The 310 m tall Pearl River Tower, in Guangzhou, China, is expected

to be the most energy efcient of all the worlds supertall struc-

tures, opposite. As designed, the project should come close to being
a net zero-energy building. Such buildings do not require the
city or region in which they are located to generate any additional
energy on their behalf. Photovoltaic cells will be integrated into the
tower both as the buildings skinin the form of spandrel panels
and as a source of power. To achieve the greatest productivity, the
cells will be located in an asymmetrical arrangement at the roof
level, where the system will not only provide electricity but also
function as a solar shade for the section of the building that will be
most susceptible to the negative effects of direct solar radiation.
The Pearl River Tower, in
Guangzhou, China, has been
designed to be the most energy
efcient of all the worlds supertall
structures. Although the design
teams original goal of constructing
a net zero-energy building that
would sell its excess power to the
local electrical grid is unlikely to be
achieved, the structure is expected
to consume nearly 60 percent
less energy than a traditional
building of similar size and could
serve as a model for future
carbon-neutral towers.
BY ROGER E. FRECHETTE I I I , P. E. ,
LEED AP, AND RUSSELL GI LCHRI ST
T
he industrialization of the world has led to
great innovation, great technological advances,
and powerful national economies. It has also
resulted in an incredible appetite for energy, most
notably energy generated through the use of fos-
sil fuels. This massive consumption of fossil fuels
has sharply increased the levels of carbon dioxide
(CO
2
) in our atmosphere, resulting in a steady
but rapid warming of the planet. The ramications of this
man-made environmental shift are not yet fully under-
stood, but many scientists believe the results could be
catastrophic.
Many factors have contributed to this crisis. But while
SEEKING
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38 Civil Engineering January 2009
0885-7024-/09-0001-0038/$25.00 per article
2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers
40 Civil Engineering January 2009
transportation and industrial activity have long
been recognized as major sources of CO
2
emis-
sions, the emissions associated with the built
environment may actually be the single greatest
contributor to global warming. Therefore, when
architects and engineers design buildings, it will
become increasingly imperative that they work
to reduce the amount of energy consumed during
the construction phase as well as limit the CO
2

emissions that are generated by their buildings
once they are in use.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill llp (som), of Chicago,
the 310 m tall Pearl River Tower, in Guangzhou, China, is scheduled
for completion in 2010 and is expected to be the most energy ef-
cient of all the worlds supertall structures. As designed, the project
should come as close as possible to a net zero-energy building. Such
a building does not require the city or region in which it is located
to generate any additional energy on its behalf and thus is environ-
mentally benign. With such buildings, the city or region can keep its
power generation stable or possibly even decrease it. In this way the
city or region can expand, increase its density, and prosper without
the need to consume additional fossil fuels, thus avoiding the potential
increases in harmful greenhouse gases.
The Chinese government recently set the goal of reducing the
nations carbon emissions by 10 percent by the year 2010. Because
the city of Guangzhou experiences some of the
worst air pollution on the planet, the city and
its province, Guangdong, are a major focus of
this environmental initiative. The Pearl River
Tower project, which features both active and
passive approaches to limiting carbon emissions
through new technologies as well as reduction
strategies, could play an important role in devel-
oping a new model that will both provide higher
living standards and achieve important environ-
mental goals.
som became involved in the Pearl River Tower project in 2005
when it was hired by the China National Tobacco Company to
design a headquarters building for the Guangdong Tobacco Com-
pany, one of the largest companies in Guangzhou. The design brief
envisioned a high-performance tower that would consume sig-
nicantly less energy than is typically needed by a building of this
size and type. The design team interpreted high-performance
to mean a structure whose energy-saving systems and strategies
would work together in an integrated fashion to consume nearly
60 percent less energy than does a more traditional building.
The result was soms design for the 71-story Pearl River Tower,
which includes associated conference facilities that increase the total
footprint of the project to approximately 204,000 m. Although
the initial goal was to construct a building that would not require
the city or the region to generate any additional energy on its
behalf, modications to the original design arising from economic
considerations and regulatory challenges made this goal unachiev-
able. But thanks to an all-inclusive design philosophy that wove
together a variety of measures designed to reduce the buildings
dependency on the citys electrical grid, the Pearl River Tower is
expected to come as close as possible to that goal.
