Monday, May 9, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab
In Intel’s new design the silicon channel is raised like a fin, so that the gate contacts it from three sides. (Large graphic next page.)
Credit: Technology Review
Credit: Technology Review
Computing
How Three-Dimensional Transistors Went from Lab to Fab
The 22-nanometer transistors, which Intel says will make chips 37 percent faster and half as power hungry, will be used for every element on the company's 22-nanometer scale chips, including both the logic and memory circuits. Processors that use the "tri-gate" transistors have been demonstrated in working systems, and the company will begin volume production in the second half of this year. It's unclear just how device-makers will take advantage of the chips, but they're likely to enable improved battery life and greater sophistication for portable devices, as well as faster processing for desktops and servers.
Intel turned to the new design because existing designs have begun running up against a performance roadblock. Conventional transistors are made up of a metal structure called a gate that's mounted on top of a flat channel of silicon. The gate controls the flow of current through the channel from a source electrode to a drain electrode. With every generation of chips, the channel has gotten smaller and smaller, enabling companies like Intel to make faster chips by packing in more transistors. But it has become more difficult for the gate to fully cut off the flow of current. Leaky transistors that don't turn off completely waste power.
The tri-gate transistors use rectangular silicon channels that stick up from the surface of the chip, allowing the gate to contact the channel on three sides, instead of just one. This more intimate contact means the gate can turn the transistor off nearly completely even at the 22-nanometer scale, which is responsible for the energy-efficiency gains in Intel's new chips. It's also possible to make tri-gate transistors with more than one silicon channel connected to each gate in order to increase the amount of current that can flow through each transistor, enabling higher performance.
More Power from Rooftop Solar
Dark Mirror: Solar panels (with silver lines) are paired with reflectors (the solid dark material) to increase the amount of power a rooftop array can generate.
Credit: TenKsolar
Credit: TenKsolar
Energy
More Power from Rooftop Solar
TenKsolar says its systems can produce power for as little as eight cents a kilowatt-hour in sunny locations. That's significantly more expensive than electricity from typical coal or natural-gas power plants, but it is less than the average price of electricity in the United States.
Solar cells have become more efficient in recent years, but much of the improvement has gone to waste because of the way solar cells are put together in solar panels, the way the panels are wired together, and the way the electricity is converted into AC power for use in homes or on the grid. Typically, the power output from a string of solar cells is limited by the lowest-performing cell. So if a shadow falls on just one cell in a panel, the power output of the whole system drops dramatically. And failure at any point in the string can shut down the whole system.
TenKsolar has opted for a more complex wiring system—inspired by a reliable type of computer memory known as RAID (for "redundant array of independent disks"), in which hard disks are connected in ways that maintain performance even if some fail. TenKsolar's design allows current to take many different paths through a solar-panel array, thus avoiding bottlenecks at low-performing cells and making it possible to extract far more of the electricity that the cells produce.
The reflectors use a film made by 3M that reflects only selected wavelengths of light, reducing visible glare. The material also reflects less infrared light, which can overheat a solar panel and reduce its performance.
Meyer says the system costs about the same as those made by Chinese manufacturers but produces about 50 percent more power for a given roof area. Power output is about 25 percent higher than from the more expensive, high-performance systems made by SunPower, he says.
The new wiring approach does have a drawback: because it's new, the banks that finance solar-power installations may have doubts that the system will last for the duration of the warranty, and this could complicate financing, says Travis Bradford, an industry analyst and president of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development.
TenKSolar, which has so far raised $11 million in venture funding and has the capacity to produce 10 to 12 megawatts of systems a year, is working on partnerships with larger companies to help provide financial backing for guarantees of its products.
Salty Solution for Energy Generation
Saline solution: This device generates electricity using differences in salinity between fresh and salt water. The two foil-like structures serve as positive and negative electrodes; the glass bulb is a reference electrode.
Credit: Yi Cui
Credit: Yi Cui
Energy
Salty Solution for Energy Generation
Battery draws power from salinity difference between freshwater and saltwater.
