About

Member Since: 2008

Member Offices: Chicago

Website: http://smithgill.com/

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is dedicated to the design of high-performance, energy-efficient and sustainable architecture on an international scale.

They believe that architecture has the unique power to influence our world. They strive to create designs that aid society, advance technology, sustain the environment and inspire those around us to improve our world.

Their office is dedicated to the creation of new paradigms for sustainable development. They use a holistic, integrated design approach that emphasizes symbiotic relationship with the natural environment -- a philosophy they've termed ""global environmental contextualism.""

The firm was founded in 2006 by partners Adrian Smith, Gordon Gill and Robert Forest. Today there are 100 employees in offices in Chicago and Beijing.

Fields of Expertise

Architecture; Interior Design; Urban Design

Buildings

RANK
Name
Status

Completed

Architecturally Topped Out

Structurally Topped Out

Under Construction

On Hold

Proposed

Vision

Never Completed

Demolished

Competition Entry

Canceled

Proposed Renovation

Under Renovation

Renovated

Under Demolition

Height
1 Jeddah Tower
1,000 m / 3,281  ft
2 Uptown Dubai Tower 1
711 m / 2,333  ft
3 HeXi Yuzui Tower A
498.8 m / 1,636  ft
4 Wuhan Greenland Center
475.6 m / 1,560  ft
5 Central Park Tower
472.4 m / 1,550  ft
6 Chengdu Greenland Tower
468 m / 1,535  ft
7 Tribune East Tower
433.4 m / 1,422  ft
8 HeXi Yuzui Tower C
350 m / 1,148  ft
9 Uptown Tower
340 m / 1,115  ft
10 Hengqin International Business Centre
330 m / 1,083  ft

Awards

Central Park Tower

Award of Excellence: Central Park Tower

Best Tall Building 400 meters and above 2021

Ctbuh Leaders

Peter Weismantle

Peter Weismantle

CTBUH Expert Peer Review Committee, 2014 – Present

Chicago

Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson

CTBUH Urban Habitat / Urban Design Committee, 2014 – Present

Chicago

Christopher Drew

Christopher Drew

CTBUH Expert Peer Review Committee, 2016 – Present

Chicago

Building Completions Timeline

Videos

30 October 2019

Urban Advances: The Reality and The Virtual

Gordon Gill, Partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, speaks at the 2019 CTBUH International Congress in Chicago on 30 October 2019.

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Research

22 August 2022

Structural Design of Iconic Tower, Egypt: Culmination of a Concrete Optimization Process

This paper presents an overview of a process of optimizing concrete mixture for tall buildings, culminating in the design of the Iconic Tower, the key...

View all

Research

12 January 2021

Interactive Study on Tall Buildings in 2020: COVID-19 Contributes To Dip in Year-On-Year Completions

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has released its annual report, CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020, part of the Tall...

