A look at five winners of Tall Building Awards’ awards for tall buildings
12 July 2024
(Image: Adobe Stock)
The UK-based Tall Building Awards (TBA) organisation fielded more than 100 entries for its annual awards handed to (no surprise, here) tall buildings across the country.
According to TBA, “Tall buildings have a profound impact on our cities and their skylines; they shape them and reflect the aspirations of their inhabitants.
“The recent Tall Buildings Awards paid homage to the very best of these iconic structures and the teams behind them.
“Hosted by Peter Murray OBE, co-founder of NLA (New London Architecture), the awards took place at an informal drinks reception immediately following the Tall Buildings Conference in St Pauls, London, UK.”
Here’s a look at the winners, which are all in the London metro area.
College Road
The College Road towers in Stratford, London, UK. (Image: Tide)
The top tall building title (called the ‘Winner of Winners’) for 2024 went to College Road in South London. Its off-site developer and contractor, Tide, and the project’s volumetric firm, Vision, were bestowed the honours.
TBA said the scheme’s “groundbreaking volumetric building system” was a principal reason Tide and Vision were awarded the year’s top spot.
College Road comprises two of the world’s tallest volumetric modular buildings with almost 1,000 new homes. One 35-storey tower provides 120 affordable homes, and a 50-storey tower includes 817 co-living homes, making it one of the largest co-living developments across the globe.
It took roughly two years to build and the work was valued around £220 million (US$284 million).
TBA said the build is believed to include the first volumetric modular tower to reach 163m (535 ft) in height.
Tide and Vision also took the Tall Building Technology Innovation Award.
“This advanced offsite technology is leading the way in volumetric high-rise developments worldwide,” said TBA. “Vision operates under a vertically integrated procurement model with developer and contractor Tide. Together they have delivered almost £4 billion (US$5.1 billion) worth of assets.”
The project also won Best Residential Tall Building Project, with MJH Structural Engineers and Barrett Mahony Consulting Engineers receiving a ‘Highly Commended’ accolade in the Best Tall Building Structural Engineer category.
8 Bishopsgate
8 Bishopsgate tower with the London Troops War Memorial in the foreground. (Image: WilkinsonEyre)
In the commercial sector, 8 Bishopsgate picked up a trio of awards including Best Tall Building Structural Engineer to Arup and Lendlease Construction Europe (LCE) winning Best Tall Building Contractor.
A consortium of Ove Arup and partners, WilkinsonEyre, LCE, and Stanhope all claimed the prize for Best Commercial Tall Building Project.
Located just a few blocks north of London Bridge and the Thames, TBA called the building, “A distinctive addition to the City of London’s skyline for Stanhope & Mitsubishi Estate.
“Conceptually, the building challenges the traditional tower by breaking the massing into smaller blocks, allowing the high-rise form to address the site constraints and bring human scale to the building,” said the TBA.
Building the 204m (669 ft) tower cost between £300 and £400 million (US$387 million to US$516 million) on an initial investment by Mitsubishi Estate London of just less than £620 million (US$801 million), and construction wrapped last year after about four years of work.
Portlands Place
Portlands Place build-to-rent building near the former 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village in London. (Image: Hawkins\Brown)
A build-to-rent scheme in Stratford named Portlands Place – a redevelopment of the 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village – received two awards: Best Tall Building Client for developer Get Living and Best Tall Building Architect for designer Hawkins\Brown.
The firm also received a Highly Commended nod for Best Residential Tall Building Project.
“It provides 524 homes across two towers of 31 and 26 storeys, linked together with a double height skybridge, which contains the main communal amenity and rooftop terraces overlooking the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to the west,” noted TBA.
The build started in 2018 and concluded in 2022. It cost approximately £180 million (US$232 million) to construct.
DAMAC Tower
DAMAC Tower Nine Elms (Image: DAMAC Properties)
The 50-storey, 170m-high residential tower between Vauxhall Park and the Thames won Canadian design and engineering firm WSP the Best Tall Building Façade & Fenestration Engineering Project category.
“Offering market and affordable homes, retail, and office spaces DAMAC Tower is a sculptural composition of terra cotta, reconstituted stone and glass,” said TBA. “The scheme consists of three distinct elements composed to create impressive views from every aspect of the development. The all-electric building features residential amenities, a roof garden and a six-storey skybridge.”
Kohn Pedersen Fox also received a Highly Commended accolade in the Best Tall Building Architect category.
The high-rise cost about £260 million (US$336 million) to build and opened in 2022 after more than five years of development and construction.
21 Moorfields
The 21 Moorfields office development tower. (Image: Cundall)
The office development near London’s Moorgate underground rail station received Best Tall Building MEP Service Project recognition.
Contractor Cundall and MEP contractor Gratte Brothers received the award.
“Providing approximately 55,000m² of prime office space across 14 floors, the development is supported by a substantially resilient services strategy, normally only seen in data centres. It has BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, LEED Gold ratings and is WELL ready, and will serve as Deutsche Bank’s new UK and European headquarters,” said TBA.
Development and construction was estimated to cost around £600 million (US$775 million). The property was delivered to Deutsche Bank in March of 2024.
