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

Uptown Dubai Tower 1

711 m / 2,333 ft

2

HeXi Yuzui Tower A

498.8 m / 1,636 ft

3

Wuhan Greenland Center

475.6 m / 1,560 ft

4

Central Park Tower

472.4 m / 1,550 ft

5

Tribune East Tower

433.4 m / 1,422 ft

6

HeXi Yuzui Tower C

350 m / 1,148 ft

7

Uptown Tower

340 m / 1,115 ft

8

Xinda Kingtown International Center Tower 1

320 m / 1,050 ft

9

Shenzhen Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center

300.8 m / 987 ft

10

Suzhou Keyne Center Office and Hotel

300 m / 984 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 Working Group: High Performance Facades, 2015 – 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.

View all

Research

27 April 2018

Technical Considerations for Akhmat Tower

The 435-meter Akhmat Tower in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia, will be shaped to refer to the Nakh tower, a traditional watchtower typology in the region. A...

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Global News

27 January 2023

Partnership Announced to Build New Office and Retail Skyscraper in Cairo

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG Architecture) and Magnon Properies are developing the planned Forbes International Tower. The partnership, which marks the first time...

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Rank
Name
City
Height

1

One Dubai Tower A

Dubai

1008 m

3,307 ft

2

Jeddah Tower

Jeddah

1000 m

3,281 ft

3

One Dubai Tower B

Dubai

874 m

2,867 ft

4

Uptown Dubai Tower 1

Dubai

711 m

2,333 ft

5

Shimao Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Centre

Shenzhen

700 m

2,297 ft

6

One Dubai Tower C

Dubai

685 m

2,247 ft

7

Wuhan Greenland Center

Wuhan

636 m

2,087 ft

8

One Park Avenue

Dubai

550 m

1,804 ft

9

Thompson Center Redevelopment

Chicago

518 m

1,700 ft

10

HeXi Yuzui Tower A

Nanjing

499 m

1,636 ft

11

Wuhan Greenland Center

Wuhan

476 m

1,560 ft

12

Central Park Tower

New York City

472 m

1,550 ft

13

Abu Dhabi Tower

Doha

470 m

1,542 ft

14

Chengdu Greenland Tower

Chengdu

468 m

1,535 ft

15

Dancing Dragon Tower 1

Seoul

446 m

1,463 ft

16

Multifunctional Highrise Complex - Akhmat Tower

Groznyj

435 m

1,427 ft

17

Tribune East Tower

Chicago

433 m

1,422 ft

18

Imperial Tower 3

Mumbai

400 m

1,312 ft

19

Dancing Dragon Tower 2

Seoul

378 m

1,240 ft

20

HeXi Yuzui Tower C

Nanjing

350 m

1,148 ft

21

Uptown Tower

Dubai

340 m

1,115 ft

22

Xinda Kingtown International Center Tower 1

Suzhou

320 m

1,050 ft

23

Shenzhen Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center

Shenzhen

301 m

987 ft

24

Suzhou Keyne Center Office and Hotel

Suzhou

300 m

984 ft

25

Xinda Kingtown International Center Tower 2

Suzhou

260 m

853 ft

26

Burj Vista Tower 1

Dubai

255 m

835 ft

27

Qintai International Tower

Wuhan

248 m

814 ft

28

FKI Tower

Seoul

246 m

805 ft

29

160 Front Street West

Toronto

240 m

787 ft

30

The Mansion at Burj Khalifa

Dubai

227 m

745 ft

31

One Bromfield

Boston

224 m

735 ft

32

830 Brickell

Miami

221 m

724 ft

33

HeXi Yuzui Tower B-2

Nanjing

220 m

722 ft

34

Suzhou Keyne Center Residential Tower

Suzhou

220 m

722 ft

35

240 Adelaide West

Toronto

219 m

719 ft

36

Una Residences

Miami

187 m

613 ft

37

Vantone Center

Tianjin

185 m

607 ft

38

Chengdu Greenland Center Tower 2

Chengdu

173 m

568 ft

39

Chengdu Greenland Center Tower 3

Chengdu

166 m

545 ft

40

Shenzhen Zhongzhou Holdings Financial Center Tower B

Shenzhen

158 m

517 ft

41

PPA 30 Parcel 3.10

Riyadh

138 m

453 ft

42

The Crystal at Waterfront Square

Vancouver

114 m

374 ft

43

K2 at K Station

Chicago

112 m

366 ft

44

PPA 30 Parcel 5.03 Tower 1

Riyadh

105 m

344 ft

45

Kazakhstan Pavilion and Science Museum

Astana

100 m

328 ft

46

Meraas Tower

Dubai

- m

- ft

47

Forbes International Tower

Cairo

- m

- ft

Statistics

Average Building Age*

7 Years

Most Common Function*

Office (42%)

Most Common Material*

Composite (55%)

* Based on 150 m+ buildings currently in the database

Based on 12 buildings over 150 m height with a function
 
Based on 11 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 Working Group: High Performance Facades, 2015 – 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 | Chicago

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 | Chicago

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...

16 March 2017 | Chicago

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...

16 March 2017 | Chicago

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...

26 October 2015 | New York City

2015 New York Conference - Session 1b - Q&A

Adrian Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture; Keith Brooks, ARCADIS Architects; George Leventis, Langan; and Alan Poeppel, Langan, answer questions at the end of...

26 October 2015 | New York City

Interview: Adrian Smith

Adrian Smith of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is interviewed by Chris Bentley during the 2015 CTBUH New York Conference at the Grand Hyatt...

26 October 2015 | New York City

The Tall Building Impact: From Local to Global

Supertall towers, when done correctly, are the catalyst for the city or district around them. They give an area an identity. They increase the local...

