Next week, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) will host its 2024 International Conference, New or Renew: Addressing the Density Dilemma. During the conference, 10 SOM leaders from our New York, Chicago, London, and San Francisco studios will present sessions ranging from panel discussions to research findings and reflections on four projects that … Continued
Commercial office design was forever changed with the completion of Lever House in 1952 as the first International Style building in the United States. Since then, we have continued to care for the landmark for more than 70 years. After restoring the facade in 2001, we returned again in 2023 to recapture the midcentury icon’s … Continued
“Everyone you talk to in New York has a Waldorf Astoria story,” Principal Frank Mahan told The Sunday Times, sharing a glimpse into our comprehensive renovation, restoration, and preservation of the iconic New York City hotel. Originally built in 1931, “The art deco-inspired limestone façade and distinctive twin pinnacles, the capacious public spaces, the Peacock … Continued
In this week’s edition of Property Week magazine, Partner Kent Jackson speaks about the urgent need to widen the net of available clean energy solutions in the UK, particularly wind power. Commenting on the UK’s latest wave of clean energy projects including onshore wind and solar farms, Jackson refers to SOM’s Pearl River Tower in … Continued
A new exhibition in New York City, organized by Pratt Institute’s Center for Climate Adaptation (CCA), presents a range of perspectives on climate adaptation strategies in archipelagos—communities that are at the greatest risk and in need of finding livable solutions for climate change. Titled Adaptations 2.0, the exhibition takes place on Governors Island, where the … Continued
Join Peter Kindel, SOM’s Cities and Climate Lead, at the upcoming Circular Cities Summit 2.0 in Dubai. Following last year’s UN COP28, this conference will delve into the future of sustainable urban development in the Middle East and the application of circular design principles in urban planning to address the region’s pressing environmental challenges. Kindel … Continued
New York has endeavored for more than two decades to reimagine Midtown West from an underutilized industrial area into a neighborhood that boosts the city’s vitality, and The Architect’s Newspaper reported on the latest vision for its future. The Western Rail Yards—the neighborhood’s last remaining site, flanked by a remarkable collection of green spaces and … Continued
The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center has been recognized for its high performance in its resiliency and sustainability with a LEED Platinum certification, the highest mark of excellence for sustainability as awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. Conceived as a vertical campus, the project brings the entirety of the U.S. DOT Volpe … Continued
One of the missing pieces to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 is grid-scale energy storage, which is precisely what we are tackling in our partnership with Energy Vault. As CNN reports, tall buildings are SOM’s specialty, which creates “an opportunity to take this expertise … and use it for energy storage, enabling us to wean … Continued
BRG Group and Sumitomo Corporation, working with a committee of Vietnamese and international experts in construction, urban planning, and architecture, have selected SOM to design and engineer the centerpiece of North Hanoi Smart City—a 108-story, mixed-use skyscraper surrounded by a vast public park. The development, Smart City Financial Tower, is part of the fifth phase … Continued