Dezeen: W57 —West 57th Residential Building by BIG

Durst Fetner Residential commissioned Copenhagen based BIG in the spring of 2010 to introduce a new residential typology to Manhattan.

sltube7 Uploaded on Feb 10, 2011
Jacob Slevin Bjarke Ingels Is BIG in New York City with W57
(by Designer Pages)

GlessnerGroup Uploaded on Feb 15, 2011
W57 – West 57th Residential Building [no audio]
W57 is a hybrid between the European perimeter block and a traditional Manhattan high-rise, West 57th has a unique shape which combines the advantages of both: the compactness and efficiency of a courtyard building providing density, a sense of intimacy and security, with the airiness and the expansive views of a skyscraper.
©Glessner Group, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

Construction is due for completion in 2016.

█ Architect: Bjarke Ingels Group

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### dezeen.com Tue, 8 Feb 2011 at 12:41 pm
West 57th by BIG
By Catherine Warmann
Durst Fetner Residential (DFR) today announced the design of West 57, a 600-unit 80/20 residential building on West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. The building is designed by renowned Danish Architect firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and is their inaugural North American project. The building’s program consists of over 600 residential units of different scales situated on a podium with a cultural and commercial program. The building will strive for LEED Gold Certification.

“It’s extraordinarily exciting to build a building whose architecture will attract visitors from around the globe,” said Hal Fetner, CEO of Durst Fetner Residential. “BIG’s design is innovative, evocative and unique and the building’s beauty is matched only by its efficient and functional design that preserves existing view corridors while maximizing the new building’s access to natural light and views of the Hudson River. West 57th will establish a new standard for architectural excellence and its creative design, sustainable-construction and operations, breathtaking views and distinctive amenities will make it New York’s most sought after residential address.”

“New York is rapidly becoming an increasingly green and livable city. The transformation of the Hudson River waterfront and the Highline into green parks, the ongoing effort to plant a million trees, the pedestrianisation of Broadway and the creation of more miles of bicycle lanes than the entire city of my native Copenhagen are all evidence of urban oases appearing all over the city. With West 57th we attempt to continue this transformation into the heart of the city fabric – into the centre of a city block,” Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG.

“The building is conceived as a cross breed between the Copenhagen courtyard and the New York skyscraper. The communal intimacy of the central urban oasis meets the efficiency, density and panoramic views of the tall tower in a new hybrid typology. The courtyard is to architecture what Central Park is to urbanism: a giant green garden surrounded by a dense wall of spaces for living.”
Read more + Images

[view full screen]

BIG from DRKHRSE (posted 4 months ago)
An aerial view of Bjarke Ingel’s newest building in NYC, at W57

█ Drone Photography: Darkhorse

### dezeen.com Wed, 16 Sept 2015 at 11:10 am
Drone video shows progress on New York “courtscraper” by BIG
By Jenna McKnight
Communications firm Darkhorse has used a camera mounted to a drone to capture footage of Via 57 West, the residential building by Bjarke Ingels Group that is now rising in New York. Construction is underway on the tetrahedron-shaped building, which is located on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The design is pulled up at one corner, to create a 467-foot-tall (142-metre) structure. It topped out several months ago, with the addition of the final structural beam, and work is now continuing on the building’s facades. The unofficial movie by Darkhorse shows images of Via’s sloped exterior, which is punctuated with south-facing terraces that look toward the Hudson River.

Encompassing 861,00 square feet (80,000 square metres), the building will contain 709 residential units and a large central courtyard. The project also calls for retail space totalling 45,000 square feet (4,180 square metres).

“We call it a courtscraper,” Ingels told Dezeen in an interview last year. “It’s a combination of a skyscraper and a courtyard building. One side is the height of a handrail and the other side is the height of a high-rise.”

The project is being constructed in an area with a mix of building types. W57 is sandwiched between a power plant, a sanitation garage and a highway. The building’s amenities will include a pool, fitness centre, basketball court, golf simulator, library and screening room. Residents will also be able to reserve “living rooms” for entertaining that feature fireplaces, chef’s kitchens, dining rooms and large terraces.
Read more + Images

█ Other residential projects now underway in New York include 152 Elizabeth Street by Tadao Ando in the Nolita neighbourhood, 520 West 28th Street by Zaha Hadid near the High Line, and a luxury condo building by Alvaro Siza that is slated to rise near BIG’s Via 57 West.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dubai skyscrapers | Martin Aircraft Company-designed jetpacks #NZ

Chief TV Published on Dec 31, 2015
Dubai Fire Address Hotel – Dubai Hotel On Fire Before New Years Eve Fireworks – 2015

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### dezeen.com 31 December 2015
Huge fire breaks out at Atkins-designed Dubai skyscraper
On New Year’s Eve, a fire engulfed The Address Downtown Dubai hotel tower. Burning debris was seen falling from The Address, designed by international architecture and engineering firm Atkins. The skyscraper occupies a site close to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which hosted a massive fireworks display despite the nearby blaze. The 302-metre-tall, 63-storey Address tower was completed in 2008, and is currently the 19th tallest building in the Emirate. The fire engulfed around 20 floors of the building. The blaze was contained to the outside of the building. Internal sprinkler systems prevented it from spreading to the interior.

