Beetham Unveils New London Complex

Bullish skyscraper builder Beetham are set to join the race to build new office space in London with the initial show-off of their plans for a parcel of land they have assembled on the eastern fringe of the City of London.

The existence of the project was originally announced by Beetham last year although it had been known for some time of their aspirations for the area and the fact that they had quietly been buying up neighbouring plots of land.

Beetham have made this a departure as their first major office complex rather than a residential development, and with this are also departing from their norm as unlike most of their projects, this one isn't designed by Ian Simpson. The architect honours go to Foreign Office Architects, one of the younger star firms of the business who have designed the scheme called Trinity due to its three buildings. Imaginatively the individual blocks are called Trinity One, Two and Three. They will combine to give a total floor space of 92,920 square metres in adaptable floor-plates ranging from 1,393 sq m to 3,251 sq m.

They are all angular and highly sculptural with glass cladding that accentuates the feel of a cluster of irregular prisms whilst being highly connected at ground level right down to the shared canopies that will shelter new public walkways and arcades. Heights will range from 13 to 23 floors with the shape responding to the complexity of the site that to the south has the Tower of London, a World Heritage site by stepping down, something it also does to the east responding to the lower rise fringe area.

The tallest one should come in at under 100 metres but around the going height for this area that seems to be about 80 metres. Proposals at Aldgate Union and Alie Street have also worked out this height. There will be a public cafe at the top of the tallest building but don't expect much of a view, the south aside, except of the walls of other buildings if everything around it gets built that's planned.The most interesting building is the shortest one resembling that of a loop, a relatively unique shape to use in such a building.

The cladding of all of the buildings reacts strongly with light depending on the angle it is at with this varying the transparency.They do at least visually stick to the Simpsonesque feel that Beetham are so in love with, the crystalline selection of buildings more than resemble the likes of Criteron Place in Leeds. The concept of a cluster of buildings that are futuristic in their appearance and yet form a compact whole is proving to be a popular one with developers looking at making compact new estates in the City suitable for multi-tenanting as we've only just seen at Cannon Street with the work of Foster and Nouvel.

They also manage to avoid the feeling of loneliness that towers can evoke.In typically bullish mood, Beetham are already planning on starting to build the scheme speculatively. Given their love of starting projects sooner than later it's likely this one won't be on the drawing board for too long. Demolition and speculative construction of the shortest building is timetabled for 2007 with completion in 2010.

Singapore Marina Bay Sails Into Sight

Two huge new skyscrapers are planned for the island city state of Singapore in South East Asia. The Sail at Marina Bay will be a twin tower complex of 245 metres and 215 metres with 70 and 63 floors respectively, the taller will be the joint fifth tallest building in Singapore.

The project has been designed by NBBJ Architects who as a final draft of the designs increased the scheme by another two floors to equal the also under construction One Raffles Quay North that comes in at 245 metres too.

The scheme sits on a "white" site, called that because it was zoned by the Singapore government as being suitable for either residential or office development. Here the developer, City Developments Limited, plumped for residential with a 2,800 square metre mall on the lower floors.

The buildings will have a glass façade, heavily reflective giving it a smooth but monolithic appearance. The name of the project comes from the shape of the larger tower, designed by the architect to resemble a sail making the scheme a piece of architectural theatre given its location.

The apartments within the building have already proven popular with foreign buyers, the two sons of Ryanair owner Tony Ryan have purchased the entire 16th floor of the taller tower showing the popularity the development has with the wealthy.

Part of the draw is the unobstructed view of the nearby bay that the buildings command, of course there is a problem too that they block whatever is behind them by being so tall and so close to the waterline profoundly changing the view of Singapore's skyline from one of the best vantage spots. Infact demand has been such that the second tower marketed later was selling apartments for 20% more than the first tower despite it being shorter.

The project is already under construction with all the residential units within sold out. The core is just appearing above ground-level now in time for an external completion of 2008 and a total legal finish of 2009.

Nouvel and Foster Plan Darth Vaders Helmet

Legal and General unveiled more of their new plans for their headquarters Bucklersbury House last week in a public exhibition, a project called Walbrook Square.

The sixties block takes up a plot of almost 100 metres in length and breadth in the heart of the City of London just north of Cannon Street station above the buried Walbrook River.

At the heart of the site is the ancient Roman Temple of Mithras that was discovered by builders when the construction of the current site was underway, fully excavated and unceremoniously plonked there as an after thought.

Faced with an impenetrable site in a prime location in the centre of the city, the architects of the scheme, Norman Foster and Jean Nouvel, took the initial decision to overcome this and cut the large site up into a selection of buildings. The top of the one of the northern buildings is straddled by a tower compared to such things as Darth Vader's melted helmet, a stereo speaker, a sphinx, and in terms of massing a structure similar in shape to St Paul's Cathedral with the tower almost domed as it rises up past the roof lines of its shorter neighbours.

The use of the tower on the lower rise buildings does raise complaints from some that Nouvel and Foster designed separate things and then just stuck them all together but nonetheless it is a unique design flourish for a London development to have.

The tower will employ one of Nouvel's trademarks. In his previous designs such as the Tour Sans Fin and Dentsu Tower the cladding has varying types of transparency and transuclency and it will be employed here too, the idea is that the tower will resemble "a cloud", shimmering glass that hovers in midair. Tour Sans Fin was never built but it showed off the potential that this approach can have in creating an ephemeral piece of architecture that transcends the traditional solidity that skyscraper designs employ.

The lower rise ones each bound one corner of the site and will have new pedestrian ways running through between them opening up access where before a pedestrian had to completely walk around the edges. At the hub of these on the central eastern side of the plot will be a new square, bounded by the Walbrook that will have the Roman temple relocated to the side directly next to the road. Overlooking all this will be roof gardens and terraces opening up new vistas of London.

Tracing the buried river there will be a nice feature in the basement of a light display that will follow the path which the water runs at under it. Despite this touch of nature and the planned profusion of greenery around and on the buildings they are not as green as they could be, they are set to only generate 10% of their total power from renewable sources flying in the face of the 20% that is expected of new developments. A mere 2% of this will be coming from solar panels with the rest from boreholes and CHP.