The difference in salinity between freshwater and saltwater holds promise as a large source of renewable energy. Energy is required to desalinate water, and running the process in reverse can generate energy. Now a novel approach based on a conventional battery design that uses nanomaterials could provide a way to harvest that energy economically.
The new device, developed by researchers at Stanford University, consists of an electrode that attracts positive sodium ions and one that attracts negative chlorine ions. When the electrodes are immersed in saltwater, they draw sodium and chlorine ions from the water, and the movement of the ions creates an electrical current. The electrodes are recharged by draining the saltwater, replacing it with freshwater, and applying a relatively low-voltage electrical current, which draws the ions back out of the electrodes. When the freshwater is drained, the electrodes are ready to attract more ions from the next batch of saltwater.
"It is the opposite process of water desalination, where you put in energy and try to generate freshwater and more concentrated saltwater," says Yi Cui, a materials science and engineering professor at Stanford University and the study's lead author. "Here you start with freshwater and concentrated saltwater, and then you generate energy."
Cui's group converted to electricity 74 percent of the potential energy that exists between saltwater and freshwater, with no decline in performance over 100 cycles. Placing the electrodes closer together, Cui says, could allow the battery to achieve 85 percent efficiency.
Such wide-scale use, however, would seriously disturb sensitive aquatic environments. "I think you would only be able to utilize a very small fraction of this or it would be an ecological disaster," says Menachem Elimelech, director of the Environmental Engineering Program at Yale University. Elimelech says it would be necessary to pretreat the water to remove suspended material including living organisms. Such processing would require energy, add costs, and itself seriously disturb the ecosystem if done on a large scale.
A Cancer-Fighting Implant
Cancer killer: A cross section of a polymer matrix designed to prime the immune system against cancer. Immune cells crawl through the pores and are activated by chemical signals and tumor molecules.
Credit: Edward Doherty, Omar Ali and Microvision Labs
Credit: Edward Doherty, Omar Ali and Microvision Labs
Biomedicine
A Cancer-Fighting Implant
A number of vaccines for treating different types of cancer are currently being tested in clinical trials, though none has yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Unlike traditional vaccines, therapeutic cancer vaccines are designed to halt or reverse the course of the disease after it has developed. Gardasil, Merck's vaccine against the human papillomavirus, is considered a preventative cancer vaccine and acts in a similar way to traditional vaccines. It helps prevent the development of cervical cancer by stopping viral infection--but it cannot treat existing cervical cancer.
While cancer vaccines come in several variations, the general approach is to trigger the immune system to recognize and destroy cells bearing a cancer-specific marker. The immune system can be tuned to cancer cells by injecting patients with specific molecules linked to different types of cancer, or by injecting irradiated cancer cells. Scientists have also tried to enhance this process by training the immune cells in a controlled environment outside the body--the cells are isolated from the patient's blood and exposed to cancer-specific molecules. The primed immune cells are then injected back into the patient, where they travel to the lymph nodes and trigger an immune response against the cancer.
A Vaccine Offers Instant Immunity
Credit: Technology Review
Biomedicine
Now researchers at the Scripps Research Institute have developed preprogrammed chemicals that bind to antibodies and tell them how to recognize part of a pathogen, known as its epitope. In experiments, the team found that such chemicals prompted a therapeutic immune response that inhibited the growth of two types of tumors in mice. The researchers published their findings in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
"We used a chemistry-based approach that wouldn't induce antibodies that might be wasted," says Carlos Barbas, a professor of molecular biology and lead investigator on the paper. "[This approach] could focus an immune response on functional epitopes of the pathogen, be it cancer or a virus."
The group's chemical-based vaccine may address a number of problems with some current vaccines, both in the clinic and in the lab. Today, there are only two FDA-approved, licensed cancer vaccines: one that targets Hepatitis B associated with liver cancer, the other for human papillomavirus (HPV), which leads to cervical cancer. For both vaccines, patients must go in for multiple immunizations to build up an effective defense over time. There are no licensed therapeutic vaccines that directly treat existing cancers, and researchers have found it difficult to train antibodies to attack cancer cells, since they arise from the body and are not generally regarded by the immune system as foreign.
