| Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture | |
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| Practice information | |
| Key architects | Adrian Smith Gordon Gill Robert Forest |
| Founded | November 1, 2006 |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Significant works and honors | |
| Buildings | FKI Tower Beijing Waldorf Astoria Jeddah Tower |
| Projects | Great City Chengdu Master Plan Chicago Central Area Decarbonization Plan |
| Website | |
| smithgill | |
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) is anarchitecture firm and design firm based inChicago, Illinois, United States.
The company engages in the design and development of energy-efficient and sustainable architecture. AS+GG designs buildings, cities, masterplans and components of these, for an international clientele, with projects located throughout the world. The primary uses of these designs are civic, commercial, cultural, hospitality, residential and mixed-use. AS+GG also specializes in supertall skyscrapers, such as theJeddah Tower, which will overtake theBurj Khalifa as the world's tallest building when completed.
AS+GG was founded inChicago in 2006, byAdrian Smith,Gordon Gill, and Robert Forest after they left the Chicago office ofSkidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM).[1] Taking their experience on large, mixed-use projects,[2] AS+GG focuses on the design of high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable architecture on an international scale.[3] "We're now trying to design a building as a vehicle, or a vessel, that uses less energy and also mines the free energy that's available," as Smith explained in an interview with architectural historianJudith Dupré, "and that's creating a new aesthetic for us."[4]
Adrian Smith's departure from SOM was widely reported.[1][5][6] At the time of his departure, Smith had several projects still under construction that were designed while at SOM including:Burj Khalifa,Dubai,Broadgate Tower,London, England andTrump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, and with Gordon Gill and Robert Forest: Nanjing Greenland Financial Center,Nanjing, China. Gordon, while at SOM, designed the award-winning Virginia Beach Convention Center,[7][8]Virginia Beach,Virginia. He also designed thePearl River Tower,Guangzhou, China with Robert also working on the project.[9][failed verification]
Though the start-up of their firm appears to have had some rough moments (Smith had to pay $250,000 of salaries out of his own pocket to cover one rough spot),[10] they have been commissioned for at least one ground-breaking building. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture has been chosen over SOM, Norman Foster, Atkins, and Helmut Jahn[11] to design and build the Headquarters ofMasdar City, a zero-energy, zero carbon,zero waste city in the United Arab Emirates.[12]
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has grown substantially since its inception in November 2006 with only 7 employees. At the end of one year, the firm employed 35. As of April 2008 there were over 70 employees at AS+GG.,[13] and in December 2008 the staff totals were reported as 185.[14] The firm peaked around 200 employees in 2009 when they had to lay off forty employees on February 28 and an additional 40 on March 6 of that year. The firm has hired other notable designers[who?] from top Chicago firms but have continued to have layoffs each year beginning in 2008.
The company competes with Atkins, Foster + Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
At over 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) tall with a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet),Jeddah Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the $20 billionJeddah Economic City development inJeddah, Saudi Arabia, near theRed Sea. In 2011, AS+GG won an international design competition against finalistsSkidmore, Owings & Merrill,Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects,Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates,Foster + Partners, andPickard Chilton.[15]
Completed in 2022,Wuhan Greenland Center is 502 meters (1,647 feet) tall. The tower in Wuhan, China,contains offices, luxury apartments and condominiums, a five-star hotel, and a private club with views at the tower's penthouse level.Wuhan Greenland Center also features a streamlined form that combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, softly rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action that builds up around supertall towers.[16]
This award-winning plan seeks to not only to reduce theenvironmental impact andcarbon emissions of downtownChicago but to improve the overallquality of life of the city's urban environment.[17] The plan is a beginning process for maintaining the economic andcultural vitality of the urban core, from an energy and carbon perspective.[citation needed] The continued viability of cities and urban living is a core principle in the long-term idea that population growth can continue without its negative impact to the environment becoming detrimental to the planet in the form ofglobal warming.[tone]
1 Dubai, is a three-tower complex in Dubai and part of the Jumeirah Garden City by Meraas Development. Each tower of the design is at least 1,969 feet (600 meters) tall. In 2008, AS+GG beat outSkidmore, Owings & Merrill,Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects,Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, and Atkins with the massive 13,000,000-square-foot (1,200,00 sm) design of three towers connected by sky bridges.[18]
AS+GG designed a 173-hectare site forEXPO 2017 that was held from June 10 to September 10, 2017, in Astana, Kazakhstan. The main theme of the EXPO was "Future Energy", which was reflected in the concept of AS+GG's futuristic design featuring a glass globe sat atop an undulating glazed podium.[19]
Residential supertall skyscraper onBillionaire's Row in Midtown Manhattan. Currently the second-tallest building in New York City, it attracted controversy due to the purchase of air rights to obtain greater height and an easement to allow it to extend over the adjacent historicArt Students League of New York building.
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41°52′51.9″N87°37′44.8″W / 41.881083°N 87.629111°W /41.881083; -87.629111