One hitch in the plans potential is that the developers hope they can argue that the rules should be bent for them as the scheme was originally proposed just before the 10% rule was changed to 20%. The City of London will be making their decision on the project in February 2007 and should planning permission be awarded then vacant possession will happen in the last half of that year with demolition beginning as soon as possible. It's likely a 25% pre-let of any one building will be sought before construction begins but once that is secured there should be a timetable of about 3 years of building works.

The alternative is that of the tower being built first with the other buildings being built, again with pre-lets achieved, over a period of six years in total. Either way it looks like the developer wont be hanging around that long to realise the plans and London will be set to get one of the most futuristic developments since the Lloyds Building went up in the eighties.

Work Begins On Wales Tallest

Wales next tallest building has been renamed and preparatory work is finally beginning on site to build the project.

The scheme in the city of Swansea is now relaunched as Meridian Quay, it was previously known as Oceangate, Seagate and Ferrara Quay.

With this latest name change it looks like the p.rs may finally have decided on what to call the development.

Once built it will be the tallest building in Wales, taller than the under construction 98.97 metre tall Glass Needle in Cardiff. Developed by Earthquake Ltd, part of the Niall J Melon Group and designed by Latitude Architects, the 29 floor tower will sit on a prime spot overlooking Swansea Bay, one of the outstanding spots of natural beauty on the British coastline.

The scheme will contain 123 new 1 to 3 bedroom residential apartments in the tower, there will also be the usual retail outlets at street-level. The project is topped by an exclusive rooftop restaurant with glass curtain walling giving unparalleled views for diners.

Adjacent to the main tower are a series of four similarly designed white lower rise blocks that will contain in them a further 107 apartments lining the promenade that borders the bay. There is a further two buildings with 67 more flats in them above the Wharf, the bustling retail sector that's planned to take advantage of the development in the area.

Despite all this development however, the fears of NIMBYs that Swansea will be turned into the next Malaga are unlikely to be realised. One tower, or even half a dozen, does not make the splurge lining the Costa Del Sol coastline.

A powerful new landmark at the centre of one of the most ambitious projects in the world

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, The Palm Jumeirah is the signature building on property developer Nakheel’s man-made island off the west coast of Dubai. Pre-eminently located on the Palm’s main trunk in a position which straddles the central canal and high level monorail to the main land, the tower is the true gateway to the heart of this major new development. The stunning new concept design is formed of two asymmetric halves with stainless steel glass and stone facades which climb to a height in excess of 250 metres. The tower houses a 5 star “condominium hotel” along with various other luxury commercial, residential and leisure facilities.

Regeneration of Millennium square situated on the edge of Nottingham’s, Lace Market conservation area.

This scheme marks the second phase of a development for The Places for People Group. From the outset there has been a commitment to providing high quality, affordable housing without compromising the contemporary nature of the design. Previously a public house, the site was converted into a mixed-use development. Commercial units at ground level provide a positive urban space fully integrating the building with the square. A ten-storey tower provides 47 contemporary apartments with steel and glass penthouses adjoining phase one. Materials are predominantly stone coloured render and metal cladding with cedar boarding utilised to accentuate projecting bays.

Works starts on Grimshaw's LSE expansion

Work has started on the dramatic remodelling of LSE’s New Academic Building to convert the existing building into a flexible teaching facility at 24 Kingsway in London. Central to the scheme are three new insertions - the atrium, the roof pavilion and the reinterpreted forecourt – which collectively generate an environment that encourages learning, social interaction and public engagement. The forecourt embraces the continuity of the open setback space of this area of Lincoln’s Inn Fields and relates directly to the public realm. The triple-height atrium fosters social interaction and unifies all the teaching spaces. The roof pavilion, with its stunning views, accommodates executive meeting rooms and a function suite.

London based CZWG and Holder Mathias Architects to regenerate former mining town market

As part of The major masterplan to regenerate the former mining town of Barnsley, CZWG, in liaison with Holder Mathias Architects have now been commissioned to rebuild Barnsley markets (first chartered in 1249) which comprises of 76,600 m2 retail and leisure, a market building, covered shopping streets, a cinema and bowling alley together with residential units. After clearing the site of an unsightly 60s shopping complex, the idea is to extend the existing shopping streets of the town, the new shops appearing as individual facades with upper level pavements threaded between them. Two pedestrian public spaces are linked by a covered open market under a spectacular saddle-shaped roof which also swoops low over an open amphitheatre connecting the three principal levels of the scheme. Work is set to complete by 2010.

Benson + Forsyth LLP win international competition for Beamish Visitor Center

London-based architectural practice Benson + Forsyth LLP proposed a simple block type building for a new visitor center at Beamish, The North of England open air museum. This new landmark visitor center will be the gateway of the museum which enhances visitors' experience, and is the first stage of a huge project to propel it to the world-class museum. The plan provides a center hall, temporary exhibition gallery, lecture theatre, shop and cafe, and features an umbrella-like roof which admits light and warmth to the spaces below. The simple, legible figure reflects the simplicity and legibility of the spatial and functional organisation of the building, which allows visitors' effortless access and the full capacity.

WTC Memorial Design Likely To Be Revised

New York officials yesterday announced a plan to reduce the size and scope of the World Trade Center Memorial. According to a recent cost estimate by the project’s contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, the project’s original $500 million budget had grown to almost $1 billion.

Led by New York developer Frank Sciame, the so-called “Sciame Report” is meant to maintain the project’s original budget. It suggests eliminating several elements of the Memorial scheme, although not as many as some expected.

The report will be available for public comment until June 27, and will be presented to the LMDC Board by the end of June. Its drafters say the suggestions will save about $285 million in construction and infrastructure costs, while other savings will lessen total costs to $510 million
The 14-page document suggests removing the memorial's entry pavilion and portions of its below-grade galleries, such as those surrounding the scheme’s waterfalls. The total size of the memorial museum would be shrunk from 150,000 square feet to 120,000 square feet. It also recommends modifying plans to preserve the original Twin Towers’ slurry wall, and eliminating the planned relocation of the Hudson River water line. It says that value engineering could bring Bovis’s estimate for infrastructure to $226.9 million, down from $301 million. The plan does preserve many of the memorial’s key elements, such as its massive voids, waterfalls, pools, Snøhetta’s above ground visitors center, and the underground passage to the memorial museum.

The report is the result of a month-long process headed by Sciame, whose companies, FJ Sciame Construction and Sciame Development, are two of the largest in the New York area. Sciame’s committee was appointed in mid-May by New York Governor George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The group included structural engineer Richard Tomasetti, architects Thom Mayne, FAIA and Rick Cook, FAIA, and AIA New York chapter executive director Rick Bell.