The Endeavors of Endeavour
A photo gallery of the youngest space shuttle as it prepares for its final flight.
The April 29 planned launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, shown here on the launch pad the night before, has been delayed until May 8 at the earliest; engineers detected a malfunction in a unit that provides the hydraulic pressure needed to control the shuttle during takeoffs and landings. The source of the malfunction has been traced to a power control box, the aft load control assembly-2 in Endeavour’s aft compartment. Engineers plan to replace the box and any faulty hardware. With luck, it will be the last glitch in the long story of Endeavour, which has flown 24 times since its maiden voyage in 1992 and will be retired after a final 14-day mission to the International Space Station.
A Vaccine to Attack Cancer Early
Early intervention: In multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells, like the ones pictured here, cause disease in the bones, blood, and immune system.
Credit: Nephron, Creative Commons (BY-SA 3.0)
Biomedicine
A Vaccine to Attack Cancer Early
Most cancer vaccines are intended to rally a patient's immune system to fight cancers that have already progressed. But the startup company OncoPep, based in North Andover, Massachusetts, is developing a vaccine designed to prevent one kind of cancer—multiple myeloma—by treating patients with only a precursor of the disease.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of blood plasma cells. It develops when abnormal plasma cells in bone marrow multiply and accumulate, eventually damaging bones and other tissues in the body and finally overwhelming the immune system. Currently, treatments can extend the lives of patients with cancer but not cure it.
The company's approach grew out of research by Kenneth Anderson, Nikhil Munshi, and Jooen Bae at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The researchers deployed a combination of peptides—small pieces of protein—that are known to be specific to multiple myeloma cells and are essential for their survival. The goal is to train the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells bearing these peptides; the vaccine would also contain substances designed to boost immune response.
Plans call for the vaccine to be administered to people diagnosed with smouldering multiple myeloma, a condition in which plasma cells are unusually abundant and produce abnormal proteins but cause no symptoms of the disease. Currently, patients with SMM are not treated. Although a majority of them go on to develop symptomatic cancer, it may take many years. Anderson hopes that the ability to detect the cancer in this early phase will make early, effective intervention possible. "The idea would be to prevent the development of an active cancer," he says. Administering the vaccine to patients before they have received other, possibly debilitating cancer treatments, and while their immune systems are healthy, may give it a better chance of working.
Doris Peterkin, CEO of OncoPep, says that like several other experimental cancer vaccines in development, this one will be matched to people with a particular immune-system type: HLA type A2, the most common type in the U.S. Peterkin says the vaccine is most likely to be effective in these patients because the peptides have a better chance of triggering an immune response in them.
Ronald Levy, an oncologist and cancer researcher at Stanford University, says that despite the advantages of vaccinating early, targeting this early stage of the disease may pose practical problems in testing the vaccine. Although nearly 80 per cent of patients with SMM go on to develop multiple myeloma, they do so at a rate of only about 10 per cent per year—so it may take a while to collect enough patients to test the vaccine. Limiting the vaccine to people with a particular HLA type will narrow the small field. Levy says that the ultimate test of the vaccine's success will be how well its chosen peptides provoke a specific immune response against the cancer, which has been the challenge for all peptide-based cancer.
Energy
Khosla Biofuel IPO Draws Doubters
In 2004, a startup called Nanosys tried to go public. It had recruited some of the world's top nanoscientists for its board and had bought up hundreds of nanotech patents. The idea was that it could revolutionize TV displays, batteries, and maybe even golf balls. It had no product, but so what? Nanotech seemed like it could change everything.
That is when a venture capitalist named Vinod Khosla, then with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, cried fraud. A speech of Khosla's at Stanford University helped to not only torpedo the Nanosys IPO but also burst a short-lived nanotech bubble.
