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Philosophy ORO Editions
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is dedicated to the design of high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable architecture on an international scale. The firm approaches each project, regardless of size or scale, with an understanding that architecture has a unique power to influence civic life. We strive to create designs that aid society, advance modern technology, sustain the environment and inspire those around us to improve our world.
Our office is dedicated to the creation of new paradigms for sustainable development. We use a holistic, integrated design approach that emphasizes symbiotic relationship with the natural environment—a philosophy we’ve termed “global environmental contextualism.” We also specialize in the design of high-performance supertall towers.
This approach, which takes into consideration building orientation, daylighting, generation of wind power, solar absorption and a site’s geothermal properties, represents a fundamental change in the design process, in which form follows performance. It is predicated on the understanding that everything within the built and natural environment is connected, and that a building’s design should stem from an understanding of its role within that context— locally, regionally, and globally.
Such a pluralistic approach acknowledges the interaction among building systems as well as between those systems and the natural environment, and seeks to improve each individual system’s performance. By using this principle in the design of buildings, we can create structures that significantly reduce their environmental impact.
AS+GG’s practice includes designers with extensive experience in multiple disciplines, including technical architecture, interior design, urban planning and sustainable design. Architects also have expertise in a range of building types, including supertall towers, largescale mixed-use complexes, corporate offices, exhibition facilities, cultural facilities and museums, civic and public spaces, hotels and residential complexes, institutional projects and high-tech laboratory facilities.
The firm was founded in 2006 by partners Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill, and Robert Forest. For more information, please visit smithgill.com. AS+GG is currently working on projects in the United States, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and China.
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Jeddah Tower
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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Mixed-use
FACTS
1000+ m height
530,000 sm area
AWARDS
Middle East AIA, Merit
Award, Non-Built Projects, 2014
Jeddah Tower
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
At over 1,000 meters and a total construction area of 530,000 sm, Jeddah Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the $20 billion Kingdom City development in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.
AS+GG’s design for Jeddah Tower is both highly technological and distinctly organic. With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds growth around it. The tower is a symbol of and a catalyst for the increased surrounding development.
The tower’s sleek, streamlined form can also be interpreted as a reference to the folded fronds of young desert plants. The way the stalks sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology.
While the design is contextual to Saudi Arabia, it also represents an evolution and a refinement of an architectural continuum of skyscraper design. The three-petal footprint is ideal for residential units, and the tapering wings produce an aerodynamic shape that helps reduce structural loading due to wind vortex shedding. Jeddah Tower’s design embraces its architectural pedigree, taking full advantage of the proven design strategies and technological strategies of its lineage, refining and advancing them to achieve new heights.
The result is an elegant, cost-efficient and highly constructible design that is at once grounded in built tradition and aggressively forward-looking, taking advantage of new and innovative thinking about technology, building materials, life-cycle considerations, and energy conservation. For example, the project will feature a high-performance exterior wall system that will minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads. In addition, each of Jeddah Tower’s three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.
The great height of Jeddah Tower necessitates one of the world’s most sophisticated elevator systems. The Jeddah Tower complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions. Another unique feature of the design is a sky terrace, roughly 30 meters in diameter, at level 157, which when completed will be the highest observatory in the world.
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Central Park Tower
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SERVICES
Architecture
Interior Design
CLIENT Extell Development
Company
FUNCTION
Mixed-use
FACTS
1,550 ft height
AWARDS
The Chicago Athenaeum, American Architecture Award, 2021
CTBUH Awards, Best Tall Building 400 meters and above Award of Excellence, 2021
Central Park Tower
New York, New York
A beacon of glass and steel rising 1,550 feet on famed Billionaire’s Row in New York City, Central Park Tower is one of the most prestigious addresses in the world. Completed in 2021, the tower offers endless views, exquisite architecture, gracious layouts, and an unprecedented level of service. Central Park Tower is the definitive New York skyscraper.
Located on West 57th Street, New York City’s most prestigious corridor, Central Park has exceptional views and floor plans. The grand living and entertaining spaces are strategically positioned in the corners of the residences to maximize multiple panoramas and citywide views. Structural elements are discreetly located between the residential units, resulting in floor-to-ceiling windows with unencumbered views and gracious layouts.
The interiors of the residences are designed by Rottet Studio, whose credits include The James Royal Palm in Miami Beach, and The Surrey Hotel in Manhattan. Starting 300 feet above the ground, the 179 ultra-luxury residences range from one-to-four bedrooms and consist of studio suites, and full floor, duplex, and triplex units.
The tower, which has been designated by the CTUBH as the tallest residential tower ever built, is home to one of the world’s most exclusive private clubs. Central Park Club has approximately 50,000 square feet of thoroughly curated luxury accommodations spread across three floors, each location providing a unique experience complemented by five-star service. The first club level, located on the 14th floor, features a residents’ lounge with billiards, screening, and function rooms. The centerpiece is 15,000-square-foot outdoor terrace with a 60-foot swimming pool, cabanas, bar, screening wall, food and beverage service, and an outdoor children’s playground.