The report also suggests that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey take responsibility for building the memorial, a role that is now entrusted to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Acting foundation president Joe Daniels said in a statement released yesterday that this recommendation “can best serve the interests of the project.”

Memorial architect Michael Arad said in a statement that he would accept the committee’s proposals, although not without regret about “some painful cuts to the original design,” particularly the underground memorial galleries surrounding his scheme’s reflecting pools. Still, he seemed pleased that the proposal kept much of his scheme intact. “This proposal maintains key elements of the design—knitting the memorial site back into the fabric of the city, and marking with two large voids the enormous absence that we continue to feel,” he said. Referring to the underground galleries, he said, “While I am disappointed by this change, I recognize the imperative to move forward and begin construction of the memorial as soon as possible.”

Arad's initial memorial plan did not include underground galleries or an underground welcome center. The galleries were added when Arad proposed moving much of the memorial's plaza to street level. In early May Bovis estimated the new scheme to cost $972 million, a figure that was questioned by some officials. Foundation president Gretchen Dkystra stepped down later that month amidst criticisms over cost overruns and fundraising shortfalls.

The memorial is now set to open by September 11, 2009.

Architects in New York unveil new Freedom Tower

The redesigned Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, planned to become America's tallest building, will be a monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna, the architects said on Wednesday.

Symbolic of the Declaration of Independence, the reworked 1,776-foot centerpiece of the World Trade Center site unveiled by architect David Childs will have a 186-foot tall base sheathed with rolled, heat-treated glass over concrete.

The tower is planned as a symbol of New York's revitalization after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, which claimed more than 2,700 lives at the World Trade Center.

Rebuilding has been dogged by almost five years of acrimony over designs, security, insurance and control of the 16-acre site at Ground Zero.

Developer Larry Silverstein, who leased the World Trade Center shortly before Sept. 11, told reporters that if everything now goes according to plan, "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was."

The new Freedom Tower design uses a high-tech laminated safety glass, which if attacked by a truck bomb would shatter into falling pebbles, not break into flying shards.

The previous design featured a 200-foot metal and concrete base, added after New York police said the building would be vulnerable to truck bombing. The design was also criticized for looking too bunker-like.

Childs noted there had been fears that security concerns would result in a stone building "with very small windows." But he said the new glass base would create an entirely different feeling.
"You will see that light fracture, bounce back out at you, giving you a wonderful, light artistic space, giving you a warm, friendly space," he said.

The new plan for the building -- construction began in April -- was made after consulting New York police counterterrorism experts as well as state and city officials.

"They've reviewed it and have given it their blessing," Childs said. "This is the finished design."
The exterior glass's triangular rib motif will be echoed throughout the building and on the antenna.

The tower will be surrounded by groups of steps leading to four entrances, serving as a public plaza and buffer zone.

A series of thigh-high rectangular slabs on the site's perimeter -- resembling tombstones in an artist's rendering -- will guard against truck bombs.

The antenna, to be used by radio and television broadcasters, has been given a more sculptural feel by Kenneth Snelson, a sculptor best-known for his Needle Tower, installed in New York's Bryant Park in 1968.

The antenna raises the building from 1,368 feet -- the height of the original World Trade Center's 110-story twin towers -- to the full 1,776 feet.

Unlike most other glass-clad office buildings, the Freedom Tower will appear clear because they will remove the iron, which tints glass green, Kenneth Lewis of architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill said.

"We've tried to make it more monolithic," he said. "It's reflecting the sky and the changing light's character as the day goes on."

The architects have drastically rethought Daniel Libeskind's original twisting design for the Freedom Tower because it would have been too hard to build and too vulnerable to attack.

Second phase completed in Oldham Cultural Quarter

London-based architectural practice, Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects have completed a library and lifelong center in Oldham. This is the second phase of the new Cultural Quarter, and is situated adjacent to the first phase - Gallery Oldham. The double height entrance foyer of the Gallery links the new building to it, and serves as an access hub for all facilities at the very heart of the Quarter. The new building features an oval-shaped performance space clad in copper and a "blade of light", a north-light that reflects the sky and extends along the length of it. The scheme utilised the same materials such as terracotta panels and exposed concrete, and green technology to minimise running costs as Gallery Oldham, which gives us the impression as an articulated single building.

Core of 51 Lime Street tops out

The core of one of the tallest buildings in London currently under construction has topped out.

The 51 Lime Street Tower, which will be 125 metres tall with 26 floors, is currently under construction after commencing in December 2004. Surrounded by the Lloyds TSB Building and the SwissRe Tower, the tower is set to become an iconic headquarters building for the Willis Group.

The building's shell and core is set for completion in late 2006 with the installation of the facade and furnishings to be completed during 2007.

The project is enormous. When completed, there will be more floorspace in the building than SwissRe which is considerably taller than 51 Lime Street.

The design in fact consists of three towers, each smaller than the one behind it making it bulky overall. The curvature of the walls is set to blend in perfectly with the surroundings which consist of largely curved buildings, the most notable, SwissRe designed by Sir Norman Foster.

The Hotel Group OKs contract to buy the 22 story Sheraton Billings Hotel

The sale of the Sheraton Billings Hotel may be final by early August, and the new owners plan to pour $10 million into a top-to-bottom makeover of the downtown Billings landmark.The Hotel Group of Edmonds, Washington started looking at the Sheraton Billings Hotel on March 15, 2006 and has signed a buy-sell agreement. Some of the renovations would include upgrading the mechanical systems, the exterior brick being upgraded, remodeling all the guest rooms and adding a large coffee bar in the lobby.

Skyscraper 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'

A skyscraper at Liverpool's Brunswick Quay would create a "them and us" mentality, a public inquiry heard.

Paul Tucker, a lawyer for Liverpool Council, claimed plans for a 51-storey building on the city's waterfront were in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

Mr Tucker insisted the city should not be seduced by promises of regeneration and investment.
He told the final day of a public inquiry into the development: "It is not lightly that the city seeks to resist a development which would make something of a statement about the future of Liverpool.

Developer plans two 30-story towers for Town Lake

Constellation Property Group is under contract to buy 3 acres of land in the Southeastern portion of Downtown Austin. The developer plans to build a 30-story condominium tower, 30-story luxury hotel tower, an 8-story office building and street level retail. The $250 million project will be located at the former planned site of the Vignette Corporation Campus which was never built after the techology bust.