Such a high level of performance requires a design team to con-
sider a host of issues, among them the site of the structure, the passive
and active energy sources available, the types of building materials
to be used, and the desired indoor air quality. The team must also
determine ways of integrating these issues into the building design
in a substantive manner rather than including them in a way that is
purely for show. It is thus necessary to determine such basic elements
as site conditions, the buildings orientation, the local wind speed and
direction, and the path of the sun in the region and to draw on such
sophisticated approaches and technologies as radiant ceilings, double-
wall systems, photovoltaic devices, and wind turbines.
It was important to som that this holistic approach produce an
array of solutions that would be compelling at a conceptual level
and would survive the rigors of design development and future
value engineering exercises. This demanded a design approach
that looked not to form but to performance. In this way, superu-
ous architectural detailing was avoided by ensuring that all of the
systems possessed a degree of interdependency.
The structure of this wide but narrow tower is based on a com-
posite system that utilizes both structural steel and reinforced-
concrete elements to resist gravity and lateral loads. The primary
lateral-load-resisting system features an interior reinforced-concrete
core and a series of composite megacolumns that are linked by a
large, multistory system of structural steel X braces on the narrow
edge facades of the building. The perimeter columns are linked to
the reinforced-concrete core wall and the corner megacolumns
by a system of two-story outrigger and belt trusses at the major
mechanical levels. Engaging the perimeter columns with the out-
rigger trusses increases the effective moment mechanism of the
lateral system while the belt trusses work to equalize the loads in
the perimeter columns. Structural steel moment frames also are
provided on the broad faces of the building for additional resistance.
Inherent redundancy and robustness are achieved with the addition
of the belt trusses and perimeter moment frames.
The thicknesses of the core walls range from 700 to 1,500 mm
over the height of the building. The megacolumns consist of large
built-up structural steel I sections that are up to 900 mm deep by
700 mm wide; these I sections feature 100 mm thick plates sur-
rounded by reinforced-concrete encasements that are 3,000 by
2,700 mm for the bottom half of the tower and 2,500 mm square
for the top half. The structural steel X braces located between the
megacolumns also are formed of built-up I shapes that typically
are 600 mm deep by 600 mm wide and have plates that are 50 to
100 mm thick. Each system of X braces is roughly six stories tall.
The perimeter columns generally are built-up shapes below the
uppermost outrigger and are belt truss systems and rolled sections
above that point. The perimeter columns for the lowest third of
the tower consist of built-up I shapes 600 mm deep by 600 mm
wide with 100 mm thick plates; there are also 50 to 100 mm thick
cover plates on and between the anges because of the loads from
the lowest outrigger and belt truss system. The middle third of the
January 2009 Civil Engineering 41
Four large openings approximately
6 by 6.8 m located at the mechani-
cal oors will function as a type
of pressure relief valve for the
building, and vertical-axis wind
turbines installed in each open-
ing will harvest wind energy. The
buildings design will capitalize on
the pressure difference between
the windward and leeward sides of
the structure, facilitating airow
through the openings.
It was important to som that this holistic approach
produce an array of solutions that would be compelling at
a conceptual level and would survive the rigors of design
development and future value engineering exercises.
Cross Section of Air Temperatures
at Perimeter Zones
2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers
42 Civil Engineering January 2009
tower consists primarily of built-up I shapes that are 600 mm deep
by 600 mm wide and have 50 to 75 mm thick plates. Below grade,
the perimeter columns are encased in concrete to simplify the con-
struction interface with the basement levels, which are generally
concrete slabs reinforced in two directions.
The outrigger and belt truss elements also are built-up I shapes
ranging in depth from 600 to 1,000 mm with widths up to
600 mm and plate thicknesses of 50 to 100 mm.
The typical oor framing takes the form of rolled wide-ange
beams supporting a deck slab of concrete on metal with a total
thickness of 160 mm. The shear studs are welded to the beams
to provide composite action with the slabs. The maximum oor
beam spans are approximately 13 m.
The foundations for the tower take the form of a 3,500 mm
thick reinforced-concrete mat extending under the core and
megaframes as well as 4,000 mm thick reinforced-concrete spread
footings under each of the perimeter columns. All foundations
bear on rock and extend approximately 28 m below grade level.
The initial goaldesigning an edice that would not require
the city or region to generate any energy on its behalfwas
based on four concepts: reduction, absorption, reclamation, and
generation.