Here's what Khosla said, according to a Thomson Reuters publication, at the time: "Personally, I think it is the wrong model for a company, and I think it is a shame that they are going public, because I do not think they are in a position to be predictable enough. And whether they are doing it knowingly or unknowingly, there is a reasonable likelihood that they will defraud the public market."
Now Khosla's the one being questioned. "I am looking at Vinod Khosla's S-1 filing of KiOR, which has a grand total of zero ($0) revenue," wrote venture capitalist Larry Bock in an e-mail. Bock cofounded Nanosys and was behind the aborted IPO. "Should Vinod be kept accountable?"
All three companies are early-stage. They're still building plants and proving their ideas. None have turned a profit. KiOR may be the earliest-stage yet. Its SEC filing is long on PowerPoint slogans ("We Drilled Deep Into the Problem ... Not Into Our Planet") but so far KiOR hasn't sold a drop of fuel and cautions investors that "we have no experience producing renewable transportation fuels at the scale needed for the development of our business." The company says it is counting on a $1 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build its plants.
Bock now says he wants some "intellectual honesty" from his rival.
So Technology Review asked Khosla whether pre-revenue biofuels companies should be going public. Khosla sent back a detailed memo explaining why biofuels is not like nanotech. Here's a summary:
Existing markets: Biofuels are end applications with large markets, not just technologies.
Proven technology: In many cases the manufacturing or yield of technology has been proven.
Big payoffs: The payback from success is huge. That was not always true in biotech and nanotech, where there is more risk from competitors. In biofuels, the markets are so huge that if 10 companies produced the same product, each could be a billion-dollar business without interfering with the others.
Predictability: If a company can give investors accurate expectations for the next two to three years, then they can consider an IPO. This is true of biofuels now but not of nanotech in 2004.
Khosla's main point is that the fuels market is gigantic, whereas Nanosys was all about technologies looking for problems to solve. He argues that having interesting technology without a compelling market is not a good place to be as a business. Even Nanosys's current chief financial officer, John Page, agrees with that. "That is a fairly accurate assessment of where Nanosys was in 2004." Nanosys recently reorganized in an effort to generate more revenue from LEDs and batteries.
Making a Gantt Chart in Excel 2007
A Gantt chart is a popular project management bar chart that tracks tasks across time. When first developed in 1917, the Gantt chart did not show the relationships between tasks. This has become common in current use, as both time and interdependencies between tasks are tracked.
Since their first introduction, Gantt charts have become an industry standard. They are an important project management tool used for showing the phases, tasks, milestones and resources needed as part of a project.
This video presentation is a step-by-step guide to creating a Gantt chart using Microsoft Excel 2007.
Excel Gantt Charts
The Gantt chart is a very helpful and popular tool in the field of project management. A Gantt chart is just one of many project management forms used throughout the project life cycle.
For a more in-depth look on how useful this device can be and for additional resources in other software applications, please see the guide Gantt Chart Examples and Tutorials.
In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to construct a Gantt chart in Excel 2007. This article is part of a series of Excel project management tutorials that can be found here at Bright Hub.
Create a Table with Project Data
The first thing you want to do in preparation for creating a Gantt chart in Excel is to input the project timeline data into a spreadsheet. For the purpose of this tutorial, I’ve created a sample file entitled Sample Gantt Chart Created in Excel with project data that can be downloaded from the Project Management Media Gallery. Additionally, the screenshot below shows the table created for this example. As with any of the other images in this tutorial, you can click on it to see a larger view.
Create a Stacked Bar Chart
We will use the stacked bar chart option in Excel to create our Gantt chart. First, as shown in the image below, hold down the CTRL key and select the columns that contain the Task, Start Date, Days Completed, and Days Remaining Data.
Next, navigate to the Insert screen of Excel and choose the option to insert a stacked bar chart. You’ll end up with an image like that in the following screenshot.
This isn’t at all what we want as a final version, but we now have a representation that contains our basic information that we can modify to reach our desired appearance.
