2008 Galleries
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Galleries // 2008 Spark:Pro // Pearl River Tower
Pearl River Tower
Winner - Gold
Competition: Spark:Pro
Designer: SOM Design Team
Design Type: Architecture
Company / Organization / School: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
The 71-story Pearl River Tower epitomizes the super-tall corporate headquarters building of tomorrow: an iconic, high-performance structure that is designed in such harmony with its environment that it potentially produces as much energy as it consumes. Every aspect of the tower is designed to harvest wind and solar energy. The tower would face the prevailing winds and use them to relieve the structural burdens imposed by high-wind pressures. In short, wind forces are so well managed, they become “invisible braces” that fortify the building. The sculpted body directs wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors. Winds propel turbines which generate energy for the building’s essential power needs. Energy consumption is reduced by maximizing natural day-lighting, reducing solar heat gain in air conditioned spaces, retaining rainwater for gray-water usage, and by utilizing solar energy for attaining the building’s hot water supply. Solar systems integrated into the façades transform the sun’s energy to usable AC current.
