Guy Nordenson Knihy

Since the first skyscraper was erected a century ago, tall buildings have intrigued people everywhere. Today they are so commonplace that it is hard to imagine the modern landscape without them. But skyscrapers are more than relics of the twentieth century; they have evolved, along with out technological, spatial and aesthetic needs, as the new urban landscape. Tall Buildings explores how the genre is being redefined for the twenty-first century, presenting a critical review of the current state of tall buildings, discussing structural inventions, programmatic innovations, and social and urbanistic implications. 26 skyscrapers and highrise structures designed in the last decade around the world exemplify these concepts. Each project, fully illustrated, is accompanied by an explanatory text. Included are Santiago Calatrava's Turning Torso in Malmo; Norman Foster and Ove Arup and Partners' Swiss Re Headquarters in London; Steven Holl and Robert Silman's 5th Avenue and 42nd Street Tower; Hans Hollein and Josef Janda's Monte Laa Towers; Arata Isozaki and Toshiko Kimura's JR Ueno Railway Station; Rem Koolhaas's CCTV Tower in Beijing; Teodoro Gonzalez de Leon, Francisco Serrano and Alejandro Fierro's Los Arcos Bosques 1 in Mexico; Renzo Piano and Charles Thornton's New York Times Headquarters; Richard Rogers and Ove Arup and partners' HHR Tower in Korea; SOM's Jin Mao Tower; Dr. Kenneth Yeang and T.R. Hamzah's Elephant and Castle Eco-Tower; plus various World Trade Center proposals.

"On the Water: Palisade Bay" is the collaborative initiative of a group of engineers, architects, landscape architects, planners and students to imagine a "soft infrastructure" for the New York/New Jersey Upper Bay by developing interconnected infrastructures and landscapes which rethink the thresholds of water, land andcity. The proposal is sited on the water, along the coastal edge and within the local communities. It presents a new coastal planning strategy which not only mitigates potential damage from storms but also provides new ground forrecreation, ecologies, agriculture and urban development.With climate change and sea level rise acting as catalysts for this work, a quantitative analysis of dynamic systems serves as the foundation for this new soft infrastructure whichboth enriches the ecology of the urban estuary and creates a vibrant culture on the water. Research from this project is the inspiration for the exhibition "Rising Currents: Projects for New York's Waterfront, " opening at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in March 2010.