Group Names China Complex Best Tall Building

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Rem Koolhaas' twisted design for CCTV Headquarters in Beijing was chosen as the Best Tall Building Worldwide this week by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

The group praised the building for "conflating what a skyscraper is, and can or should do."

"It singlehandedly paved the way from the height‐obsessed, set‐back skyscraper of the past to the sculptural and spatial skyscraper of the present, at the scale of the urban skyline," the group wrote.

The building's "stunning form," which appears to pull the building in different directions, "symbolizes the multiple functions of the program and the dynamic positioning of its nation on the world stage," the group said. The structural engineering "pushed the boundaries" of conventional design.

Mr. Koolhaas, founding partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, has never been a fan of tall buildings.

"When I published my last book, Content, in 2003, one chapter was called 'Kill the Skyscraper,'" Koolhaas said at the presentation. "Basically it was an expression of disappointment at the way the skyscraper typology was used and applied. I didn't think there was a lot of creative life left in skyscrapers. Therefore, I tried to launch a campaign against the skyscraper in its more uninspired form."

Earlier in the year the group had named CCTV Headquarters the best tall building in Asia and Australasia. The Bow in Calgary was named bets tall building in the Americas, while the Shard was voted best in Europe and Sowwah Square was best in the Middle East and Africa.