View all
RANK
Name
Height
1 One Dubai Tower A

1,008 m / 3,307 ft

2 Jeddah Tower

1,000 m / 3,281 ft

3 One Dubai Tower B

874 m / 2,867 ft

4 Uptown Dubai Tower 1

711 m / 2,333 ft

5 Shimao Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Centre

700 m / 2,297 ft

6 One Dubai Tower C

685 m / 2,247 ft

7 Wuhan Greenland Center

636 m / 2,087 ft

8 One Park Avenue

550 m / 1,804 ft

9 Thompson Center Redevelopment

518 m / 1,700 ft

10 HeXi Yuzui Tower A

499 m / 1,636 ft

11 Wuhan Greenland Center

476 m / 1,560 ft

12 Central Park Tower

472 m / 1,550 ft

13 Abu Dhabi Tower

470 m / 1,542 ft

14 Chengdu Greenland Tower

468 m / 1,535 ft

15 Dancing Dragon Tower 1

446 m / 1,463 ft

16 Multifunctional Highrise Complex - Akhmat Tower

435 m / 1,427 ft

17 Tribune East Tower

433 m / 1,422 ft

18 Imperial Tower 3

400 m / 1,312 ft

19 Dancing Dragon Tower 2

378 m / 1,240 ft

20 HeXi Yuzui Tower C

350 m / 1,148 ft

21 Uptown Tower

340 m / 1,115 ft

22 Hengqin International Business Centre

330 m / 1,083 ft

23 Xinda Kingtown International Center Tower 1

320 m / 1,050 ft

24 Shenzhen Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center

301 m / 987 ft

25 Suzhou Keyne Center Office and Hotel

300 m / 984 ft

26 Xinda Kingtown International Center Tower 2

260 m / 853 ft

27 Burj Vista Tower 1

255 m / 835 ft

28 Qintai International Tower

248 m / 814 ft

29 FKI Tower

245 m / 805 ft

30 160 Front Street West

240 m / 787 ft

31 The Mansion at Burj Khalifa

227 m / 745 ft

32 One Bromfield

224 m / 735 ft

33 830 Brickell

221 m / 724 ft

34 HeXi Yuzui Tower B-2

220 m / 722 ft

35 Suzhou Keyne Center Residential Tower

220 m / 722 ft

36 240 Adelaide West

219 m / 719 ft

37 Una Residences

187 m / 613 ft

38 Vantone Center

185 m / 607 ft

39 Chengdu Greenland Center Tower 2

173 m / 568 ft

40 Chengdu Greenland Center Tower 3

166 m / 545 ft

41 Shenzhen Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center Tower B

158 m / 517 ft

42 PPA 30 Parcel 3.10

138 m / 453 ft

43 The Crystal at Waterfront Square

114 m / 374 ft

44 K2 at K Station

112 m / 366 ft

45 PPA 30 Parcel 5.03 Tower 1

105 m / 344 ft

46 Kazakhstan Pavilion and Science Museum

100 m / 328 ft

47 Meraas Tower

-

Statistics

Average Building Age*

9 Years

Most Common Function*

Mixed-use (43%)

Most Common Material*

Composite (54%)

* Based on 150 m+ buildings currently in the database

Based on 14 buildings over 150 m height with a function
 
Based on 13 buildings over 150 m height with a material
 

Building Completions Timeline

Building Map

Construction Time Chart

NOTE: Construction start time is not available for all buildings. The average construction time is only displayed if there is three or more buildings with construction start and complete data in that year.

Designated Experts

Ctbuh Leaders At Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

CTBUH Expert Peer Review Committee, 2014 – Present

Peter Weismantle

Director of Supertall Building Technology, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

CTBUH Urban Habitat / Urban Design Committee, 2014 – Present

Richard Wilson

CTBUH Expert Peer Review Committee, 2016 – Present

Christopher Drew

Director of Sustainability, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

CTBUH Chicago Chapter, 2018 – Present

Juan Betancur

CTBUH Future Leaders Committee, Chicago, 2019 – Present

Katrina Fernandez

30 October 2019

Urban Advances: The Reality and The Virtual

Gordon Gill, Partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, speaks at the 2019 CTBUH International Congress in Chicago on 30 October 2019.

28 March 2018

Building Tall Skyscraper Lecture Series: Naturalizing the Vertical Realm

Thursday, February 1, 2018. Chicago, United States of America. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) held...

30 October 2017

Quay Quarter Tower: Humanizing the High-Rise

Quay Quarter Tower (QQT) will create a stunning new building on the Sydney skyline that sets new benchmarks in office tower design globally and creates...

16 March 2017

Building Tall Skyscraper Lecture Series: How High Can We Go?

Thursday, March 16, 2017. Chicago, United States of America. Hosted in collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the first lecture of the series Building Tall...

16 March 2017

How High Can We Go? (Highlight)

Thursday, March 16, 2017. Chicago, United States of America. Hosted in collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the first event in the Building Tall lecture...

20 October 2016

Singularly Slender: Sky Living in New York, Hong Kong, and Elsewhere

Thursday October 20, 2016. Hong Kong, China. Carol Willis of The Skyscraper Museum in New York City presents at the 2016 China Conference Plenary 7:...

