Enter today! BD+C's 75 Top Building Products for 2024

The 58-story DC Tower 1 is the first of two high-rises designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture for Vienna's skyline.

The 50-story tower features a unique, angled building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) exterior designed to maximize the amount of energy collected.

The web-based tool uses the company's factory floor like "a massive rapid prototype machine,” allowing designers to manipulate designs on the fly based on cost and other factors, according to CEO/President Bill Zahner.

From a crowd-funded smart shovel to a why-didn’t-someone-do-this-sooner scheme for managing traffic in public restrooms, these ideas are noteworthy for creative problem-solving. Here are some of the most intriguing innovations the BD+C community has brought to our attention this year.

The Hallidie Building's glass-and-steel skin is generally recognized as the forerunner of today’s curtain wall facilities. 

Phase-change materials, electrochromic glass, and building-integrated PVs are among the breakthrough glazing technologies that are taking energy performance to a new level. 

The 1,476-foot-tall structure will showcase Korean cloaking technology that utilizes an LED façade fitted with optical cameras that will display the landscape directly behind the building, thus making it invisible.

Dubbed BIQ house, the building features a bright green façade consisting of hollow glass panels filled with algae and water.