CHICAGO —The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced the winners of its 2025 Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Peter Murray, co-founder of New London Architecture (NLA) is the recipient of the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award and SawTeen See, a structural engineer and former managing partner of Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA) was given the Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award.
Both will be honoured at the CTBUH 2025 International Conference in Toronto, which runs from Oct. 6 to 9.
“This year’s awardees represent two deeply influential figures who have shaped how we design, build and communicate about cities,” explained CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña in a statment. “Peter Murray has spent decades advocating for better urban design and more accessible dialogue around the built environment, influencing generations of professionals and the public alike. SawTeen See has advanced the structural design of supertalls with elegance and rigor, playing a central role in some of the world’s most iconic highrise projects.”
Murray is a trained architect turned journalist and curator. He co-founded NLA, a centre for knowledge-sharing, debate and innovation focused on the future of London and global cities. He has served as editor of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Journal and Building Design, chaired the London Society and founded the London Festival of Architecture.
“Cities are collective achievements — ongoing conversations between planners, architects, engineers and the communities they serve,” according to Murray. “I’ve always believed in the power of dialogue to shape better urban futures, and I’m honoured that CTBUH recognizes the role of communication, advocacy and collaboration in advancing the quality of tall and dense cities.”
Murray will deliver the conference’s closing keynote, exploring the importance of public engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration in the evolution of dense, vertical cities, the release notes.
See has led the structural design of some of the tallest and most technically demanding buildings in the world, including the Shanghai World Financial Center; Merdeka 118, in Kuala Lumpur; Bank of China Tower, in Hong Kong; and Lotte World Tower, in Seoul.
“A well-engineered building is not only efficient and resilient, it speaks a language of purpose and possibility,” stated See. “Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with architects and owners who push boundaries and to mentor young engineers eager to carry this discipline forward. This recognition from CTBUH is deeply meaningful.”
See will also deliver a keynote presentation at the event, reflecting on the evolution of supertall design and the future of highrise engineering.
The CTBUH is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to smarter, more sustainable cities.