Reduction meant nding as many opportunities as possible to
reduce the amount of energy consumed. These reduction strategies
focused on the expected largest consumers of energy within the build-
ingnamely, the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (hvac)
system and the lighting system. The reduction strategies incorporated
into the design of the Pearl River Tower included the following:
An internally ventilated, high-performance active double wall
with mechanized blinds on the northern and southern facades;
High-performance, triply glazed facades on the eastern and
western sides of the structure;
A so-called chilled radiant ceiling with a perimeter chilled-
beam system, both using chilled water (approximately 14.5C)
delivered through a serpentine arrangement of copper piping that
is xed to the back of a curved metal shape for the ceiling system
and a series of metal ns for the perimeter beams;
A decoupled ventilation system providing only fresh air
that is cooled by the chilled-water system described above and
delivered via a raised access oor;
A dehumidifcation system using heat collected from the
double-wall facade as an energy source;
A low-energy, high-eff iciency
lighting system using radiant panel
geometry to assist in the distribution
of light.
Absorption, the second design concept,
made it necessary to focus on strategies
designed to take advantage of the natu-
ral and passive energy sourcesnamely,
wind and solarthat will pass around,
over, and under the buildings envelope.
The absorption strategies used on the Pearl
River Tower included the following:
A wide-scale photovoltaic system
integrated into the buildings external
solar shading system and glass outer
skin, which is located on the southern
facade;
The use of fxed external shades
and integrated photovoltaic devices
on the eastern and western facades, as
well as integrated photovoltaic devices
within the western facade shades;
Maximizing the use of natural
lighting via controls that respond to
light and are integrated into a system of
automated blinds;
Vertical-axis wind turbines
designed to take full advantage of the buildings geometry.
The third conceptreclamationrelied on strategies to harvest
the energy that would already be resident within the building. Once
energy has been added to the building, it can be reused repeatedly. For
example, the Pearl River Tower is designed to use recirculated air to
help heat or cool the fresh air from the outdoors before it is delivered to
the occupied areas of the building. Naturally, this strategy is dependent
on the outside air conditions and requires absorption chillers.
Generation, the nal concept, envisioned the use of micro-
turbine technology to generate clean power in an efcient and
environmentally responsible manner. Indeed, the original plan was
based on the projected ability to generate enough electricity within
the structure to sell the excess to the local electrical grid. Having the
ability to generate power more efciently than can be achieved by
the citys grid would result in a net reduction in greenhouse gases
associated with the buildings normal operation. For example,
a typical electric power utility grid is less than 30 to 35 percent
efcient by the time the energy has reached the building from the
power plant source, according to Energy Efciency in the Power
Grid, a white paper produced by abb, Inc., of Zrich, Switzerland,
in 2007. By contrast, the on-site generation plant that was designed
for the Pearl River Tower was expected to generate power with
an efciency exceeding 80 percent. The original concept for the
building involved linking as many as 50 microturbineseach
approximately the size of a large kitchen refrigerator and powered
by such fuels as kerosene, biogas, diesel, methane, propane, or natu-
ral gasto create a generating capacity of 3 MW.
Unfortunately, these plans were placed on indenite hold when the
Guangzhou utility decided that it would not connect the microtur-
bines to the local electrical grid, which is often unreliable. Because the
tower would not be able to sell its excess power to the utility, the cost
of the microturbine system could no longer be justied. Moreover, the
elimination of this technology meant that the goal of achieving a net
zero-energy building was unattainable. But the potential benets of
the microturbines were so compelling that the buildings basement has
been designed so that it can be retrotted to accommodate the devices
should the local utility ever change its stance.
The facade of the Pearl River Tower will feature an internally
ventilated double-wall system made up of doubly glazed, insulated
units integrated into 3.0 by 3.9 m unitized panels, as depicted in the
gure on page 47. Two hinged 1.5 by 2.8 m singly glazed leaves will
be xed to the back face of the mullion to create an approximately
200 mm deep cavity with a small air gap at the base. Within the cav-
ity is a motorized silver venetian blind system in which the perforated
blinds measure 50 mm wide. The position of these blindsfully
open, open at a 45 degree angle, or fully closedwill be controlled
by a photocell that tracks the movement of the sun and is connected to
the building management system. The exterior glazing will take the
form of insulated, tempered glass with a low-emissivity coating; the
inner layer will be an operable clear glass panel that can be opened for
maintenance. The units will be suspended from the top at each level
and laterally supported at the bottom.