Alternative Directions for Creating the Initial Stacked Bar Chart
If you're having trouble getting your initial stacked bar chart to look like the one above, you may need to approach the construction in a slightly different way. First, select the Task and Start Date columns. From the insert tab on the Excel Ribbon, choose to insert a 2-D Stacked Bar Chart.
Next, right-click on any blank area in the newly created chart and choose Select Data.
The Select Data Source window will appear as shown in the screenshot below.
Click on the Add button under Legend Entries (Series). This will cause the Edit Series window to appear.
We want to add a new series for the Days Completed column. To do this, first click on the button next to the select Range box under Series name.
Next, click on the cell containing the name of the column, Days Completed.
Click on the icon to the right of the box to return to the Edit Series window. Now, click on the button to the right of the box under Series values.
This time, select the range of cells in the column that contain the actual number of days.
Click the icon to the right of the data entry area to go back to the main Edit Series window.
In the background, you should now see the bar representing the series for Days Completed on the chart. Click OK to return to the Select Data Source window.
Repeat the process described above to add another series for Days Remaining. When finished, the chart should look like the following image.
Next: Continue on to page 2 for instructions on how to modify this initial chart so that it actually has the look and feel of a Gantt chart.
Modify the Stacked Bar Chart
Now that we have the framework in place, we need to make a few more modifications so that the final result takes on the standard appearance of a Gantt chart.
First we want to make sure that the tasks on the chart are listed in chronological order from oldest to newest.To do this, right-click over any of the task names and choose Format Axis from the dialog box. Check the box in front of the option “Categories in reverse order” and then close the window. This process is shown below.
Now we want to remove the Start Date as one of our series items. Right-click on one of the segments representing the Start Date field and choose Format Data Series. Pick “No Fill” for the Fill option and “No Line” for Border Color.
Next we want to override the automatic dates that Excel has picked for our chart and use the minimum and maximum dates related to our specific project. Before we do this, we need to determine the serial numbers that are assigned to these dates in Excel.
On a “scrap” worksheet, we will enter the dates that we want to use. In this case, the dates are 12/15/07 and 12/31/08. Select the cells containing the dates and choose the Format Cells option. From the Category list, choose Number and then click OK. We obtain 39431 and 39813 as our corresponding minimum and maximum values.
The file that accompanies this tutorial in the Media Gallery contains a worksheet that will make this calculation for any date that you choose to enter. Feel free to download this file to use for later projects.
Return to your stacked bar chart and right-click on the Start Date axis. Under Axis Options, enter 39431 forMinimum, 39813 for Maximum, 91 for Major Unit, and 1 for Minor Unit. Entering 91 for the major unit allows the chart to be divided into blocks that represent about 3 months. The minor unit of 1 represents a single day.
Finally, we arrive at something that looks like a Gantt chart.
You can use the chart design options in Excel to fancy the final Gantt chart up a bit if you like, but the object we have here contains all the basic information.
If you're looking for an easier way to create a Gantt chart in Excel, you may want to check into some of the add-ins that have been developed. One of these add-ins, Project Manager for Excel, is reviewed here on Bright Hub's Project Management Channel. It's very reasonably priced and may be able to help with some of your other task scheduling needs.
References & Image Credits
Microsoft Excel Official Site, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/
Towers Arround the World
01
Burj Khalifa
Burj Khalifa
Also Known As: Burj Dubai or Dubai Tower
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Developer: Emaar Properties
Architect: Adrian Smith, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM)
Year: Officially opened January 4, 2010
Height: 828 meters / 2,717 feet (including the spire)
Stories: 162
About the Burj Khalifa:
Originally named Burj Dubai (or Dubai Tower), the soaring skyscraper is now called Burj Khalifa, after Khalifa Bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates..
