The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat to Receive Innovation in Construction Prize

Representatives from Turner Construction Company and the National Building Museum recently announced the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will receive the 2015 Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction.

Turner established the prize—which comes with a $25,000 honorarium—at the National Building Museum, to recognize an advance or high achievement in the process of construction: an invention, an innovative methodology and/or exemplary leadership.

CTBUH was selected for its long history of leadership in facilitating research and promoting education, as well as for its invaluable contributions to the building industry, which has benefited from the council's work related to tall buildings and urban planning issues around the world.

The CTBUH is known for its role as the arbiter of what constitutes a tall building, a role that has grown increasingly prominent with the rise of supertall and megatall projects. In addition, the council has created an international intellectual community, connecting industry professionals—including developers, architects, engineers, builders, urban planners, environmentalists and more—and offering them access to a wide variety of resources including a robust database of technical papers, videos and building information.

Through the publication of these technical papers, best practices and other materials developed by scientists, engineers and thought leaders on nearly every aspect of tall building construction, the council has established itself as the industry's resource when it comes to planning, designing, constructing and maintaining increasingly sophisticated and complex tall, supertall and megatall building projects.

In addition to these achievements, the Turner Prize honors the vision, ambition and sense of social responsibility that drove council founder Lynn Beedle to establish CTBUH, as expressed in a 1992 article. He wrote, “The need [for the council]…stemmed from things like the exploding urban population, creating an increased demand for tall buildings; the need for economy in construction; the frequent neglect of human factors at the expense of livability and the quality of life; the need for new research required in the field and the necessity of establishing priorities for such reasons.”

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is the 13th recipient of the Turner Prize, which has been awarded in the past to the Engineering Department at Pennsylvania State University, Leslie Robertson, I.M Pei, Charles DeBenedittis, The U.S. Green Building Council, Paul Teicholz, Gehry Partners and Gehry Technologies, Charlie Thornton, Engineers Without Borders — USA, Caterpillar, Inc., Society of Women Engineers and the Lean Construction Institute.