A new green-glass skyscraper will soon transform the Taipei city skyline, reported The Dezeen. Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) unveiled designs for the Taipei Sky Tower, a 280-meter-tall building that, like Taiwan’s tallest tower, draws design inspiration from bamboo shoots. The mixed-use development will house two Hyatt-branded luxury hotels—Park Hyatt Taipei and Andaz Taipei. Commissioned by Riant Capital Limited, ACPV’s Taipei Sky Tower design was selected from a shortlist of seven international firms. Billed as “Taiwan’s first large-scale lifestyle-driven development,” the sleek 54-story tower will be set in Xinyi, the city’s financial district flush with new modern construction projects, including the carbon-absorbing Agora Garden. In addition to Taipei Sky Tower’s two hotels, the mixed-use building will also feature a luxury retail podium. Taipei Sky Tower will feature curved edges, a segmented facade, and an angled roofline to mimic a bamboo shoot with notched sections. The design also draws inspiration from the pleats of Greek columns. “ACPV aims to create an ultra-modern 280 -meter tall skyscraper by blending some of the oldest elements from the East and West in modern harmony,” reads a press release. ACPV will lead the design for Park Hyatt Taipei, while the design for Andaz will be given over to Neri&Hu. The project is slated for completion in 2020.

As reported by constructionweekonline.com, Taiwan's Taipei 101 has become the tallest building in the world to receive LEED Platinum status, the top level in the green building rating system. Previously the world's tallest building at 509 meters, Taipei 101 is now the second tallest building in the world after the 828-meter Burj Khalifa. The tower was retrofitted with green technology and processes to achieve LEED EBOM, the accreditation for existing buildings. The retrofit was carried out through a partnership between electronics giant Siemens, interior designers Steven Leach Associates and Eco Tech International. According to another source focustaiwan.tw, Taipei 101's certification has set three records: The tallest green building (509 meters), the largest green building (about 150 thousand square meters), and the highest-use green building (90 tenants). The building has achieved annual savings of 14.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity- equivalent to US$ 1.24 million, or an 18 percent energy-saving, over three years. The design specification for the CO2 (carbon dioxide) level in Taipei 101 is 600 parts per million, tenants of Taipei 101 are able to enjoy fresher air in the building because of the lower CO2 level. Recall that the Taipei Financial Center Corporation announced plans on 2009 November to make Taipei 101 "the world's tallest green building" by summer 2011 as measured by LEED standards ( Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts).