How SOM Became the Top Architecture Firm of 2022 According to CTBUH: Lessons in High-Rise Design Excellence

When the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) names the number one architecture company of the year, the entire building industry pays attention. In December 2022, CTBUH awarded that distinction to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), a firm with a legacy stretching back to some of the most iconic skyscrapers in modern history. The recognition did not come from a single project or a momentary achievement. It reflected SOM’s sustained contribution to high-rise design, structural innovation, and sustainability research across a portfolio that included twenty-three towers spanning Chicago to Shenzhen. For building professionals, the CTBUH ranking offers more than a headline. It reveals the criteria that define excellence in vertical urbanism and provides a benchmark for how architecture firms approach design excellence across building types and scales. This article examines what drove SOM to the top of the 2022 ranking and what construction and design professionals can apply from that success.

The CTBUH Ranking System: How Architecture Firms Are Evaluated for Global Recognition

CTBUH is the leading authority on tall buildings and urban habitat. Based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, the council publishes annual rankings and awards that evaluate architecture and engineering firms based on the number, height, and design quality of completed tall buildings worldwide. The 2022 ranking coincided with the councils book World’s 118 Tallest Buildings and the conference theme “Tall Excellence: Seeking the Ideal in Vertical Urbanism.”

Evaluation Criteria for Firm Rankings

The CTBUH ranking methodology considers several factors that building professionals should understand when benchmarking their own project teams:

• Number of completed tall buildings: Firms are ranked by the count of buildings exceeding 150 meters that were completed or topped out during the evaluation period.
• Geographic diversity: Projects across multiple cities and countries signal a firm’s ability to adapt to different regulatory environments, soil conditions, and climate zones.
• Design innovation: Recognition in CTBUH award categories, including structural engineering, facade design, and sustainability, contributes to the overall ranking.
• Research contributions: Publications, patents, and conference presentations that advance the field of tall building design are factored into the evaluation.
• Sustainability performance: The carbon footprint, energy efficiency, and embodied carbon strategies of completed projects carry significant weight.

Why the 2022 Ranking Matters for the Building Industry

The 2022 ranking was notable because it came at a time when the tall building sector was grappling with post-pandemic occupancy challenges, rising material costs, and increasing regulatory pressure to reduce carbon emissions. CTBUH’s emphasis on “seeking the ideal in vertical urbanism” signaled a shift from pure height competitions toward quality-of-life and environmental performance metrics.

The recognition of SOM as the top firm underscored a broader industry trend: the most successful architecture firms are no longer those that simply build the tallest towers, but those that demonstrate how tall buildings can contribute positively to their urban contexts while minimizing environmental impact.

SOM’s 2022 Achievement: Twenty-Three Towers and a Culture of Innovation

SOM’s 2022 ranking was built on a remarkable pipeline of completed tall building projects. Twenty-three SOM-designed towers in cities ranging from Chicago to Shenzhen made the CTBUH list, reflecting both the firm’s global reach and its consistent quality across diverse markets.

Key Projects That Defined the Ranking

While SOM’s tall building portfolio spans decades, several projects from the 2022 evaluation period stood out:

The range of projects in SOM’s portfolio demonstrates that top-ranked architecture firms must deliver across multiple typologies and geographies. The 800 Fulton Market project in Chicago was especially significant because it set new benchmarks for smart and sustainable office building design. Conference attendees toured this project during the CTBUH event, experiencing firsthand how SOM integrated intelligent building systems with tenant wellness features.

The Urban Sequoia Proposal: Carbon-Absorbing Building Design

At the CTBUH conference, SOM principal Luke Leung presented an updated proposal called Urban Sequoia, which outlined how buildings could be designed using existing technologies to achieve zero emissions and actively absorb carbon over their lifespan. This concept, which draws its name from the carbon-sequestering giant sequoia trees of California, represents a paradigm shift in how architecture firms approach the climate impact of tall buildings.

1. Embodied carbon reduction: Using alternative concrete mixes, mass timber where feasible, and recycled steel to lower the upfront carbon footprint of structural systems.
2. Carbon-absorbing materials: Integrating bio-based materials and algae-infused facades that capture CO2 from the surrounding air.
3. Operational efficiency: Designing building envelopes and HVAC systems that minimize energy consumption, reducing the carbon emitted during decades of building operation.
4. Vertical landscaping: Incorporating sky gardens, green facades, and rooftop forests that provide both carbon sequestration and occupant amenity space.

The Urban Sequoia proposal resonated with CTBUH’s theme of seeking the ideal in vertical urbanism and reinforced SOM’s position as a firm that pairs design excellence with environmental leadership. For building professionals, the takeaway is clear: the next generation of tall buildings will be judged not only by their height and aesthetics but by their net contribution to atmospheric carbon reduction.