19 October 2016

From San Diego to Guangzhou: The Story of Marketing Tall Buildings

One of the keys to attracting buyers and tenants for a contemporary tall building is a succinct marketing strategy and a robust understanding of how...

18 October 2016

Saudi Arabia, Jeddah City and Jeddah Tower

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has embarked on an ambitious project to construct the world’s tallest building, Jeddah Tower. Surrounding the kilometer-plus building will be...

18 October 2016

Jeddah Mall: The Connection Between Jeddah Tower and the Urban Environment

The Jeddah Economic City Mall and Exhibition Center is a multi-functional installation that rises up to the challenge of making the city walkable around the...

18 October 2016

Lighting the Next Tallest Building in the World, the Jeddah Tower

Following experience around the world with tall buildings and monuments, Pierre Marcout has sought to transmit his passion for highlighting monuments for new constructors and...

22 August 2022

Structural Design of Iconic Tower, Egypt: Culmination of a Concrete Optimization Process

Tarek Hassan, Yehia El-Ezaby & Charles Malek, rector Dar Al Handasah Consultants (Shair and Partners)

This paper presents an overview of a process of optimizing concrete mixture for tall buildings, culminating in the design of the Iconic Tower, the key...

12 January 2021

Interactive Study on Tall Buildings in 2020: COVID-19 Contributes To Dip in Year-On-Year Completions

CTBUH Research

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has released its annual report, CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020, part of the Tall...

25 June 2020

Curtain Wall Façades on the New Generation of Supertall Buildings Present and Future Directions

Sae Hwang Oh, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Beginning in the late 19th century, construction of skyscrapers spread throughout Chicago, New York City, and then the world as demand of space in buildings...

20 March 2020

Interactive Study on The Tallest 20 in 2020: Then and Now

CTBUH Research

This research paper undertakes a review of the 2012 report by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, “Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering the...

28 December 2019

Tall Buildings of the Future as Seen From the Present

SawTeen See, Robert Bird Group Pty Ltd

Aerodynamic damping through the use of vertical long slots reduces the dynamic component of the wind loads on the building. Seminal examples include the three-legged...

28 October 2019

Fifty Years of Fire Safety In Supertall Buildings

Peter Weismantle, AS+GG; James Antell, Telgian Engineering & Consulting

As international design teams participated in the development of high-rise structures around the world, many of the concepts of fire-safe design first introduced in the...

12 December 2018

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2018

CTBUH Research

The astronomical growth in tall building construction observed over the past decade continued in 2018, though the total number of completed buildings of 200 meters’...

20 October 2018

The Middle East: 30+ Years of Building Tall

CTBUH Research

The Middle East region is hosting its first CTBUH International Conference since 2008. In that year, there were 119 completed buildings of 150 meters or...

CTBUH Initiatives Involving Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Fourth Building Tall Lecture Series: Greening Tall

01 February 2018

The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) and CTBUH hosted a panel discussion on the movement to incorporate green features into tall buildings.

CTBUH Supports High-Rise Conference at Samara State University

04–07 September 2017

22 speakers discussed the state of high-rise design & construction at this conference, a partner event between the CTBUH and Samara State Technical University.

Master's Thesis Challenge

28 August 2017

CTBUH is launching a new academic initiative, empowering Master's-level architecture students to research new possibilities in rope-less elevator technology.

Partnered Event Explores High-Performance Skyscraper Design

24 May 2017

CTBUH, ComEd, and Seventhwave partnered to host a breakfast seminar focused on high-performance building envelope design with the goal of identifying opportunities for energy savings.

CTBUH Leads AIA Orlando Panel Discussion on Urban Sustainability

28 April 2017

The CTBUH had a significant presence at this year's AIA Conference in Orlando, convening a panel discussion investigating the sustainability of urban and suburban living patterns.

First CAF-CTBUH Lecture Series Draws Crowd, Rave Reviews

16 March 2017

The CTBUH, in conjunction with the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), held the first of the four-part “Building Tall” lecture series at the CAF lecture hall.

Learn more about the Council on Vertical Urbanism

Discover how vertical living is shaping the next generation of urban environments. Explore insights, research, and global leadership in vertical urban development

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