The 33-story Tower at PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has laid claim to be the world's greenest "skyrise". It expands the discourse of sustainability beyond performance metrics and technologies to focus on the simple design tenet of augmenting the human experience. The project is a result of a holistic and collaborative process that started with the question: what if a building could breathe?

The jury commented that it is a careful, deliberate project. It is refreshing to see a project this green refusing to wrap itself in a granola wrapper - the ambitious skin does not feel like a sustainability gimmick. Beautifully detailed and conceived, the subtle sculptural tower volume complements the city rather than celebrating itself.