This integrated facade assembly provides exceptional thermal
performance as well as good visibility through the glass, and it should
allow for the enhanced use of natural lighting. In turn, this should
make it possible to reduce the amount of articial lighting required
January 2009 Civil Engineering 43
Reduction meant nding as many opportunities as
possible to reduce the amount of energy consumed.
Wind Velocity Vectors at Mechanical Floors
Pearl River Tower Incident
Solar Stress Model
2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers
44 Civil Engineering January 2009
in the space while preserving the excellent viewsvia the perfora-
tionseven when the blinds are fully closed. Of greater importance,
the double-wall arrangement will be a vital component in maintain-
ing the balance between maximizing transparency and achieving a
high standard of comfort for the buildings occupants.
As sunlight strikes the exterior doubly glazed skin, some of the
resulting solar heat gain will enter the cavity between the outer
and inner glazed layers. Fortunately, the cavity will act as a natural
chimney. The cooler air from the occupied ofce areas will enter the
cavity via a gap at oor level and act as a pressure relief valve to allow
more fresh air to enter the occupied areas. The trapped air in the cav-
ity will then be extracted through the ceiling void to, depending on
the outside temperature, either preheat or precool the interior air.
By maintaining a low temperature on the interior layer of glass
the layer closest to the occupantsthe mean radiant temperature in
the ofce space will be decreased. This will then reduce the operative
temperature of the space from, say, 27C at the perimeter to 23C
farther inside the ofce, as depicted in the gure on page 41. This
lower operative temperature will create an environment of improved
thermal comfort at the perimeter zones and should directly improve
the exibility and usability of the areas closest to the exterior glazing.
A similar system is used on both the southern and northern facades,
in part for controlling glare but also because the northern facade is
exposed to solar gains from the west in the late afternoon.
The Pearl River Tower, as mentioned above, will also feature a
decoupled radiant cooling ceiling that works in conjunction with
an under-oor ventilation air delivery system. This combination
should provide improved comfort in all respects while simultane-
ously reducing the buildings energy demand and maintenance
costs. Furthermore, by requiring less material, it will also reduce
the structures capital costs.
The ofce space within the tower will encounter
heat gain daily from a variety of sources. The people
in the ofces, the ambient and work space light-
ing, the computers, and other ofce equipment all
account for convective and radiated heat that must be cooled by the
hvac system. Heat gains at the perimeter of the building are much
more variable and usually difcult to control because of solar energy
transmission through the glazing. A water-based radiant cooling and
displacement ventilation system addresses each heat transfer mode
with the appropriate cooling or ventilation system: radiant loads are
controlled by the radiant system, and convective loads are controlled
by a combination of the radiant system and the displacement ventila-
tion system. This approach works better than a conventional forced
overhead mixing system, which is entirely convective, because water
is a far more efcient transfer medium than air.
The system proposed for the Pearl River Tower
will also mean that signicantly less energy will be
required to power fans than in a standard variable
air volume system. With a conventional air volume
system, the warmer air, typically the
return air, can increase tempera-
tures within the building interior as
it migrates to return grilles located
throughout the f loors. But the
decoupled system proposed for the
Pearl River Tower uses the exterior
double-wall enclosure as the return
air plenum. As the return air within
the perimeter zone is drawn to the
buildings exterior, the effect on the
interior zones is minimized.
The decoupled ventilation system
also enabled the design team to reduce
the buildings oor-to-oor height
from 4.2 m to 3.9 mthe equiva-
lent of reducing construction by ve
stories. It also reduced the costs associ-
ated with the exterior envelope and,
through the projected energy savings,
provided what may be the most envi-
ronmentally benecial aspect of the
Pearl River Tower design.
The system also enabled the design team to optimize the plan layout
by eliminating fan rooms and reducing the size of air shafts. This, in
turn, resulted in a reduced core area that increased the usable space on
each oor and thus increased the buildings revenue poten-
tial. Moreover, the decrease in fan equipment provided the
space on the mechanical oors for the wind portals that
made the buildings wind turbine system possible, space
that would not have been available if a conventional
ventilation system had been used.
Wind looms large in the design of tall
buildings. It builds up positive pres-
sure on the windward side of the
structure andthrough vortex
shedding around the sides and
over the top of the build-
ingcreates large pockets
of negative pressure on the
leeward side. But if the air
is allowed to pass through
the building, the differ-
ential pressure from front
to back is reduced, as are
the forces on the building.
Moreover, such an approach
confers environmental bene-
ts structurally in that it reduces
the quantity of steel and concrete
that is required to maintain the
buildings stability.
