AS+GG Director Juan Betancur’s experience in designing supertall and high-performance buildings has helped him develop a comprehensive design approach that incorporates innovative ways of dealing with the issues that have plagued this building typology for decades. He believes that smart design can drastically reduce the consumption of natural resources that these complex and expensive buildings consume. By using new technologies and basic principles of orientation, natural ventilation and building massing to optimize performance, this building typology, currently a rare commodity, will become more numerous as humans continue to migrate into dense urban areas where natural resources and space are at a premium.

As a Director at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture IAS+GG) and previously as an Associate at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Juan has worked on several large-scale and supertall projects. Juan is currently leading a confidential office tower project in Boston. Previously he was the Senior Architect on Wuhan Greenland Center, a supertall mixed-use tower nearing completion in China. Juan was also the Senior Architect on FKI Tower a 240-meter-tall tower in Seoul, Korea that features an exterior wall with fully integrated photovoltaic panels. In his previous role at SOM, Juan worked on completed projects in China including Pearl River Tower, a 303-meter tower designed to harvest wind and solar energy in Guangzhou; Zifeng Tower, a 350,000 sm mixed-use supertall building in Nanjing; and Shanghai Grand, a 40-story, 100,000 sm office building in Shanghai.