The site is bounded by Waller Creek to the west, Cesar Chavez Street to the north, Willow Street to the South, and Red River Street to the east. The City of Austin and Travis County are in negotiations about building a flood diversion tunnel below Sabine Street that could open up property along Waller Creek for more development.

The area could turn into something similar to San Antonio's famed Riverwalk, with residential, hotels, restaurants and sidewalk cafes and street level retail as well as along the creek. Constellation Property Group's project, tenatively called 'Red River' will have one and two bedroom units starting at $350,000 to $500,000 with penthouse units ranging from $1.5 to $2 million.

The architect said the towers will be slender "point towers" so they can afford views in the area. The project does not need zoning approval as Vignette Corporation had already achieved that for it's project. Constellation Property Group said it could break ground in mid-2007. Construction is expected to take 3 years.

Koolhaas Comes Home To Rotterdam

Pritzker Prize winning Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas looks like finally crowning his home city of Rotterdam with a new landmark tower after the project has spent years on hold.

Designed by Koolhaas and his practise, the Office for Metropolitan Archiecture the tower will be called the De Rotterdam. The enormous building will contain 140,000 square metres of space over its 37 floors. Rising to 139 metres, making it the third tallest building in Rotterdam and only 15 metres taller than its neighbour, the World Port Centre.

The building will be mixed use containing a mixture of residential, office space and hotel totalling 260 apartments, 39,000 square metres of office space and 250 hotel rooms. The building will also have a dock just 15 metres from it that will be capable of docking some of the world's largest cruise ships including the Queen Mary 2 that will help cement the reputation of the docks as one of Europe's leading maritime centres.

The building features a set of offset blocks that combine to create a wall but one that is broken up into sections rather than completely coherent showing off his raw and undaunted approach to architecture. This is reinforced by traditional international image of the building with its rectangular shapes, grid-like windows and facades running at right angles that are subdivided into further square and rectangular forms.

The uncompromising appearance of the building is not typical for modern Rotterdam harking back to a previous era from the 60s and 70s rather than the post modern glass and terracotta towers that are built today with much more humanity.

The approach in the city has however always been one of expressing a serious architectural discourse and ambitious projects. The sheer scale of this one, combined with the big name architect who is "coming home" should combine to make it in spirit, if not form, fit in with the likes of Montevideo.

Bahrain Spins To Worlds First

Bahrain is set to get a world's first, an attempt to show the environmental credentials of the oil-rich island state, in the form of wind turbines erected between two towers at the World Trade Centre in the Bahraini capital of Manama.

The twin tower scheme will rise 240 metres above the waterfront in the form of two curving blades of blue diamond shaped glass and white cladding contrasts that will have the space between them bridged by three huge wind turbines. They were originally slated to have been completed in June 2006 but delays to the project have seen the finishing date pushed back to 2007.

The mixed use project will consist of two office towers (a huge amount of space for a city of 140,000 people) sitting over a podium that will accommodate a brand new shopping mall of 150 retail outlets called Moda Mall that will overlook a garden court. There will also be a total of 1,700 parking spaces available once the development is complete.

The shape of towers, designed to look like sails, is to evoke Manama's historical past as a central trading port in the Persian Gulf whilst the deep turquoise glass and white cladding, as with many other buildings in the region goes well with the surrounding desert landscape and marine setting. Designed by WS Atkins it's a similar colour scheme to that employed in the hugely successful and arguably iconic, Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

Making the building unique is the wind turbines that will be capable of generating up to 15% of the total requirements of project depending on the wind strength from their 30 metre diametre. Although past skyscrapers such as St Georges Wharf in London have also had fitted turbines designed for them they are yet to be built making Bahrain the first to realise such an idea of literally turning a tall building into a power station.

Tall buildings in the Gulf are traditionally not the most environmentally sustainable of structures, something that is perhaps understandable for a region dripping in oil although less so given the abundance of sunlight they get, something that even this environmentally friendly building fails to harness.

Although the scheme may seem huge for such a relatively small place, Bahrain is ideally placed as a more liberal and safer alternative for western business to the nearby Saudi Arabia that is just on the other side of the King Fahd Causeway adding appeal to the project.

Just as the problems of conservative Saudi Arabia are indirectly Bahrain's gain, so the environmental credentials help cement the sheikdoms credentials at being a driver for modernity in the Gulf.

Jean Nouvel completes in Paris

This week sees the opening of Jean Nouvel’s Musée du Quai Branly in his home city.

The realisation of this project will fulfil a ten year dream for the French President and it is widely expected to be renamed Musée Chirac.

The museum, which cost £165 GBP will host exhibits of indigenous arts, has been a controversial addition to the Paris cultural scene and the first significant addition since the Mitterand era.

Jean Nouvel, “This is a museum built around a specific collection, where everything is designed to evoke an emotional response to the primary object, to protect it from light, but also to capture that rare ray of light indispensable to make it vibrate and awaken its spirituality. Its architecture must challenge our current Western creative expressions. This is, of course easy to say but difficult to achieve.”

LAB win in Saudi

Melbourne based LAB architecture studio have been awarded first prize in an international design competition for the Riyadh business centre complex, Saudi Arabia.

The management board of renowned developer alsheikh saleh al-rajhi were looking for a unique design for the business centre on a site of 39,124 m2. LAB’s design is a collection of angled and interlocking singular towers which come together to form a dramatic architectural image.

The project aims to provide a diverse selection of office towers while maintaining a coherent and complex ensemble. A gently sloping cut in the ground will become a public promenade providing retail and dining facilities, while also functioning as a place of relaxation.

The perforated skins of the facades provide climate control of the buildings, in such a harsh environment.

John McAslan + Partners complete Roundhouse renovation

The Roundhouse, a magnificent Grade 2 listed building reopened this month in Camden, London.

This prominent round-shaped building was built in 1846 as a railway turning shed. Later, serving as a gin warehouse and a venue for rock concerts, it was purchased by the Norman Trust and transformed into a new performance and creative center.

The former engine hall was refurbished and equipped suitable as a performance space for a diverse range of events, and the vaulted undercrofts was reinvented into a creative center for young people.

