Leeds Met University tower named best tall building in the world
By ANISaturday, October 23, 2010
LONDON - A skyscraper in Leeds has been named the best tall building in the world.
The rusty-looking building is made from weathering steel, which forms rust like appearance when exposed to weather.
Broadcasting Place, on Woodhouse Lane, was short listed for the award after being voted Europe’s best tall building by Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in June.
The building, which houses Leeds Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology along with student flats, was praised for its unusual angular shapes and for showing “a respect for the scale and grain of the surrounding listed buildings”.
It beat off world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
Julian Gitsham, from architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios was all praise for the building and award.
“We are delighted, we’re a bit stunned really. We were very pleased with the Europe award and then we thought ‘well we’re going to be up against the Burj, the tallest building in the world,” the BBC quoted him as saying.
The Bank of America Tower and the Pinnacle at Duxton were also shortlisted.
“It felt like a David and Goliath situation where we had this relatively small building next to this 1km-high building,” he added.
The university said the building, owned by student accommodation developer Downing, had been given both praise and criticism for its use of weathering steel as a cladding material. (ANI)