06 November 2014 | Chicago

Interview: FKI Head Office Building

Juan Betancur, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, is interviewed by Chris Bentley regarding the Best Tall Building Featured Finalist, the FKI Head Office Building,...

06 November 2014 | Chicago

Best Tall Building Featured Finalist: Putting a New Face on the “Glass Box”: FKI Head Office Building

The new head offices for the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) are a major new addition to the skyline of Seoul, Korea. The tower features...

18 September 2014 | Shanghai

Measuring Tall Buildings: Has CTBUH got its Height Criteria Correct?

One of the roles of the CTBUH is to be a “voice of reason” as the arbiter of building height claims, and to be consistent...

27 April 2018

Technical Considerations for Akhmat Tower

Alejandro Stochetti, Sara Beardsley & Marc Cerone, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture; John Peronto, Thornton Tomasetti

The 435-meter Akhmat Tower in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia, will be shaped to refer to the Nakh tower, a traditional watchtower typology in the region. A...

01 March 2018

Challenges in the Architectural Technical Design of the New Generation of Supertall Buildings

Peter A. Weismantle, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

The design of a supertall building poses many challenges to the architect and engineer. Using Jeddah Tower as a case study; this paper intends to...

01 December 2017

The Path to Life Cycle Carbon Neutrality in High Rise Buildings

Chris Drew & Natalia Quintanilla, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Across the world, building energy codes are becoming stricter, demanding higher levels of energy performance with each issuance. Some locations have taken initiatives to eliminate...

01 December 2017

Multitasking Façade: How to Combine BIPV with Passive Solar Mitigation Strategies in a High-Rise Curtain Wall

Juan Betancur, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

This paper outlines the processes and strategies studied and selected by the team during the design stages of the project for the incorporation of BIPV...

08 August 2017

ASPECT: RATIOS – Voices of Women In the Tall Building World

Ilkay Can-Standard, GenX Design & Technology; Martina Dolejsova, Studio Libeskind

ASPECT: RATIOS is the outgrowth of a program developed by the CTBUH Young Professionals Committee in New York, beginning in 2016. The purpose of the...

28 April 2017

Debating Tall: Replace the Thompson Center?

Helmut Jahn, JAHN; Mir Ali, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chicago’s drum-shaped, 17-story James R. Thompson Center, with its soaring atrium and extensive glazing, has been criticized for poor temperature control and spatial inefficiency, and...

17 October 2016

Using Parametric Simulation and GIS to Design a Stormwater Solution for a Chinese Sponge-City

Christopher Drew, Patrick Keeney & Xi Yi, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

One of the predicted effects of climate change in Central China is an increase in precipitation and in extreme rainfall intensity. In 2015, the Chinese...

17 October 2016

Changing Market Forces and Their Impacts on Tall Building Planning and Design: A Case Study

Ro Shroff, CallisonRTKL

This paper articulates how changing market conditions and other variables impact the design process for tall buildings in general and a 355m tall luxury residential...

17 October 2016

Mixed-Use Supertall Building as the Approach to Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism

Zhendong Wang & Jing Cui, Tongji University

In the pursuit of denser, more concentrated sustainable cities which reduce the loss of open space and energy-intensive transport and infrastructure networks, tall buildings have...

26 October 2015

The Tall Building Impact: From Local to Global

Adrian Smith & Peter Weismantle, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

AS+GG’s Director of Supertall Technology interviews AS+GG Partner Adrian Smith about the impact that supertall buildings have on a city’s identity, economy, ecological impact, and...

01 September 2022

Dubai Uptown Tower Office Space is Fully Pre-Leased Ahead of its Completion

The office space at the 340-meter Uptown Tower has been fully pre-leased in advance of the completion of its construction later in 2022.  Over 495,000...

08 July 2022

Dubai Tower's Faceted Façade is Completed

The faceted glass façade for the 340-meter-tall Uptown Tower has been fully installed. Having started installation in August 2020, progress on the façade proceeded at...

27 May 2020

Plans Approved For 102-Story Skyscraper That Could Be Chicago's Second-Tallest

A 102-story skyscraper known as Tribune East Tower could become Chicago’s second tallest building in the coming years, after aldermen on Wednesday, 20 May, 2020...

22 November 2019

Construction Stalls on Supertall Development in Wuhan

A subsidiary of China’s largest construction group has suspended work on one of the nation’s tallest skyscrapers after the developer became the latest in a...

21 November 2019

Planned Chicago Supertall Undergoes Minimal Changes After Community Review

On 19 November 2019, developers unveiled updated plans for a mixed-use supertall tower slated for the parking lot just east of Chicago’s landmark Tribune Tower....

07 November 2019

Design for Mixed-Use Complex in Nanjing Announced

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has announced the design of the new South HeXi Yuzui Financial District in Nanjing. The firm won an...

07 November 2019

Design for Mixed-Use Complex in Nanjing Announced

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has announced the design of the new South HeXi Yuzui Financial District in Nanjing. The firm won an...

08 October 2019

Chicago’s Next Supertall Nears Approval Amid Flurry of Development

The developer of a proposed supertall skyscraper on North Michigan Avenue next to Tribune Tower is nearing an agreement with the city in “a couple...

18 September 2019

Two Supertalls Top Out in New York City

The Grand Central Terminal-adjacent supertall One Vanderbilt officially topped out this week, reaching its full 1,401-foot (427-meter) height. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the tower...

21 January 2019

“Tower Fifth” Could Become New York City’s Second-Tallest

For decades, the New York City skyline was dominated by one building, the 1,250-foot-tall (381-meter) Empire State Building. But 17 “supertall” skyscrapers — defined as...

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.