From New York to China, four SOM projects are taking home seven Awards of Excellence from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). In New York, CTBUH recognized our work from the past and the future with a 10 Year Award for One World Trade Center and a Future Project Award for 175 Park Avenue. Our latest work in Hangzhou—Greenland Century Center and the Wangchao Center—have won a combined five awards across several categories.
One World Trade Center (pictured above), the Western Hemisphere’s tallest building, honors the World Trade Center’s past while standing as a symbol of hope. Upon its completion in 2014, it recaptured the New York skyline—reasserting Lower Manhattan’s preeminence as a global business center and establishing a new civic icon for the country.
Uptown, 175 Park Avenue (pictured below) will rise beside Grand Central Terminal, weaving between multistory tangles of train tracks to unlock the potential of one of the densest transit hubs in the region. The tower’s form tapers before hitting the street, making room for a necklace of elevated public terraces and widened sidewalks over an expansion to the terminal’s concourses below.
In China, the Greenland Hangzhou Century Center (pictured below) earned three awards: Best Tall Building in the Asia region, Best Tall Building by Height, and the System Award. Its twin towers, connected by a “draped” skybridge, serve as a prominent gateway to the city center, symbolically shaping the English letter “H” in homage to the city’s name. Combining office, hotel, and public spaces, the two towers are linked by a public garden plaza, fostering connectivity and community engagement through a landmark civic space.
Joining the twin towers in the skyline, the Wangchao Center—the city’s second-tallest building—rises in a dramatic curvature that evokes the natural scenery of the region. More than just a bold architectural move, this undulating silhouette reduces material use, brings in fresh air, and provides the strength and flexibility to resist seismic forces. These features helped the tower gain recognition across both the Best Tall Building by Height and Best Tall Building in the Asia region.
2024 CTBUH Awards and Distinctions
175 Park Avenue
Future Project Award 2024 Award of Excellence
Greenland Hangzhou Century Center
Best Tall Building, by Region, Asia 2024 Award of Excellence
Best Tall Building, by Height, 300 meters and above 2024 Award of Excellence
Systems Award 2024 Award of Excellence
Hangzhou Wangchao Center
Best Tall Building, by Region, Asia 2024 Award of Excellence
Best Tall Building, by Height, 200-299 meters 2024 Award of Excellence
One World Trade Center
10 Year Award 2024 Award of Excellence
The CTBUH Annual Awards program recognizes projects, practices, and individuals that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment and that achieve sustainability and human well-being at the highest and broadest level. SOM will present these projects in September at the CTBUH International Conference in London and Paris as part of a larger competition.