A curved wing which provides support facilities, and a studio theatre connected to the original building by a glazed gallery space were newly constructed with the care to restore original features of the building. 2006 RIBA Stirling Awards will be held here later this year.

Designer of Triad Gallery has big visions

Glen Small, a Lincoln County resident since 1990 and designer of the undulating and strangely pleasing remodel of the Triad Gallery on U.S. Highway 101 in Seal Rock, was one of the first to redefine the terms "architect" and "urban planner."

His buildings and public monuments are sculpted, free-flowing pieces, and his planned, but un-built entire new cities are not only far larger but also far more sensuous, strange and flowingly sculpted.

Virtually all of his works (both those now built and those that exist only on paper or as small-scale models) are gorgeous.

The corpus of his work seems to represent the architecture and urban design of the 22nd century - or maybe the 23rd.The Triad Gallery, he says in the film, "My Father the Genius," made by one of his daughters, elicits strong reactions from everybody in Lincoln County who sees it. When he tells people he designed the building, Small says he knows immediately from the feedback whether they are going to love or hate his work.

One is tempted say the Triad design is unique, with its wave-like curves that echo the sea, but, in fact, it is one example among Small's numerous efforts at "designing from nature."

He also designed the house he lives in Yachats, with drawing work done by Milicia Dedijer. It, too, features flowing curves, along with some sharp angled edges, and teardrop-shaped pools that collect rain water directed to them from the roof.

Small keeps little fish in the pools, as a kind of outdoor aquarium. He has come to call the building "the starfish" because, seen from above (or as a plan on a table), its flowing curves look like the arms of a starfish, reaching out and grasping the rock and land around it.Gary Steven, the Newport contractor who did the work of constructing the two buildings from Small's plans, had quite an unusual, and sometimes difficult task, Small says, and lived up to it famously.Small spent several years in Nicaragua, living there during the Sandinista revolutionary period, and was on friendly terms with the then-mayor of Managua, the country's capital.

One of his favorite designs is the "acoustical shell" commissioned of him by Mayor Herty Lewites as part of a cultural center that includes an opera house and was proposed to also have a museum and school.Small's structure is a band shell, designed to focus and direct music from orchestras and bands out to audiences in the park before it. But this band shell features curving ribs inset into the basic helmet shape, and horns atop it. It is pure white, except for the grey-blue shadows the ribs create. Each curved rib reaches from the bottom of the structure to the top, bending forward and inward and gathering together in a serrated series of points above the front center stage. On either side, the two front ribs reach higher than all others, pointing like antelope horns to the sky.

A time for visionaries

Small was one of the founders of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles, a city that holds several more examples of his impressionistic designs. According to the movie Lucia Small made, it was his classes there that attracted the most students and the most attention. He actually had students create models of their ideas - out of wood, or metal, or concrete, or plastic, out of tarps and wooden branches and whatever else came together in their fancy to create an architectural design that was new, curved or flowing, and naturalistic.It was the late 60s and early 70s - a heady time for visionaries.

But Small's vision grew grander, more mellifluous, more and more like the shaping and movement of flowers and trees, waves and troughs, curled nets and clouds, while the designs of his fellow teachers grew more and more solid, dramatic and monumental. They were going separate ways, and Small was let go by the school he had helped to found. Others there made names for themselves; Small made some beautiful buildings and visionary drawings, designs and models.

The bitterness from this parting of the ways, and his aborted rendezvous with destiny, still spikes through sometimes as he talks, and it is a subject he discusses with his daughter and others in the film.Eventually he left California, and returned to Oregon, where he had gotten his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon; he now lives in Seal Rock.The shape of the futureWhile others were theorizing how to emulate nature, Small, beginning at SCI-Arc, was busy producing extremely detailed drawings, not just of buildings, but of whole new cities that call up images of flower gardens, seaweed beds, and swells upon the ocean.

Over time, he has produced designs and models for a torrent of visionary structures. He calls them "Biomorphic Biospheres."These are not to be confused with "Biosphere II" in Arizona. That, unlike Small's dreamscapes, exists (even if its history places it somewhere between success and failure).

But it is merely made of rounded buildings and domes - architecture's early attempts to mimic nature by getting away from hard lines, flat planes and right angles.Small's biomorphic (bio = life; morph = shape) biospheres look like something out of the movie "The Matrix."His focal creation is his Biomorphic Biosphere Megastructure (BBM), a multi-story mini-city, anchored to the ground by support footings (hundreds or even thousands of feet apart) that grip the earth by freezing the ground with refrigerated drilling rods. The whole thing would be hundreds, if not thousands of feet high, shaped like an elongated diamond - two triangles with their top and bottom sides flush together, balanced on the support footing system.

It is held in place, despite leaning like the Tower of Pisa, by its internal tensions and compressions, and its clawed footings. (Think of a few dozen suspension bridges and their cables in a frozen wrestling match.)This imagined BBM features its own housing modules (some, for higher density, "clip-on"), a transportation system, a reservoir for collecting rain and dew, structural compression members for housing schools, industries, offices and parks (at a couple hundred - or thousand - feet up), light and ventilation slots, and wind generators at its zenith.He's made not just one of these - in model form or as drawings - but many, based on the same structural principals, and all looking like something from another planet.

Taking the basic idea of the BBM and turning its elongated diamond-shape into just one facet of a multi-piece, multi-sided structure, Small has developed rows, linked processions of this imagined elevated living land.

In his models and drawings, they spread out across the earth like huge caterpillars with pointed diamond-shaped pinnacles along their backs and hammock-like troughs between the peaks.Inside, water cascades down to a central reservoir; pedestrians, bikers and children stroll broad walkways; each house is made of soft surfaces that can be adjusted to any imaginable configuration with the tension and compression lines.

The surfaces change color - and opacity; the home can be dark and moody, light-colored and friendly, or transparent enough for the resident to look through his wall to view miles of Earth stretched out below.This "living land in the sky" is the stuff dreams are made of. But so, too, is the Triad Gallery, the starfish house and the Managua band shell. Perhaps, in another incarnation, Small will finish the immense, centuries-spanning project he has conceived and lived for. In the meanwhile, his physically realized architecture has helped point the way towards a more lush, more beautiful, and more Earth-friendly architecture.

And Small began implementing that change, in the here and now, years before others in his field began to design Green Buildings with vegetation-covered Green Roofs.