Structural Innovation: Responsive Tendon Patterns and Lower-Carbon Concrete Systems

Beyond project delivery, SOM’s research and development efforts played a major role in the CTBUH 2022 recognition. The firm’s work on responsive tendon patterns, recognized at the CTBUH Awards in the innovation category, demonstrated how structural engineering research can directly reduce the environmental impact of building construction.

How Responsive Tendon Patterns Work

Responsive tendon patterns are an optimization strategy for post-tensioned concrete floor systems. Post-tensioning uses high-strength steel tendons to compress concrete slabs, reducing the amount of concrete and reinforcement required for a given span and load condition. SOM’s innovation applied algorithmic design methods to optimize the layout of these tendons, creating patterns that respond to the specific stress distribution of each floor plate rather than using a uniform grid.

The benefits of this approach include:

• Concrete reduction: Optimized tendon layouts reduce concrete volume by 15 to 25 percent compared with conventional post-tensioned slabs.
• Lower embodied carbon: Cement production accounts for approximately 8 percent of global CO2 emissions. Reducing concrete volume directly cuts the carbon footprint of the structural frame.
• Longer spans: Efficient tendon placement enables longer column-free spans, improving floor plate flexibility for tenants.
• Reduced structural depth: Thinner slabs mean either more floor-to-ceiling height in the same building envelope or fewer total materials in the facade and vertical structure.

This research has the potential for broad application across building construction. Any project using post-tensioned concrete slabs, from parking garages to residential towers to office buildings, can benefit from responsive tendon optimization. For structural engineers, the innovation represents a shift from prescriptive design toward performance-based optimization that directly addresses embodied carbon targets.

Practical Lessons for Building Professionals from CTBUH-Ranked Architecture Firms

The CTBUH 2022 ranking of SOM as the top architecture company offers actionable insights for building professionals across the construction industry. Whether you work for a small residential builder or a large commercial construction firm, the principles that drove SOM success can be applied at scale.

Integrate Research and Development into Practice

SOM’s responsive tendon patterns and Urban Sequoia proposal were not speculative exercises. They were developed within the firm’s practice model, where research informs project delivery and vice versa. Building professionals can adopt this approach by:

• Dedicating a percentage of project fees to research and innovation within their own teams.
• Partnering with academic institutions to access cutting-edge structural and material research.
• Documenting lessons learned from each project and sharing them across the organization to create a compounding knowledge base.

Prioritize Sustainability Metrics from Day One

CTBUH rankings increasingly weight environmental performance. Firms that wait until schematic design to consider sustainability miss the opportunity for structural and material optimization. Early adoption of lifecycle assessment tools and embodied carbon tracking ensures that sustainability targets are built into the project from the start rather than added as an afterthought.

Build Geographic and Typological Diversity

SOM’s twenty-three towers spanned North America and Asia across multiple use types. Geographic and typological diversity makes architecture firms more resilient to market fluctuations and builds a broader knowledge base that benefits every project. For building professionals, this means pursuing projects in different sectors and regions even when the immediate financial incentive is smaller.

Understand the Urban Context of Tall Buildings

CTBUH’s theme of “seeking the ideal in vertical urbanism” reflects a growing recognition that tall buildings must contribute to street-level experience, public space, and neighborhood connectivity. SOM’s minimalist architecture at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television, while not a tall building, demonstrates the firm’s commitment to contextual design that enhances its surroundings. For building professionals working on high-rise projects, engaging with urban design considerations such as wind mitigation at street level, ground-floor activation, and pedestrian connectivity is no longer optional. It is a defining criterion of project quality.

Gensler’s transformation of the base of Chicago’s Willis Tower into a mixed-use public destination illustrates how architecture firms are rethinking the ground-floor experience of supertall towers to improve urban integration. Similarly, firms such as Studio Gang with their Mission Rock Tower in San Francisco are exploring human-scale strategies within tall building design to ensure that even the largest structures feel approachable at street level.

Invest in Carbon-Reducing Structural Systems

The concrete construction industry is under pressure to decarbonize. SOM’s responsive tendon pattern research is one example of how structural optimization can reduce material use without compromising performance. Building professionals should evaluate post-tensioned concrete systems, cross-laminated timber hybrid frames, and low-carbon concrete mixes as standard options rather than specialty alternatives. Every project that reduces concrete volume by even 10 percent contributes meaningfully to the industry’s carbon reduction targets.

SOM’s continued presence at the top of the CTBUH rankings demonstrates that the architecture firms leading the tall building sector are those that combine design excellence with a genuine commitment to research and sustainability. The firm’s ability to deliver projects as diverse as the adaptive reuse of Chicago’s historic Cook County Hospital and new supertall towers in Asia speaks to a versatility that few architecture firms can match. For building professionals, the lesson is clear: the future of high-rise construction belongs to those who treat every tower as an opportunity to advance the practice of building better, not just building taller.