The Pearl River Tower incorporates
four large openings approximately 6 by 6.8 m,
one on either side of the mechanical oors at
levels 24 and 48. These openings function as a
type of pressure relief valve for the building and
also as a source of wind energy. Indeed, the facades of the structure
have been designed to decrease the drag forces and optimize the wind
velocity passing through these four openings. In particular, the broad
sides of the structure will be aligned perpendicular to the prevailing
winds, which for most of the year are from the south, to create a
positive pressure on the windward side and a negative pressure on the
leeward side. By contrast, most buildings are typically aligned so that
the narrower facades point toward the prevailing winds.
Given that the power potential from wind speed is a cube func-
tion of wind velocity, the wind power potential at these four loca-
tions should be maximized. Thus, a small increase in velocity can
translate to a larger increase in potential power. Even a relatively
benign wind speed of 2 m/s should generate an energy output
approaching 8 m/s.
The Pearl River Tower will implement vertical-axis wind
turbines that are capable of harnessing winds from both prevail-
ing wind directions with only a minor loss in efciency. The
buildings design capitalizes on the pressure difference between
the windward and leeward sides of the building and
should facilitate airow through the four openings. On
the windward side, a stagnation condition causes the
locally increased pressure to be higher than the undis-
turbed pressure approaching the building. On the
leeward side, a low-pressure area is induced
by the high-velocity ow at the sides and
roof of the building.
The effect of the wind traveling
through the four openings was
carefully studied in a wind tun-
nel testing rig that featured a
scale model of the Pearl River
Tower. This testing took air-
ow measurements of the
wind speeds as the winds
approached the building
and also measured the cor-
responding air velocities
within the buildings four
openings. The model was
then rotated within the tunnel
to simulate what would happen
when the wind approached from
all possible directions.
The results indicated that as the air
passes through the openings, the wind acceler-
ates and the velocity increases. If the wind strikes
the building at a perpendicular angle to an open-
ing, the velocity will drop. But from almost every
other angle, the increase in wind velocity will
exceed the ambient wind speeds. In most cases, the velocity increases
should be more than twice the ambient wind speeds.
Thus, placing one vertical-axis wind turbine within each of the
four openings of the building will take advantage of the increased
power potential of the airstream. These wind turbines are low-vibra-
tion, low-noise units that operate within a wide range of wind direc-
tions and should provide power year-round. Therefore, the Pearl
River Tower not only should realize structure-related cost savings
as a result of adding the four openings but also should be able to avail
itself of relatively free energy by harvesting the accelerated winds that
will pass through these openings.
Like an increasing number of buildings worldwide, the Pearl
River Tower will integrate photovoltaic modules into the building
envelope rather than include such devices simply as an extra fea-
ture. The modules on the Pearl River Tower will serve both as the
January 2009 Civil Engineering 45
The Pearl River Tower will implement
vertical-axis wind turbines that are capable of
harnessing winds from both prevailing wind
directions with only a minor loss in efciency.
Comparison of Pearl River Tower
with Hypothetical Baseline Building:
Projected Annual Energy Consumption
Projected Energy
Savings from Large-
Scale Sustainable
Design Strategies
Wind Tunnel
Test Data at
Wind Portals
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2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers
46 Civil Engineering January 2009
buildings skinin the form of spandrel panelsand as a source of
power. By avoiding conventional spandrel panels, the incremental
cost incurred in incorporating the photovoltaic modules should be
reduced and the life-cycle cost improved.
Photovoltaic systems that are integrated into buildings often
have lower overall costs than when they require separate, dedicated
mounting systems, according to Building Integrated Photovoltaics: A Case
Study, a report prepared in 1995 by Gregory Kiss,
Jennifer Mahadev, and Raman Mahadev for the
U.S. Department of Energys National Renew-
able Energy Laboratory, in Golden, Colorado.
Careful study of the expected solar radia-
tion on the Pearl River Tower revealed that the
photovoltaic cells would be most productive
if they were installed in certain locations on
the buildings envelope. As a result, the cells
have been located in an asymmetrical arrange-
ment at the roof level of the structure, where
the system not only provides electricity for the building but also
functions as a solar shade for the section of the building that is most
susceptible to the negative effects of direct solar radiation.
The cumulative benet of all the environmentally benecial
strategies included in the design of the Pearl River Tower will
signicantly reduce the amount of energy needed to operate the
building. The most notable reductions anticipated are associated
with the mechanical systems of the building, but
measurable savings should also be realized in the
cooling and lighting systems, as well as in the air
and water delivery systems.
