Dive Brief:
- Construction is underway on a $315 million Melbourne, Australia apartment and hotel skyscraper dubbed the "Beyoncé Tower," according to Architecture & Design.
- Architecture firm Elenberg Fraser said the 79-story Premier Tower's design was inspired by the curves the singer displayed in her music video "Ghost." Designers used parametric modeling — a process that utilizes geometry and algorithms — to achieve the exterior’s curvy dimensions.
- The building will feature 796 residential units and six floors with 187 hotel rooms. Project officials said the project will generate 600 jobs and be complete in 2020.
Dive Insight:
The size of the apartments have drawn criticism, as the smallest are just a little more than 440 square feet, nearly 100 square feet less than the minimum size specified under New South Wales regulations. Some officials, however, said the overall design outweighs apartment size and that the project provides a good mix of apartment types.
Another project — the Absolute Towers in Ontario, Canada — was also designed with another style icon in mind, Marilyn Monroe. The two "voluptuous" condominium towers are part of a five-building complex that won the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat award for Best Tall Buildings in the Americas in 2012.
Chicago is also home to a unique skyscraper, albeit inspired by water rather than a celebrity — the $300 million Studio Gang-designed Aqua tower in the city's Lakeshore East district. The concrete balconies are designed to create a rippling effect as if water were moving on the exterior of the building, and, according to Emporis, crews used a global positioning system to place the formwork.