Dubai has been a showplace for innovative buildings, and the Burj Khalifa shatters world records for building height. The skyscraper is much taller than Taiwan's Taipei 101, which rises 508 metres (1,667 feet). During a time of economic slowdown, the Burj Khalifa has become an icon for wealth and progress in Dubai. No expense was spared for the building's opening ceremonies on January 4, 2010
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Developer: Emaar Properties
Architect: Adrian Smith, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (SOM)
Year: Officially opened January 4, 2010
Height: 828 meters / 2,717 feet (including the spire)
Stories: 162
About the Burj Khalifa:
Originally named Burj Dubai (or Dubai Tower), the soaring skyscraper is now called Burj Khalifa, after Khalifa Bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates..
Dubai has been a showplace for innovative buildings, and the Burj Khalifa shatters world records for building height. The skyscraper is much taller than Taiwan's Taipei 101, which rises 508 metres (1,667 feet). During a time of economic slowdown, the Burj Khalifa has become an icon for wealth and progress in Dubai. No expense was spared for the building's opening ceremonies on January 4, 2010
02
Busan Lotte Tower
Busan Lotte Tower
Busan Lotte Tower
The Lotte Super Tower is a 110-floor, 510.1 m (1,674 ft) supertall skyscraper in Busan, South Korea. Construction started on 9 March 2009 on a site next to Nampo-dong station on Busan Subway Line 1 and completion is expected in 2013, when it will become the third tallest building in the world after Burj Khalifa and 1 World Trade Center.
The landmark tower is the centerpiece of the new Busan Lotte Town and construction is being carried in two phases. The first phase includes a department store and cinema, which was completed in 2009, while the larger second phase will include a luxury hotel, an observation deck, offices and cultural facilities in a 110 story skyscraper. The design of the skyscraper will resemble a standing ship, with grand curves reflecting the city's harbour. The tower's underground parking space will be able to house over 2,400 cars.
The Lotte Super Tower is a 110-floor, 510.1 m (1,674 ft) supertall skyscraper in Busan, South Korea. Construction started on 9 March 2009 on a site next to Nampo-dong station on Busan Subway Line 1 and completion is expected in 2013, when it will become the third tallest building in the world after Burj Khalifa and 1 World Trade Center.
The landmark tower is the centerpiece of the new Busan Lotte Town and construction is being carried in two phases. The first phase includes a department store and cinema, which was completed in 2009, while the larger second phase will include a luxury hotel, an observation deck, offices and cultural facilities in a 110 story skyscraper. The design of the skyscraper will resemble a standing ship, with grand curves reflecting the city's harbour. The tower's underground parking space will be able to house over 2,400 cars.
03
Taipei 101 Tower
Taipei 101 Tower
Taipei 101 Tower
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Architect: C.Y.. Lee & Partner
Year: 2004
Height: 509 meters / 1,670 feet
Stories: 101
About the Taipei 101 Tower
The design of Taipei 101 borrows heavily from Chinese culture. Both the building's interior and exterior incorporate the Chinese pagoda form and the shape of bamboo flowers. The lucky number eight, which means blooming or success, is represented by the eight clearly delineated exterior sections of the building.
The towering spire of Taipei 101 Tower made it the world's tallest building for several years. However, it is now outranked by the Burj Khalifa (Dubai Tower) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which opened in January 2010.
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Architect: C.Y.. Lee & Partner
Year: 2004
Height: 509 meters / 1,670 feet
Stories: 101
About the Taipei 101 Tower
The design of Taipei 101 borrows heavily from Chinese culture. Both the building's interior and exterior incorporate the Chinese pagoda form and the shape of bamboo flowers. The lucky number eight, which means blooming or success, is represented by the eight clearly delineated exterior sections of the building.
The towering spire of Taipei 101 Tower made it the world's tallest building for several years. However, it is now outranked by the Burj Khalifa (Dubai Tower) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which opened in January 2010.
04
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai World Financial Center
Shanghai World Financial Centre
Location: Pudong District, Shanghai, China
Project Architect and Engineer: Minoru Mori, Mori Building Co., Ltd.
