Dear Colleagues:
Firstly I would like to thank the 25 members of the Steering Group who gathered in Chicago on Thursday for our annual Steering Group Meeting.
I would especially like to thank those who flew in from overseas -- from as far away as Hong Kong, Kuwait, India, the UK and the Netherlands.
Their commitment, as well as the written feedback from our overseas members, created a great mixture of overseas and US input. The Steering Group also represented a combination of new CTBUH members and those who have supported the Council for decades and I am pleased to inform you that we had a very positive meeting. At the meeting, and with the unanimous support of the Steering Group, the Council committed to a program of rapid expansion over the next few years and we expect to double our permanent staff to reflect the growth in our membership and
the resurgent interest in tall buildings around the world. Many new initiatives were discussed and agreed upon and we will be telling you about these in the next few months after preliminary arrangements have been put in place. It is our plan to involve our members as much as possible, so there will be an opportunity for all to contribute.
As a not-for-profit organization we are committed to investing our income into output and product that will suit our membership. As an international organization we are fortunate to have an international perspective and are looking to capitolize on ideas that come from around the globe -- from being involved in tall building research in Korea, to linking with tall building publications in Russia. Our new staff positions will include a new Research Director, as well as an Author and Production Assistant, and we hope that you will notice the improvement over the next few years.
Immediately following the Steering Group meeting, on the evening of Thursday 25th October, we had our 6th Annual Awards Dinner at Crown Hall, IIT. Lord Foster and Dr Farzard Naiem were the recipients of the Lynn S. Beedle and Fazlur Rahman Khan lifetime achievement awards, plus there were two new 'building / team' awards for the 'best tall building' and 'best sustainable tall building'. Tim Johnson of NBBJ, chairman of the Council's Awards Committee, designed two stunning sculptures to honour these new awards, which went to the Beetham organization, Ian Simpson Architects and the professional-design team of the Beetham Hilton Tower, Manchester, UK for the Best Tall Building and the Hearst team, Foster and Partners and the design team of the Hearst Tower for the Best Sustainable Tall Building . We finished the evening by celebrating the appointment of the Council's new fellows: Les Robertson and Chandra K. Jha.
Plans for the 8th World Congress Dubai are coming together excellently, and I would like to remind you that the deadline for early bird registration is only 4 weeks away (end of November). At our Steering Group meeting Antony Wood confirmed that we have been massively over-subscribed with excellent quality papers for the 92 speaking slots. The final program for the congress will be confirmed by late November.
Our country tours and building tours have now been confirmed, and includes the spectacular Burj Dubai and Burj Al Arab, and I am pleased to inform you that all early bird applicants will be entered into a lucky draw to win one of 40 rounds of golf that the Council will be hosting in conjunction with Emaar in Dubai on Sunday, March 2nd.
Over the last week I have been very pleased to see the commitment that our members are giving the Council and the respect that we have within the international building community. We have a bright future. We are in a world of continuing urbanization at a time of rapid technical advances and this gives the Council a strong platform to disseminate best practice information on tall buildings and urban planning/design. It is 4 months until our Dubai conference and now is the time to book. I look forward to seeing you there.