Annabelle Selldorf established her practice in New York in 1988, and has acquired an international reputation for work that is sensitive to context, thoughtful in execution, and timeless. Her designs garner high praise for their subtlety and melding of Modernism with exquisite—but not precious—detail. Her current project, the Sunset Park Material Recycling Facility, is eagerly...

Why? Solar towers capture solar energy to heat air under an expansive collector zone. Based on the principle that heat rises, this air flows towards the center of the collector through electricity-generating turbines and up and out of the tower, like a chimney. When built, the tower will be about 750 meters high and could...