On November 28, 2006, during the 24th annual Mississauga Urban Design Awards ceremony, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion announced that an international design competition was going to be held for the building of the fourth tower for Absolute World that would be the landmark tower for the development located at the north-east corner of Burnhamthorpe Road and Hurontario Street. It also marked the first time in 40 years that an international design competition was held by a private development group for a building in the GTA area after the Toronto City Hall competition. Over six hundred registrants and ninety-two submissions from architects in seventy countries took part in this competition. On January 30, 2007, an announcement was made at Atrium at BCE Place in downtown Toronto at 12:00 PM informing the public who the 6 finalists were along with seven honorary mentions.

Submissions were judged by a panel which included architects, civic leaders and the development team members. Those on the jury included:

Larry Beasley, co-director of Planning, City of Vancouver
Colin Fournier, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Bartlett School of Architecture, London
Sol Wassermuhl, president Page + Steele Architects, Toronto
Claude LaCombe, EI Richmond Architects, Toronto
Michael Spaziani, MSAi, Toronto
Danny Salvatore, president, Fernbrook Homes
Sam Crignano and Paulo Stellato of Cityzen Development Group, and
Ed Sajecki, Commissioner of Planning and Building, City of Mississauga.
On January 30, 2007, the six finalists announced were:

Nicholas Boyarsky, Boyarsky Murphy Architects, United Kingdom
Michel Rojkind, rojkind arquitectos, Mexico
Roland Rom Colthoff, Quadrangle Architects Limited, Canada
Sebastian Messer, Studio MWM, United Kingdom
Yansong Ma, MAD office, USA, and
Tarek El-Khatib, Zeidler Partnership Architects, Canada
Each of the finalists were given an honorarium to defray the costs of preparing the final submission design for a tower that would be taller than 50 stories and the tallest building in Mississauga when completed.

The public was invited to vote for the favourite designs which were on display at the Square One Shopping Centre as well as online, along with the judging panel. The voting was to stop on March 22, 2007 with the winning design announced from CN Tower on March 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM. On March 28, at 10:30 AM, Yansong Ma, founder of the MAD office, Beijing/China architectural design firm was announced as the winner. Sales were to start in May 2007 with construction beginning later that year, and anticipated completion in 2009. Within days of the announcement, the building had been nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe Tower” due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure likened to actress Marilyn Monroe. In April 2007, it was announced that Burka Varacalli Architects, a Toronto firm, was hired as MA local partner and construction would start within 6 months with completion in 2010. As of January 1, 2010, the first tower was at the 22nd level while the work on the 2nd tower has begun. Both towers are expected to be completed by August 2011.

NicknameAbsolute World Tower 4 was dubbed Marilyn Monroe by Sam Sibai during the announcement of the winning Yansong Ma design, because, to him, it “looked like Marilyn Monroe.” The variation of the rotation of the floorplates–from two to eight degrees–and the high position of the “bulge” in the silhouette give this tower its dynamic feminine profile. The Absolute World Tower 5, on the other hand, is characterized by a uniform rotation of each floor and a lower swelling of its profile; inevitably giving it the appearance of Marilyn’s masculine companion.

DesignThe tower twists 209 degrees from the base to the top, making it very similar to Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden. The structural design is done by Sigmund Soudack & Associates Inc- a Toronto based almost 40 years old structural engineering firm. The tower has six levels of underground parking.

ECB

Groundbreaking of the new premises of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany

The groundbreaking of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU’s new premises of the European Central Bank has been celebrated yesterday in attendance of Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank, Petra Roth, Mayor of the City of Frankfurt, Wolf D. Prix, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, the Governing Council as well as the Governors of the National Central Banks on the site of the future new premises of the European Central Bank.

During the ceremony Wolf D. Prix said in his speech for the groundbreaking: “The task of architecture is not only to provide a shell for functions, but through its architectural aesthetic it must also enable to establish three-dimensional cross-references in the culture of our globalized society without denying its location. The dialectic of old and new – the carefully renovated Großmarkthalle and the new ensemble of towers – will mirror this synchronicity.”
Furthermore, he describes the towers as archetypes of architectural history, which are symbols and convey overview. In the case of the European Central Bank the towers are aligned on the new site in visual connection to Frankfurt’s city centre and – due to their new typology with its precision and significance of form – will become an icon, a three-dimensional symbol of the European Union, Mr. Prix explained.
He describes the groundbreaking as an important and decisive moment – both for the owner and future user and for the architect. “After all, it is a moment that takes us across a threshold. The threshold from the blueprint to the building: a thought building becomes a real building.”

Further groundbreaking events will take place on May 31, 2010 for the House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark and on June 18, 2010 for the Martin Luther Church in Hainburg, Austria.