CTBUH Looks Back Through 2024

Coming off the tremendous progress of 2023, CTBUH saw 2024 as a year of bold innovation and meaningful growth. Together, we launched ambitious new initiatives, welcomed dynamic chapters and committees, and channeled the remarkable energy of our members into driving our mission forward. With these efforts, CTBUH and its members continue to lead the way in reimagining tall buildings, reshaping our cities, and creating a future that champions vertical urbanism. Here's a look at a few highlights defining this past year:

January

To start off the year, several CTBUH Chapters including New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and India held building tours and networking events, showing an enthusiastic energy in the first month.

On 22 January, the CTBUH held its annual staff retreat, set against the backdrop of CTBUH's longtime collaborator and partner, the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. The retreat was hosted at the Institute of Design (ID) in the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship at IIT in Chicago.

The CTBUH Nordic Chapter presented the "Nordic perspective" at an event in Helsinki on 30 January, discussing sustainable high-rise construction with CTBUH President Antony Wood giving the opening keynote and was the first launch event for the CTBUH 2024 International Conference.

At the end of January, CTBUH released its annual report, "CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2023," which reveals the state of tall building construction across the globe.

February

At the start of February, CTBUH announces three new assemblies/committees around the topics of SMART technologies, tenants, and adaptive reuse were launched.

CTBUH announces a new initiative called the City Advocacy Forum (CAF). This was developed to identify and explore key topics, opportunities, and challenges facing global cities today—including density, climate resiliency, and social equity and access. Taking shape as a series of activities, events, and conversations, the CAF's first public event occurred at the CTBUH 2024 Americas Conference, "Future Downtown: Density and Resiliency in Cities Across the Americas," in Miami with representatives from Miami, London, Toronto, and Singapore.

_{The City Advocacy Forum participants (L to R) Francisco Garcia, Peter Murray, and Lay Bee Yap speak in the opening plenary of the CTBUH 2024 Americas Conference.}

Read a summary report of the CTBUH 2024 Americas Conference, which was on 22 & 23 February in Miami.

On 21 February, TALL TIMBER: The Future of Cities in Wood, a new exhibition curated by The Skyscraper Museum, and supported by CTBUH, opened to the public. TALL TIMBER focuses on Mass Timber high-rises, and is based, in part, on the exhibition REFRAMED that ran from April 25, 2023 through January 7, 2024 at the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), and was co-curated by the CAC and CTBUH and presented by the Softwood Lumber Board.

In Copenhagen on 28 February, the CTBUH Nordic Chapter holds a second CTBUH 2024 International Conference Launch Event at the new BIG headquarters.

Talking with The Economist, CTBUH Europe Director Dario Trabucco and CTBUH Director of Research and Thought Leadership Dan Safarik discuss how European cities have fewer tall buildings collectively than other parts of the world.

CTBUH publishes "Miami's Urban Renaissance: A Blueprint for Post-Pandemic Office Success" discussing how numerous downtowns are confronted by the dual challenges of rapidly rising interest rates and the shifting realities of remote and hybrid work and how Miami has remained pliable, offering a compelling counter-narrative.

March

At a ceremony and unveiling of a CTBUH signboard in Aarhus, Lighthouse 2.0 (CTBUH 2023 Best Tall Building, by Height, 100-199 Meters Award Winner) is given the official title of "Tallest Building in Denmark."

The recently launched CTBUH Texas Chapter is interviewed by Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research on how vertical urbanism can support a more walkable, sustainable Houston.

On 13 March CTBUH Sydney hosted the "Design Excellence Series: 175 Liverpool Street" with shortlisted firms for the competition to share details of their designs.

The Università Iuav di Venezia library displays a captivating exhibition titled "Grattacieli sulla Carta (Skyscrapers on Paper)," a curated exhibition that showcased the past 15 years of skyscraper history through a collection of publications from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

_{A history of CTBUH publications are on display in the Library of Università Iuav di Venezia (IUAV). Image courtesy IUAV.}

On 20 March, with an attendance of around 170 people, CTBUH Spain hosted a remarkable launch event in Madrid for the upcoming CTBUH 2024 International Conference, focusing on the theme "High-Rise Buildings in Spain: New or Renew?"

The CTBUH UK Chapter releases their "Year in Review 2023," reflecting on their activities from the year including continued involvement with the Future Leaders Committee to evolve with a strong team heading into 2024.