Design Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates P.C. (KPF)
Year: 2008
Structure: Steel-framed and steel reinforced concrete
Height: 492 meters / 1,600 feet
Stories: 101
About the Shanghai World Financial Centre
The Shanghai World Financial Centre, or Center, is a soaring glass skyscraper with a distinctive opening at the top. The original plans called for a 46 meter (151 foot) circular opening that would reduce wind pressure and also suggest Chinese symbolism for the moon. Many people protested that the design resembled the rising sun on the Japanese flag. Eventually the opening was changed from circular to a trapezoid shape.
The ground floor of Shanghai World Financial Centre is a shopping mall and an elevator lobby with gyrating kaleidoscopes on the ceiling. On the upper floors are offices, conference rooms, hotel rooms, and observation decks.
Location: Pudong District, Shanghai, China
Project Architect and Engineer: Minoru Mori, Mori Building Co., Ltd.
Design Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates P.C. (KPF)
Year: 2008
Structure: Steel-framed and steel reinforced concrete
Height: 492 meters / 1,600 feet
Stories: 101
About the Shanghai World Financial Centre
The Shanghai World Financial Centre, or Center, is a soaring glass skyscraper with a distinctive opening at the top. The original plans called for a 46 meter (151 foot) circular opening that would reduce wind pressure and also suggest Chinese symbolism for the moon. Many people protested that the design resembled the rising sun on the Japanese flag. Eventually the opening was changed from circular to a trapezoid shape.
The ground floor of Shanghai World Financial Centre is a shopping mall and an elevator lobby with gyrating kaleidoscopes on the ceiling. On the upper floors are offices, conference rooms, hotel rooms, and observation decks.
05
Xujiahui Tower
Xujiahui Tower
Xujiahui Tower
The Xujiahui Tower is a supertall skyscraper that is proposed for construction in Shanghai, China. It was designed by the Atlanta based firm John Portman & Associates, Inc. If built, it would be the second tallest building in Shanghai, after the Shanghai World Financial Center. It would have 92 floors and stand at 460 meters, or 1,509 ft.
The Xujiahui Tower is a supertall skyscraper that is proposed for construction in Shanghai, China. It was designed by the Atlanta based firm John Portman & Associates, Inc. If built, it would be the second tallest building in Shanghai, after the Shanghai World Financial Center. It would have 92 floors and stand at 460 meters, or 1,509 ft.
06
The Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Architect: Cesar Pelli
Year: 1998
Petronas Tower 1 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 1 Stories: 88
Petronas Tower 2 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 2 Stories: 88
About the Petronas Towers
Traditional Islamic design inspired the floor plans for two Petronas towers in Kuala Lumur, Malaysia. Each floor of the 88-story towers is shaped like an 8-pointed star. The two towers have been called cosmic pillars that spiral heavenward. At the 42nd floor, a flexible bridge connects the two Petronas Towers.
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Architect: Cesar Pelli
Year: 1998
Petronas Tower 1 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 1 Stories: 88
Petronas Tower 2 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 2 Stories: 88
About the Petronas Towers
Traditional Islamic design inspired the floor plans for two Petronas towers in Kuala Lumur, Malaysia. Each floor of the 88-story towers is shaped like an 8-pointed star. The two towers have been called cosmic pillars that spiral heavenward. At the 42nd floor, a flexible bridge connects the two Petronas Towers.
07
The Gateway III Tower
The Gateway III Tower
The Gateway III Tower
The Gateway III Tower (Chinese: ??????) is a proposed supertall skyscraper in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Although no floor figure has been given, the tower will stand 450 m if built, becoming Hong Kong's second tallest building at only about 34 m shorter than the currently under construction International Commerce Center. Still at 450 m, it will be taller than any building on Hong Kong Island, since the tallest building there is the 415 m 2 IFC.
The Gateway III Tower (Chinese: ??????) is a proposed supertall skyscraper in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Although no floor figure has been given, the tower will stand 450 m if built, becoming Hong Kong's second tallest building at only about 34 m shorter than the currently under construction International Commerce Center. Still at 450 m, it will be taller than any building on Hong Kong Island, since the tallest building there is the 415 m 2 IFC.
