely left intact with exposed concrete to maintain an industrial feel.
Another transformed silo claimed the top prize for the Middle East & Africa region, with the Zeitz MOCAA building in Cape Town, South Africa impressing the judges with an array of large floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper level that turn the building into a "glowing beacon on Table Bay."
And taking out the Best Tall Building Americas category was the American Copper Buildings, by SHoP architects. Towering over New York City's East river, this copper-clad structure consists of two buildings joined by a three-story skybridge complete with a swimming pool, so guests can swim from one tower to the other.
As part of the same ceremony in Chicago, The World Trade Center Master Plan in New York City also received an Urban Habitat Award for the building that best contributes to its environment, both culturally and environmentally.
An Innovation Award was handed to construction company Thyssenkrupp for the world's first rope-less multidirectional elevator, and a Construction Award was given to the Mirvac Construction for the EY Centre in Sydney, Australia, for its first-of-a-kind timber and glass closed cavity facade.
There were also pair of 10-year awards that celebrate the performance of built structures over the past decade, with the New York Times Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center the two recipients.
You can check out all the winners in our gallery.