At the end of the month, CTBUH shares an overview of the initiatives and activities for the Americas region for Q1 2024.

April

In a CoStar article published on 4 April, CTBUH data is cited along with CTBUH members giving their expertise on the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan that occured on 3 April, and the resilience of Taipei 101.

The CTBUH 2024 Europe Conference, “Future-Fit Cities: Safer, Adaptive Density in a Changing Era,” was held at the Ziraat Bank Tower in Istanbul on 18 & 19 April 2024.

_{Peyami Ömer Özdilek, General Manager of Ziraat GYO, welcomes conference attendees to Istanbul and the start of the conference.}

Additionally, the second iteration of the CTBUH City Advocacy Forum (CAF) was held in Istanbul on 17 April, in a dynamic and intimate roundtable discussion among urban planning experts from Tirana, Oslo, London, and Istanbul, with CTBUH leaders at the Türkiye Tasarım Vakfı.

_{City Advocacy Forum participants (L to R): Mansoor Hussain, Özgür Bora Yaprak, Anisa Mance, CTBUH Chairman Shonn Mills, Peter Murray, Ariane Dienstag (moderator), Serhat Basdogan, and CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña}

Published on 25 April, a Toronto Star article "Seven new ‘supertall’ buildings are coming to Toronto — is that a good thing?" uses CTBUH data and CTBUH Building Data Coordinator Isaac Work shares his expertise on supertalls in the world.

May

The Masters in Tall Buildings and Vertical Urbanism (MTBVU) Spring 2024 program at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), a collaboration with CTBUH, culminated with the school's open house on 3 May.

CTBUH announces the 2024 Award of Excellence Winners on 15 May with more than 100 of the most exemplary projects in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry and adjacent disciplines. Projects from across the globe were recognized in over 20 categories and subcategories. Additionally, this year introduced the Global Community Award, allowing non-jurors to actively participate in acknowledging outstanding projects

On 22 May, the CTBUH Vancouver Chapter returns with a re-launch event. Members and prospective members came together at Steamworks Brewpub for an informative presentation of planned initiatives and time for networking with other members/attendees.

In its third edition, the EuroCham Tall Building Forum 2024, in partnership with CTBUH, was held in two vibrant locations: on the 28th of May in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and on the 30th in the dynamic city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

June

The CTBUH 2024 China Conference was held in Qingdao on 20 June, combining global research and practice from various professional fields within the industry to jointly explore the development path of urban strategic transformation and organic growth.

On 24 June, the relaunched Building Height + Data Steering Committee met with members from across the world, to discuss new initiatives.

At the end of the month, CTBUH shares an overview of the initiatives and activities for the Asia region for Q2 2024.

July

CTBUH releases a new publication called "The Future City: Addressing Carbon, Climate & Societal Crises—Frontier Research and Case Studies of World Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat," or《未来城市：应对碳、气候和社会危机——世界高层建筑与都市人居前沿研究与案例解读》, a new Chinese language publication, showcasing recent CTBUH data and analysis for a deeper understanding of current trends and innovative advances in tall and supertall buildings in the urban habitat.

In an article with Forbes Global Properties, CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña gives his perspective about the evolving nature of skyscrapers.

On 3 July in Bangkok, CTBUH members hold a lead-up event to the CTBUH 2024 Asia Conference with the Asia Leaders meeting held the following day.

CTBUH Sri Lanka had their annual Colombo Forum on 11 July at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) with the theme of "AI Revolution in Design and Construction for Mega Projects."

On 15 July, CTBUH announced the 2024 Lifetime Achievment Awards with Santiago Calatrava as the winner of the 2024 Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award and John Zils as the winner of the 2024 Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award.

CTBUH Director of Research and Thought Leadership Daniel Safarik presented in New York City on 23 July, with structural engineers and Mass Timber specialists Benton Johnson, SOM, Alejandro Fernandez, Thornton Tomasetti, and Eric Karsh, EQUILIBRIUM. The discussion reviewed a decade of research on timber buildings and a discussion of promising new directions and territories.

The 10th China-Japan-Korea Tall Building Forum was held in Shenzhen in collaboration with CTBUH on 26 July, with the topic of "New and High Technologies in Tall Building Construction."

August

On 15 August, CTBUH announced the 2024 inductees to the CTBUH College of Fellows.