The energy consumption of the building has
been modeled and compared with that of a hypo-
thetical baseline building that features the same
geometry but rather than utilizing similar envi-
ronmentally benecial measures relies instead on
the more established strategy of using air in place
of a water-based radiant ceiling system to cool the
building. As the gure on page 44 indicates, the
Pearl River Tower is expected to consume approxi-
mately 58 percent less energy on an annual basis
than the hypothetical baseline building.
Ground was broken for the project in August
2006, and construction of the Pearl River Tower
proceeded through 2007 and 2008. The highest
portion of the structure should be erected during
the fourth quarter of 2009, and the building should
be completed by October 2010.
In developing the design for the Pearl River
Tower, the scope of the services that som provided
included architecture, structural engineering, and
mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering
up through the detailed design phase of the project.
As required in China, som worked closely with a
local design institutein this case the Guangzhou
Design Instituteto ensure that all the necessary
local and statutory approvals were obtained with
respect to planning, zoning, and building codes.
Although many of the energy-saving strategies
and technologies in the design of the Pearl River
Tower were not new per se, their use in China has
been limited. This fact, combined with the reluc-
tance of the Chinese authorities to import existing
technologies or manufactured goods from other
parts of the world, meant that the performance cri-
teria from projects in the United States or Europe
were not easily transferred to this project. Further-
more, soms work was subject to peer reviews by
leading experts in China. While the requirement
for these reviews is understandable, such assessments tend to be based more
on theory than on practical experience. As a result, it was sometimes difcult
to convince other project team members of the viability of the proposed solu-
tions. Moreover, efforts to address the concerns of the Chinese clients by using
examples from projects in the West often were not successful.
The design team has learned numerous lessons from this project, including the
critical fact that attempting to design and build a tower that does not require the
city or region to generate any additional energy on its behalf is a formidable under-
taking, especially when the tower is supertall and is located in a city with a notori-
ously unreliable electrical grid. It is clear that the Pearl River Tower would have
been a challenge to design and construct even if it had been in London or Chicago.
But this is especially true in Guangzhou, where the humid climate will rigorously
test the high-performance facade as well as the radiant cooling and fresh air
systems and the associated control
systems. On the other hand,
it is likely that most, if not
all, of the buildings compo-
nents will be obtained from
within China, substantially
reducing the embodied
energy consumption that
has become prevalent in
construction projects in the
Western Hemisphere.
Although ultimately
the design for this project
resulted in a structure that
will not achieve a net zero-
energy status, the process has
provided strong analytical evi-
dence that the original goal is
indeed possible. When com-
plete, the Pearl River Tower
will help China lead the way in
developing supertall buildings
that use energy with the utmost
efciency. n
Roger E. Frechette III, P.E., LEED
AP, is the director of sustain-
able engineering and Russell
Gilchrist the director of techni-
cal architecture for Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill LLP, of
Chicago. This article is based
on a paper the authors presented
at the Council on Tall Build-
ings and Urban Habitats 8th
World Congress (Tall and
Green: Typology for a Sus-
tainable Urban Future),
which was held in Dubayy
(Dubai) in March 2008.
Project credits Owner: Guangdong Tobacco
Company, Guangzhou, China Architect and engineer: Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill llp, Chicago Wind tunnel testing and computational uid
analysis: Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin, Inc., Guelph, Ontario
January 2009 Civil Engineering 47
The cumulative benet of all the environmentally
benecial strategies included in the design of the
Pearl River Tower will signicantly reduce the
amount of energy needed to operate the building.
The design of the Pearl River
Tower initially envisioned the
use of microturbine technology
to generate clean power in an
efcient and environmentally
responsible manner. Although
these plans were placed on inde-
nite hold when the Guangzhou
utility decided that it would not
connect the microturbines to the
local electrical grid, the buildings
basement can be retrotted to
accommodate the devices should
the utility change its stance.
The facade will
feature an internally
ventilated double-wall system that
incorporates a motorized venetian
blind system controlled by a photo-
cell that tracks the movement
of the sun. The exterior glaz-
ing will take the form of
insulated, tempered glass
with a low-emissivity coat-
ing; the inner layer will
be an operable clear glass
panel that can be opened
for maintenance.
2008 American Society of Civil Engineers 2008 American Society of Civil Engineers