The health and wellness center on the 16th floor has a 63-foot indoor swimming pool, state-of-the art fitness center, half-court basketball court, squash court, sauna, steam and treatment rooms. The Club culminate on the 100th floor at an elevation of over 1,000 feet.
At the base of the tower is a new 300,000-square-foot, seven-story Nordstrom department store. After a 30-year search for the optimum site, the Seattle-based fashion retailer selected Central Park Tower as the location for its premier flagship story in New York City, the first in its over 100-year history.
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Greenland Tower
Chengdu, China
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468 m height
Architizer A+ Award, Unbuilt Category, Architecture + Technology, Finalist, 2014
Chengdu Greenland Tower Chengdu, China
At 468 meters tall, AS+GG’s design for Chengdu Greenland Tower is the southwestern China region’s tallest building and the fourth-tallest in the nation.
Located at the center of Chengdu’s booming Dongcun district, the design is inspired by the unique ice mountain topography around Chengdu, which symbolizes the city’s growth and promising future. Like the mountain ridges that reflect the light of the sky and the valleys that reflect the light from the earth, the iconic tower performs as a light sculpture; diffuse light from 360 degrees and creating a connection between the sky and the earth.
The design for the complex—including the main tower, two small towers, and six-story podium, with a total building area of 395,305 sm—interprets and integrates Chengdu’s urban structure, local culture, and Chinese traditional Feng Shui theory in a modern form. Its goal is to create a comfortable gardencity environment with convenient traffic patterns for vehicular, pedestrian, and metro transportation.
The architecture and structure marry perfectly. The design fully considers the structural requirements of supertall buildings in a high seismic zone by using a geometrical plan, a tapered form, and a high-performance damper bracing system to ensure the structure’s stability and efficiency. The building facade, MEP and other systems are designed with high-efficiency sustainability features, creating a new generation of the high-performance supertall building.
The main tower consists of a 120,000 sm Class A office space in the lower zone, a 51,000 sm luxury hotel in the middle zone, and 42,000 sm of CEO suites in the high zone. Two small towers, at 116 m and 147 m, respectively, accommodate high-end SOHO apartments. The podium includes 14,000 sm of retail, a 16,000 sm conference center with bridge connection to the main tower, and an 8,000 sm exhibition center. There is also a roof garden with 360-degree views of the city.
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PROGRAM DIAGRAM
Roof Garden
CEO Residential (41,875 sm)
Hotel (51,166 sm)
Office (59,996 sm)
SOHO Apartments (58,708 sm)
Office (59,996 sm)
Exhibition (8,300 sm)
Conference (15,870 sm)
Retail (14,803 sm)
Wuhan Greenland Center
Wuhan, China
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SERVICES
Architecture
Interior Design
CLIENT Greenland Group
FUNCTION
Mixed-use
FACTS
119 stories
636 m height
300,000 sm area
AWARDS
The Chicago Athenaeum, Green Good Design Award, Green Architecture, 2017
Re-Thinking the Future, Sustainability Award, First Award, Mixed-Use, 2016
Wuhan Greenland Center
Wuhan, China
Wuhan Greenland Center, at 636 meters, was designed to be China’s third-tallest building, and the fourth tallest in the world, when completed.
The 119-level tower in Wuhan, China is comprised of about 300,000 sm of floor area, including 200,000 sm of offices, 50,000 sm of luxury apartments and condominiums, a 45,000 sm five-star hotel, and a 5,000 sm 27-meter-tall private club with spectacular views at the tower’s penthouse level.
The tower features a uniquely streamlined form that combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, softly rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action that builds up around supertall towers. The building’s efficient aerodynamic performance allows for less structural material—and the associated embodied carbon—needed for construction.
The tower’s three corners rise from its tripod-shaped base and taper upward, culminating in an arched tip above the dome at the top. The corners are smooth curved glass, contrasting markedly with the more textured curtain wall cladding the body of the tower. The curtain wall encloses a composite concrete core with steel framing. Apertures in the curtain wall at regular intervals assist in venting wind pressure against the tower; the apertures also house window-washing systems and air intake and exhaust systems on mechanical floors.
Other planned sustainable elements of the project include:
• Energy recovery using an enthalpy wheel integrated into the ventilation system; this captures energy from the building’s exhaust systems and uses it to pre-heat or pre-cool air entering the building.
• A graywater recovery system, which takes waste water from the hotel laundry, sinks, and showers, and reuses it in the building’s evaporative cooling system.
• A high-efficiency lighting system, which uses low-energy-consuming ballasts and lamps to reduce required power consumption.
• A daylight-responsive control system, which automatically turns off electric lights when sufficient daylight is available.
• Water-conserving low-flow plumbing fixtures, which reduce the total amount of potable water required as well as the associated pumping energy.
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