HaShoftim approved higher to 120 meters

HaShoftim Tower was planned by Ashdar as a 23 floor tower. The plot was sold to new developers, Gindi Holdings, for $19.5 million, the highest sum so far for a single residential lot in Israel.

Gindi Holdings recently announcing they plan to build a 30 floor tower, to the full height allowed by the building rights - 120 meters. The plot was bought a decade ago for $8.1 million by Ashdar and served as a parking lot.

The tower will include 40 luxury flats only, 300 square meters, each selling from $2 million upwards, on 26 floors. The four ground floors will accomodate a 3-storey spa and commercial space. Building will commence early 2007.

Construction of 44-floor oval tower to begin in September

Another interesting skyscraper is set to join Istanbul's dynamic skyline as renowned German firm Bothe Richter Teherani Architekten revealed the design of "Garden Tower" which immediately became one of the favourite new projects among enthusiasts of contemporary architecture in the city.

The oval-shaped building gets its name from the multi-level gardens that embellish the front façade facing Büyükdere Avenue.

Garden Tower will have a total of 52 floors, 44 of which will rise above ground level in one of the most prominent spots of Levent financial district. Unlike other projects in Levent which usually bring together a residential or office tower and a retail facility dedicated to top fashion brands, the subterranean retail section of Garden Tower will mostly emphasize on international "gourmet restaurants" and "cafés".

The tower will also have a 1,000-person congress center, cinemas, a fitness center, spa and a multi-storey parking facility. Residential flats will have sizes ranging between 80 and 350 m².Construction works and sales of the project will start in September 2006, and the opening date is scheduled as 2008.

Celebrating the Gateway Bridge's 20th Anniversary

Queensland Motorways is holding a stunning 10 day photographic exhibition at the Brisbane Powerhouse to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Gateway Bridge.

The exhibition, ‘Spanning 20 Years’, captures the life of the Bridge, from its construction to the up coming Gateway Upgrade Project – which will see the bridge duplication.

Most of the images to be exhibited have never been seen by the public, and show the unique and beautiful lines and angles of the Bridge.

The exhibition is free and will run from Wednesday 14 June until Sunday 25 June 2006 on the Turbine and Spark Bar walls in the Brisbane Powerhouse. Opening hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 4pm and during performance times.

360 Condo Tower to grace Austin's skyline

Austin is getting another skyscraper downtown.

Builders broke ground Tuesday on the "360 condo" tower, at the corner of 3rd and Nueces.

The 44 story tower will have more than 400 condos, and street-level retail space. But when it's all said and done, it won't be the tallest building in town.

Right now, the Frost building at 33 stories and 515 feet is the tallest building in town. The "360" will be 44 stories or 580 feet tall. Next year, construction begins on the "501 Congress" building--that’s 47 stories and 675 feet tall.

Compare that to the tallest building in San Antonio the Tower of the Americas, which is 750 feet tall.

The Denver Grand Hyatt hotel sold

The Grand Hyatt Denver hotel and companion 555 Seventeenth Street office building, both owned by interests related to Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz, have been sold.

A fund advised by UBS Global Asset Management purchased the distinctive properties for undisclosed terms. Local hotel experts expected the hotel to attract $200,000 a room, or $102 million.

Both buildings rank among metro Denver's 10 largest hotels and office structures.
UBS Global is part of UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) of Switzerland, which was created in 1998 by the merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corp.
Both sellers are affiliated with Anschutz.

The 511-room Grand Hyatt, located at 1750 Welton St., was owned by Sarco Hotel LLC, which was owned by interests of Sue Anschutz-Rodgers, Phil Anschutz's sister. The hotel, metro Denver's seventh-largest, will continue to be operated by Hyatt Hotels Corp.
The adjacent 683,330-square-foot 555 Seventeenth Street office building was owned by Antelope Real Estate Co. LLC, an Anschutz family entity. The 38-story high-rise, whose name also is its address, is metro Denver's seventh-largest office building.

Finished in 1978, the office tower was Denver's tallest building until the opening of 707 17th Street in 1981. The structure formerly was called Anaconda Tower.

Cushman & Wakefield of Colorado Inc. will continue to manage and handle leasing for the office building. Major tenants include the Holland & Hart LLP law firm, Delta Petroleum Corp. and The Anschutz Co.

The hotel changed its name to Grand Hyatt last year to distinguish itself from a new downtown sister hotel, the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. Before the name change, the hotel underwent a three-year, $15 million upgrade started in 2003 that included remodeling rooms, redoing the lobby and improving 41,000 square feet of meeting space.

The hotel also took over management last year of The Pinnacle Club on the 38th floor of the 555 Seventeenth Street office building. The former private club now is a restaurant and martini bar.

Birmingham Cube Squares Up

Fast forward a couple of years and one of the most unique buildings in Britain should be rising on the Birmingham skyline. Anyone familiar with Star Trek : The Next Generation could be forgiven for thinking the Borg are set to invade Brum, but the plans are not for a huge intergalactic spaceship but rather a new apartment building designed by Ken Shuttleworth of MAKE Architects called the Cube.

Sitting next to a prime waterside location in the centre of Birmingham at the Mailbox, only a stones throw from the hugely successful Bullring Centre, on the last available development site in that area making it such a draw that over 1000 people have registered for interest in the apartments. With such interest construction is expected to start in July or August 2006.
The building will be around 70 metres in height and 17 storeys tall. It will be topped by a rooftop restaurant and bar as well as open roof gardens.

The design features what is a basic cube shape with the innards sliced out creating a private atrium within that apartments can overlook and flood with natural light from the inside as well as the opportunity for impressive community space. At ground level this becomes a public space flanked by two L shapes that serve to actively attract the pedestrian flow through it who can provide custom for the prime retail spots it offers.

The outside of the building will be clad in a modular scheme of glass and metal featuring sturdy geometric patterns that will further enhance the overall nature of the building whilst at the same time turning it into a huge piece of art.

The top area will be glass splayed outwards as if it is wrapping paper from an opened present exposing the innards to the elements giving natural ventilation and even rainwater collection, both of which are very environmentally friendly.

Birmingham has already had one iconic building built in recent times with the Bullring but this should have much more of an impact thanks to the true visibility it has thanks to the fact it's a tall building and if done to the standard of some of Shuttleworths previous work, including 30 St Mary’s Axe, it could become THE modern architectural icon for Birmingham.

