The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has named Steven Holl Architects’ recently completed Linked Hybrid complex in Beijing the “CTBUH 2009 Best Tall Building Overall,” selecting it from among candidates from regions worldwide.

Annually, the CTBUH recognizes one outstanding tall building from each of four geographical regions: Americas, Asia and Australia, Europe, and Middle East and Africa. Recipients must possess seamless integration of architectural form, structure, and building systems, as well as exhibit sustainable design qualities working to preserve the quality of urban life.
At the awards ceremony, CTBUH Awards Committee Chairman Gordon Gill stated, “This project is so rich in thought, both programmatically and architecturally. It presents an advances typology for dense urban living.”

The Chicago and China offices of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) announced last week that they were named the winner of an international design competition to expand the Beijing Central Business District (CBD).
The competition was sponsored by the Chaoyang District Government and the Beijing CBD Administration Committee. Seven teams of the world’s leading urban planners, urban designers and architects were invited to participate. Philip Enquist, FAIA, Partner-in-Charge of Urban Design and Planning for SOM, led this effort.

The redesign of the 23,000 square foot Monahan Building at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut by Butler Rogers Baskett Architects (BRB) has received Gold LEED Certification.

The 1930s Delano and Aldrich building, originally the school’s gymnasium, was gut renovated to accommodate a new multi-use program of flexible spaces for the alumni and development departments, two residential apartments for visiting faculty and space for the school’s new Center for Global Understanding and Independent Thinking.

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in collaboration with Werner Sobek and engineers ABT, has won the competition for Rotterdam's Stadskantoor, a new building for the city hall that will accommodate municipal services, offices, and residential units. The winner was announced this morning by city alderman Hamit Karakus.

The new 136,000-square-foot Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was completed in April 2009 and is expected to achieve LEED certification later this year

AUBURN HILLS, Michigan, October 10, 2009 – Thomas M. Cooley Law School has achieved another milestone – not only is it the nation’s largest law school, but it is now the first “green” law school in the state of Michigan with the completion of its newest campus, located on a wooded 67-acre site in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Designed by Berkley, Michigan-based SHW Group, the 136,000-square-foot complex is slated to receive LEED certification in late 2009, making it the first LEED-certified law school in Michigan. Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Rockford Construction was the project’s general contractor.

The young office NORD Architects has won the competition for a new healthcare center for cancer patients.

All images: NORD Architects/MIR

In the future when the citizens of Copenhagen are diagnosed with cancer, they and their families can get help with rehabilitation and support in a new and exceptional building.

The winning design is founded by principles of healing architecture and at the same time it suggests aesthetics which are in contrast with that of a conventional health institution.