08
Sears Tower (Willis Tower)
Sears Tower (Willis Tower)
Sears Tower (Willis Tower)
Historically Named: Sears Tower
Current Name: Willis Tower
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Architect: Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM)
Year: 1973
Height: 442 meters / 1,450 feet
Stories: 110
About the Sears Tower
To provide stability against high winds, architect Bruce Graham used a new form of tubular construction for Sears Tower. Two hundred sets of bundled tubes were laid into the bedrock. Then, 76,000 tons of prefabricated steel in 15-foot by 25-foot sections were put into place. Four derrick cranes moved higher with each floor to lift these steel "Christmas Trees" into position.
Historically Named: Sears Tower
Current Name: Willis Tower
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Architect: Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM)
Year: 1973
Height: 442 meters / 1,450 feet
Stories: 110
About the Sears Tower
To provide stability against high winds, architect Bruce Graham used a new form of tubular construction for Sears Tower. Two hundred sets of bundled tubes were laid into the bedrock. Then, 76,000 tons of prefabricated steel in 15-foot by 25-foot sections were put into place. Four derrick cranes moved higher with each floor to lift these steel "Christmas Trees" into position.
09
The Jin Mao Building
The Jin Mao Building
Location: Shanghai, China
Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)
Year: 1999
Height: 421 meters / 1,381 feet
Stories: 88
About the Jin Mao Building
The architects at Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed the Jin Mao Building around the number eight. Shaped like a Chinese pagoda, the Jin Mao Building is divided into segments. The lowest segment has 16 stories, and each succeeding segment is 1/8 smaller than the one below.
Totalling 88 stories, the Jin Mao Building combines shopping and commercial space with office space and, on the upper 38 stories, the towering Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Location: Shanghai, China
Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)
Year: 1999
Height: 421 meters / 1,381 feet
Stories: 88
About the Jin Mao Building
The architects at Skidmore Owings & Merrill designed the Jin Mao Building around the number eight. Shaped like a Chinese pagoda, the Jin Mao Building is divided into segments. The lowest segment has 16 stories, and each succeeding segment is 1/8 smaller than the one below.
Totalling 88 stories, the Jin Mao Building combines shopping and commercial space with office space and, on the upper 38 stories, the towering Grand Hyatt Hotel.
10
Dalian International Trade Center
Dalian International Trade Center
The Dalian International Trade Center (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: pinyin: Dàlián Guójì Màoyì Zho-ngxi-n) is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Dalian, China.
Once completed, the building will have a total height of 420 m (1,400 ft), with 78 stories and a floor area of 288,566 square metres (3,106,100 sq ft). Construction began in 2003, but is currently on hold. With an expected completion date of 2009, the skyscraper is likely to become one of the tallest buildings in China.
The Dalian International Trade Center (simplified Chinese: traditional Chinese: pinyin: Dàlián Guójì Màoyì Zho-ngxi-n) is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Dalian, China.
Once completed, the building will have a total height of 420 m (1,400 ft), with 78 stories and a floor area of 288,566 square metres (3,106,100 sq ft). Construction began in 2003, but is currently on hold. With an expected completion date of 2009, the skyscraper is likely to become one of the tallest buildings in China.
11
The New World Trade Center: Freedom Tower at Night
The New World Trade Center: Freedom Tower at Night
Architect's Drawings, Site Plans, and Models for the New World Trade Center
Daniel Libeskind's original plans were adapted to create this vision of Freedom Tower at the new World Trade Center site on Ground Zero in New York City.
The soaring height of Freedom Tower has raised concerns about security and spurred many redesigns. This rendering of the Tower was unveiled in 2005.
Daniel Libeskind's original plans were adapted to create this vision of Freedom Tower at the new World Trade Center site on Ground Zero in New York City.
The soaring height of Freedom Tower has raised concerns about security and spurred many redesigns. This rendering of the Tower was unveiled in 2005.
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