UK firm sees dramatic growth

New York’s iconic Guggenheim Museum is featuring an exhibition of Zaha Hadid’s work.

Zaha Hadid: 30 Years of Architecture will run until August 23rd and will focus upon her interdisciplinary approach to architecture in a wide range of media including painting, drawing, urban plans, proposals for international design competitions, scale models and documentation of projects currently under construction.

The London based practice has seen spectacular growth in the last year with staff levels rising from 70 to over 150 and is still recruiting. Feedback from current job adverts on WAN have shown a tremendous interest in candidates wanting to work for Zaha.

Justice Building sets a new benchmark for government in sustainable contemporary office design

Bates Smart are responsible for the design of the new 21,000sqm Attorney General’s office building located in the Parramatta Justice Precinct.

Due for completion in 2007, the project represents our latest thinking in contemporary office design. Designed with a detached service core, the building will provide unencumbered and highly flexible office space.

A 10-storey top-lit atrium between the core and the office space will create a dramatic vertical light-filled space with meeting room pods cantilevered within the void. Naturally ventilated breakout spaces are located at each end of the atrium for staff relaxation.

The design will utilize chilled beam cooling technology and solar shading to create the first NSW State Government building to achieve a five-star Green Star environmental rating.

Michael Trentham Architects win planning for Brockley Cross regeneration

The project involves the dramatic conversion and extension of a disused tea and coffee factory built in the late 1940’s.

The proposal is a mixed use scheme creating 1440m2 of commercial/residential space consisting 4 commercial units at ground floor, to help provide more pedestrian interest and activity at street level, and 13 residential units above.

The corner commercial unit will be a café, with the largest unit let to the council rent free for two years for use as a gallery to encourage local artists, as part of the section 106 Agreement. The cantilevered element interlocks with a cedar clad shingle element above, set back from the street.

Work is expected to begin late summer with completion expected early 2008.

Indian based architects, Sanjay Puri & Nimish Shah design in Dubai

The ETA Hotel at Dubai is a small boutique business hotel with 68 rooms, a restaurant and lounge bar, health club and a roof top pool.

The 75,000 sq. ft site is situated in a high-density commercial neighborhood in Dubai. As a complete deviation from the existing buildings in the surroundings, the entire hotel is evolved from the abstraction of trapezoidal planes that constitute the outer skin of the hotel.

The trapezoidal planes fold out from 6.0mt high entrance lobby accentuating it, before undulating along all sides vertically upwards until it folds back creating a roof top heath club & pool area. This concrete skin is punctuated by a graphical composition of geometric openings derived from an Islamic motif thus relating it to the city heritage while creating a unique sculptural form.

Alsop Toronto sales center launches major urban renewal project

A Swiss-cheese-like building designed by SMC Alsop opened recently in Toronto.

It features a bright red timber surround over an internal concrete slab building with colourful Swiss-cheese holes, and will serve as the sales pavilion for the WEST side Lofts, a residential development being constructed to the south.

This major urban renewal project aims to revitalize downtown Toronto's celebrated artistic neighbourhood which has been a neglected area, and create new connections across the city. The sales pavilion launches this regeneration project as a "gatehouse" of what will be a new route from north to south connecting with Lake Ontario, while the bold design makes it a remarkable new landmark.

Sheppard Robson transform Trocadero

Sheppard Robson’s design for the £145m redevelopment of the Trocadero site in central London, has been submitted for planning.

The new development will transform the site into a multi-use destination incorporating retail, leisure and hotel accommodation. The design of the 58,676m2 city block, will restore the Trocadero’s presence to the surrounding streetscape by removing the triple height existing internal atrium and activating the frontages with large, quality retail units. The upper levels will provide leisure accommodation with the roofscape completely remodelled to accommodate a 600-bed hotel.

The most obvious manifestation is the ‘wall of light’ a dynamic fully glazed elevation which creates a strong sense of identity appropriate to the theatreland location.

Sheppard Robson’s design creates a coherent set of architectural interventions which unify the scheme with respect to the restored Grade II listed facades and the wider urban context.

Wachovia plans skyscraper on South Tryon

Wachovia Corp.'s new tower at South Tryon and First streets in uptown will reach 46 stories, matching the city's second-tallest building, a bank spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

The Charlotte-based bank had said the new office building would be about 40 to 45 stories, possibly more. At 46 stories, the tower would tie the number of stories of the Hearst Tower, a Bank of America Corp. project, and eclipse Wachovia's nearby 42-story headquarters building.
The 60-story Bank of America Corporate Center is the tallest peak on the city's skyline, and it isn't expected to have competition any time soon. Two condominium towers are in the works with 50 or more stories, although residential floors are typically shorter in feet than office floors.
Wachovia's tower is part of a proposed arts complex that is expected to add new life to the south side of uptown. Earlier this year, construction workers began digging the hole for the parking garage.

The bank said it plans to unveil official renderings of the office tower this summer, but some uptown watchers are buzzing about a sketch posted on a Web site devoted to urban development, urbanplanet.org. It shows an angular, blue-tinted glass building soaring above a companion condo tower.

Wachovia spokeswoman Elizabeth Pollet said the drawing is preliminary. "It's the building in progress," she said.

The tower, expected to be completed in early 2009, is slated to house a Wachovia trading floor and offices for the Wake Forest University business school. The 4-acre development also has space for 200 condos, two museums, a performing arts theater and a new Afro-American Cultural Center. The project still needs state legislature approval of a car-rental tax to help pay for the cultural facilities.

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson's design for the Seattle Public Library wins awards

The Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library has won two awards this year from the American Institute of Architects, National Honor Award for Design and Committee on the Environment, 2006 Top Ten Green Projects.

This new branch, which was completed in May 2005, features materials related to the local maritime industry and focuses on its future use of a younger, more diverse population. The roof sweeps north so that visitors can enjoy indirect light, and is planted with more than 18,000 low-water-use plants. 17 solar panels are also attached to the rooftop. It can be a proof that green building is feasible within a modest budget and will promote environment-friendly architecture. The building cost $8.6 million.

Schmidt hammer lassen win competition to create a library for the 21st century and beyond.

The University of Aberdeen has embarked on a major flagship library project worth £55.5M.

The ‘Library for our Sixth Century’ will spearhead the next phase of the University’s 10-year investment in its £228m development, which also includes a £16m medical development and a £23m sporting centre.