On 29 August, Building Enclosure publishes an article on CTBUH with CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Una discussing how to understand and address the global density dilemma.

September

CTBUH publishes the CTBUH Data Handbook 2024.

On 9 September, CTBUH announced that after nearly 20 years at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Dr. Antony Wood has made the decision to step down as CTBUH President at the end of 2024.

The CTBUH Urban Habit Assembly holds for the 11th year, the Global Walking Tour with the theme exploring how people live in tall buildings and the kinds of amenities that sky-high residential "villages" offer.

With more than 1,300 registered attendees, the CTBUH 2024 International Conference, "New or Renew: Addressing the Density Dilemma," was from 23-27 September, in London and Paris.

_{Katie Stewart, Executive Director for Environment at the City of London welcomes delegates to the conference and the City.}

Several more CTBUH publications are revealed during the conference including the Steel-Timber Hybrid Buidings: Case Studies and the newly rebranded CTBUH Journal, now called Vertical Urbanism.

The winners for the CTBUH 2024 Awards were announced on 25 September at an awards ceremony in London and included best tall building worldwide, five regional categories, four height categories, a special global icon award, and a dozen other functional categories.

_{Pan Pacific Orchard in Singapore won the CTBUH 2024 Best Tall Building Worldwide Award.}

CTBUH launches the 2024 Leslie Earl Robertson & SawTeen See Fellowship aiming to provide financial assistance to those enrolled in or seeking to pursue a master’s degree in a U.S.-based graduate program in the fields of Structural Engineering or Civil Engineering with a specialization in Structural Engineering.

October

CTBUH publishes "Frontiers of Vertical Mobility: Digitalization of Vertical Transportation and the Tall Building," the initial release in the "Frontiers of Vertical Mobility" white paper series.

Monocle's The Urbanist publishes a podcast speaking to CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña and CTBUH members about the 2024 International Conference and current trends in tall buildings and the future of cities.

The CTBUH City Advocacy Forum launches a new web portal that includes CTBUH's Vertical Urbanism Index (VUI), a dataset that examines the relationship between tall buildings, high density, and livability, evaluated through social, economic, and environmental dimensions.

On 16 October, the CTBUH Seattle Chapter co-hosted a screening event with the University of Washington for "Women of Carbon," a groundbreaking new documentary on women transforming construction while combating climate change.

The CTBUH Southeast Asia (SEA) Chapter hosted an event on 24 October focused on “Carbon and the Built Environment,” bringing together industry leaders to tackle sustainability head-on by exploring sustainability, low and zero-carbon design, and circularity in the built environment.

On 30 October, the Costa Rica Chapter hosted presentations and a panel discussion on opportunities and challenges for the regeneration of the city of San José.

November

On 14 November, the new CTBUH Texas Chapter held it's first official industry networking event showcasing the Bank of America Tower at Parkside.

_{CTBUH Members of the newly established Texas Chapter.}

The CTBUH Chicago Chapter hosted a panel discussion celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Millennium Park at the SOM Chicago office.

On 19 November, CTBUH Europe Director Dario Trabucco shared the results of a 4-year research study sponsored by SEAISI in a talk entitled "Life Cycle Analysis: The Implementation for High Rise Building." He presented findings of an extensive study conducted by CTBUH on the environmental and cost implications of different types of tall building structures in three cities of the Asia-Pacific market: Sydney, Bangkok, and Singapore at the 2024 ASEAN Iron and Steel Forum: Sustainable Steel and Green Construction in Bangkok.

The CTBUH Middle East Chapter celebrated the end of the year with an "Iconic Building" boat cruise in Dubai, on 28 November.

December

CTBUH publishes "Frontiers of Vertical Mobility: Upgrading Telia Headquarters in Solna, Sweden," the second release in the "Frontiers of Vertical Mobility" white paper series.

The CTBUH 2024 Asia Conference, "Harnessing Rapid Growth: Desity and the Challenge of City-Making in Asia," was held in Bangkok at the Ritz Carlton in One Bangkok on 3 & 4 December 2024.

_{(L to R) CTBUH Asia Director Peng Du; CTBUH Chairman Shonn Mills; CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña;Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt; Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, Group CEO of Frasers Property; Worawat Srisa-an, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of One Bangkok; Scott Duncan, Partner at SOM; Russell Kim, Chief Design and Innovation Officer of One Bangkok.}