The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced Douglas Durst and Peter Irwin as the recipients of its two lifetime achievement awards for 2014.
The CTBUH Board of Trustees recognized Durst, chairman of The Durst Organization, with the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban habitat throughout his or her professional career.
Durst is a member of the third generation to lead The Durst Organization, a New York real estate firm. Durst oversaw the company’s investment in the “nation’s first sustainable skyscraper,” the Condé Nast Building at 4 Times Square, and the first LEED Platinum-certified high-rise office building, the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park.
“As the developer of the Conde Nast and Bank of America Towers, Douglas Durst has delivered on the promise of the sustainable tall building,” said CTBUH chairman-elect and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates principal David Malott, AIA, in a press release. “While others only spoke, he took action.”
Irwin, founding partner of Rowan Williams Davies and Irwin, received the Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal, which honors an individual for notable technical design or research that has made outstanding contributions to a discipline for the design tall buildings and the built urban environment.
Irwin’s career has focused on wind engineering, particularly on some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, including the Petronas Tower, Taipei 101, Burj Khalifa, the Trump International Hotel and Tower, and Shanghai Tower. At the National Research Council, Irwin developed a wind velocity sensor—or what some in the industry call the “Irwin Sensor”—a device that measures wind speeds around buildings and bridges.
“Peter’s deep understanding of wind engineering and his innovative thinking have added greatly to the design of many of today’s tallest towers,” said William F. Baker, CTBUH trustee and structural engineering partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, in a press release.
Durst and Irwin, along with all award winners, including the 2014 Best Tall Building Winners and Finalists, will be recognized at the CTBUH 13th Annual Awards Symposium on Nov. 6 in Chicago.
