MVRDV's Valley Wins Emporis Skyscraper Award

Emporis, the building-information website whose eponymous award is billed as "the only prize for high-rise buildings awarded annually and on a global basis," has announced that the Valley in Amsterdam's Zuidas business district is the winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2021. The 75,000 m2 project with a trio of towers linked by a podium inspired by natural valleys contains shops, offices, restaurants, and housing, with the "valley" serving as a publicly accessible roofscape. This last piece has resulted in a lot of press coverage for the project since its completion last year and opening this year, with the jury also smitten by it: "Valley looks like an oasis in a business district dominated by regular office buildings. It is not only an outstanding architectural statement but also an excellent example of sustainable and climate-friendly building construction."

Valley was selected from more than 600 buildings over 100 meters tall that were eligible this year, per MVRDV, all of them included in the Emporis database. Two runners-up were named, with second place going to 111 West 57th Street (aka Steinway Tower) in New York City by SHoP Architects and third place being NV Tower by A&A Architects in Sofia, Bulgaria. The former, one of a handful of supertall residential towers on "Billionaires' Row," is notable for its extreme slenderness (reportedly 1:24), while the latter is akin to the Valley, with two peaks inspired by crystals and mountains.