Pearl River Tower

The Pearl River Tower  is a clean technology skyscraper under construction at the junction of Jinsui Road/Zhujiang Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill with Adrian D. Smith and Gordon Gill (now at their own firm) as architects. Ground broke on the tower on the 8th of September 2006 and construction is expected to be complete in 2011. It is intended for office use and will be partially occupied by the China National Tobacco Corporation.

Architecture and design :
The design of the Pearl River Tower intends to set new standards for skyscrapers: a high-performance structure designed in such harmony with its environment that it extracts energy from the natural and passive forces surrounding the building.Some of the major accomplishments are in the nature of the formal and technological integration of form and function in a holistic approach to engineering and architectural design.

Sustainability
The building is designed with energy conservation in mind, including wind turbines and solar collectors, photovoltaic cells, raised floors ventilation, and radiant heating and cooling ceilings. It will be arguably one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the World.

Of Pearl River Tower’s accomplishments, many are related to the sustainable design features including:

•         The largest radiant-cooled office building in the world
•         Most energy efficient super-tall building in the world
•         The tower is an example of China’s goal to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent as compared to the level of 2005.