The design, by the Danish architects will provide facilities for 13,900 students, replacing the existing Queen Mother Library and will house historic collections of over 200,000 rare books and over 4,000 archives dating from the foundations of the University in 1495.

The design will be a spacious, light, airy and welcoming public plaza, below a spiralling atrium with a café, regular exhibitions and events.

A final design of the new library building is expected in autumn this year and is expected to open by 2010.

Zaha Hadid Dances Onto Dubai's Skyline Stage

UK architect, Zaha Hadid, looks like making an impact on the skyline of the rapidly growing city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates with her designs for three dancing towers. Revealed in New York's Guggenheim Museum as part of an exhibition into Hadid's work, something that for many years was little more than paper-based with regards to skyscrapers, the exhibition was crammed full of a large number of projects the critically acclaimed architect is now working on around the world.

The Dancing Towers are the winners of an international competition that was held in Dubai to decide the designs for Business Bay by developer, Dubai Properties. They will contain, residential, offices and hotel space and all rise from a single shared podium, something that the developer hopes will allow residents to live their entire day in the complex without leaving though such closeness to work, home and leisure might prove too claustrophobic for many people.

The concept of the way the buildings relate to each other is based on "choreographed fluidity", presumably because their form flows like liquid with gentle curves despite the cubic floor-plans. The three bending towers, whilst not entirely new in concept (check out the SOM designs for the World Trade Centre in New York) have not yet seen anything similar realised in practise. Bending towers such as these have proven problematic in the past with architects because of the central services core that carry things such as elevators being unable to run continuously up them for the entire height of the tower, anything with too much of a bend adds substantial cost to the build by needing more than one core whilst balancing the weight loads on the structure is also a tricky design proposition.

That said, in oil rich Dubai the sheiks are hardly short of money, and with the skyscraper being the central actor on the stage of urban development there's an overwhelming desire for the flashiest costume and most outrageous showmanship possible.

The Gherkin Makes London's Ugliest Building List

A poll on BBC London on the most ugly buildings in the capital has controversially included in it's finalists 30 St Mary's Axe, popularly known by Londoners as the Gherkin.

Since it was built in 2004 it surprised everyone by working its way quickly into the affections of Londoners and is much used as a symbol of the city's modernity having featured prominently in literature ranging from the front cover of Newsweek to the winning bid for the 2012 Olympics.
As well as the media attention there's been a whole slew of awards for the Norman Foster designed building, the most important of which was the 2004 Sterling Prize for best building, the annual architecture Oscar.

Another tall building to make the ugly list is Centre Point, a more understandable entry given the quality of the ground level around the tower and the oppressive effect it has on that end of Oxford Street.

The other mingers mentioned are the brutalist Tower Hotel that stands next to the north end of Tower Bridge, the concrete arts complex that dominates the Southbank Centre, and a tower at Colliers Wood.

It's notable that three of the five buildings mentioned are towers, but what's most surprising is the total lack of Guys Hospital on the list given it's considered by many to be London's ugliest tall building.

Perhaps the inclusion of the Gherkin is more an attempt by the BBC to adopt a controversial approach or the input of feminists railing against the most phallic object on the London skyline. Perhaps next year the nipple-like St Paul's Cathedral could be nominated.

New Squire Tower For City Old Street Fringe

Redevelopment of the City Fringe looks like continuing apace with the proposals by London Merchant Securities to redevelop a site off City Road, EC1 bounded by the roundabout of Old Street.Located in the London Borough of Islington, it comes hot on the heels of the recently approved and soon to be under construction Eagle House that is also on Old Street.

Designed by Squire and Partners the tower will be mixed use, the bulk of which will be 250 new apartments in an area screaming out for more residential space from professional workers fed up with long commutes to their work place. The vast bulk of this will be fitted into the central tower rather than the adjoining podium structure.

There will also be 10,000 square metres of new office space contained within, plus about 1,000 square metres of retail around ground level.

The 43 storey tower is oval in shape with the broadsides of it lightly clad in vertically reaching patterns that alternate every four floors. The ends are slightly recessed with strongly coloured blue glass running up them. The crown of the tower is covered in different glass giving it a more transparent look.

This whole area of the Islington / City of London fringe has become a hotspot for development, particularly along City Road where Squire and Partners have designed buildings for the City Road Basin site including a 115 metre tall residential tower.With residential space particularly short in the City of London itself this trend should accelerate further, it's known that a number of other architects are already working on similar sized projects along the border between the two boroughs and when lumped together these should provide an impressive if not too tall cluster of largely residential towers in a part of town that is rather dilapidated.

Having bought the site in January 2005 for £12.5 million, the developers expect to take possession of the site in 2007 from the current occupiers and hope that the scheme can be completed by 2010.

Heber-Percy and Parker architects unveil Sussex Place proposal

This refreshing proposal utilises a business class use building fronting Sussex Place with a separate smaller business class use building at the rear of the site with access from the rear. A landscaped garden links the two buildings.

The building fronting Sussex Place is seen as a transition between the Victorian mansion flats of College Court to the east and the much taller 20th Century office building to the west. The design will provide a link between the diverse architecture of the two buildings. It also presents a similar concept of intensive frontage development with some amenity space at the rear.

The Sussex Place facade, facing north and to the Hammersmith flyover, is largely solid with elements of the facade peeled out to provide slot windows facing east and west, with views away from the flyover. At foor levels below the flyover there are some windows in the solid facade to provide views under the flyover to St Paul's Church and open space beyond. The facade acknowledges both the horizontal character of College Court and its projecting vertical bays, and the vertical character of the office block. The south facade is essentially glazed. The form arises from the need to satisfy BRE standards for daylighting the College Court flats.

El-Ad Properties and Tishman Construction Corporation celebrate topping out of a new condo tower

The construction of a new condominium tower in New York has reached the highest point of the structure. This 44-story building is Hell's Kitchen's newest luxury apartment tower, called The Link.

The 215-unit glass building, designed by the New York-based team of Costas Kondylis and Partners and Gal Nauer Architects includes one-three bedroom apartment homes, two landscaped gardens, a fitness center, private storage for the residences, and a six-story townhouse attached to the base of the tower.

Located just next to the Special Clinton District, where building heights are limited to 70 feet, the tower will offer residents "protected" views, together with an aluminum window wall system allowing floor-to-ceiling glass installed in a facade. The completion is scheduled by the first quarter of 2007.