Starting in 2016, the Emirate plans to use jetpacks to reach people and deliver equipment during skyscraper fires.

█ Developed by New Zealand manufacturer Martin Aircraft Company, the jetpacks are being tailored to meet the needs of firefighters and rescue workers, including allowing them to be operated hands-free in hover mode. This will make it easier for firefighters to carry equipment or assess heat sources using thermal imaging cameras. “Dubai is leading the world in high-rises, and sometimes we have challenges or difficulties reaching those buildings,” Dubai’s Civil Defence chief Ali Hassan Almutawa told the Khaleej Times. “Sometimes we also find it difficult to communicate with people in those high-rises, especially when people are panicking from windows or balconies.”
Read more

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BACK STORY

Dubai skyline during Torch fire February 2015 [via dezeen.com]

[As at Nov 2015] Dubai is home to 911 high-rise buildings, 88 of which are taller than 180 metres (591 ft). Burj Khalifa, by Chicago office Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, is the world’s tallest structure at 828 metres (2,716.5 ft).

### dezeen.com 13 November 2015
Dubai to fight fires in world’s tallest skyscrapers using jetpacks
Dubai, home to the world’s tallest skyscraper, will use jetpack-equipped firefighters in high-rise emergencies as early as next year. A fleet of emergency-service jetpacks will be delivered to the Dubai Civil Defence in 2016, according to the Khaleej Times. Specially trained firefighters will use the jetpacks to tackle flames in some the city’s tallest buildings. The news comes months after fire tore through one of the world’s tallest residential structures located in the United Arab Emirates city. The fire broke out on the 50th floor of the 79-storey Torch, a 336-metre-high skyscraper, in February.

“In an emergency situation, we can’t use the elevators and have to depend on firefighters physically climbing ladders,” said Dubai’s Civil Defence chief Ali Hassan Almutawa. “With this we can lift equipment for our firefighters.”

“There will now be a new generation of firefighters with this,” said Martin Aircraft Company CEO Peter Coker, who went on to explain how “easy” the flying machines are to operate. “It’s got a fly-by-wire system that has a sort of flight computer, so the aircraft is very stable,” he said. “If you let go of everything, the aircraft will come to a hover.”

Manned test flights of a Martin Aircraft Company-designed jetpack were first approved in 2013. The company claimed its design was the world’s first practical jetpack.

“In a few years they will likely be used by customers in a very controlled environment, and we’ll probably have situations in which we create clubs for people to go and fly the jetpacks,” said Coker.

The use of jetpack technology in the United Arab Emirates isn’t restricted to its emergency services. Earlier this month, footage emerged of two jetpack-equipped daredevils flying alongside a passenger plane over Dubai’s landmarks to promote the country’s Emirates airline company.
Read more

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Clarification: The following footage, worth watching, doesn’t involve Martin Aircraft Company-designed jetpack componentry. Visit MAC’s website (link given above) to view their practical jetpack units.

Aeronauticator Published on May 14, 2015
Yves Rossy & Vince Reffet – Birdmans Fly over Dubai Sky
Flying like a bird is always human’s dream. And the dream comes true.
Join Jetman Yves Rossy and his protege, Jetman Vince Reffet as they explore the limits in the city of dreams. “The real dream is to be completely free.”

XDubai Published on Nov 4, 2015
Emirates: #HelloJetman
Armed with unguarded ambition and the vision to push boundaries beyond the unthinkable, Jetman Dubai and Emirates A380 take to the skies of Dubai for an exceptional formation flight. A carefully choreographed aerial showcase, conducted over the Palm Jumeirah and Dubai skyline, involving the world’s largest passenger aircraft and the experienced Jetman Dubai pilots Yves Rossy and Vince Reffet. Over the last three months, Emirates and the Jetman Dubai teams worked closely to diligently plan and coordinate every detail of this project. Featuring an all Original Soundtrack by Erik Groysman – “Flight”

Tourism and Events Published on Nov 7, 2015
Emirates HelloJetman Emirates A380 and Jetman Dubai Formation Flight Emirates Airline

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dezeen: Skinny house, Sant Cugat + Beyoncé-inspired skyscraper, MEL

### dezeen.com 2 July 2015 at 1:45 pm
Josep Ferrando slots a skinny house between two existing properties in Spain
By Jessica Mairs | Photography by Adrià Goula
Concealed behind a historic facade, this narrow residence by Barcelona architect Josep Ferrando is wedged between the party walls of a pair of houses in the Spanish city of Sant Cugat. The 225-square-metre residence fills a gap measuring less than six metres wide between two existing buildings in Sant Cugat – a town north of Barcelona that is also home to a picturesque Medieval monastery, an architecture school and a chocolate factory. The proximity to Barcelona and the surrounding Catalonian countryside makes Sant Cugat a popular location, resulting in a dearth of land in the town centre. This led Ferrando to squeeze the family home behind the facade of an old row house, right up against the walls of its two neighbours.

Entitled 176 House E+M after the names of the clients, the residence sits opposite the town’s Medieval monastery. The historic facade of the original property was preserved, and the new concrete block was built behind. Due to a drop in ground level across the site, the living room is sunk below ground at the front but sits slightly above a garden at the back. An atrium area with the living room provides an additional source of daylight for the kitchen and dining area above. Three house-shaped volumes made from chipboard are suspended within the upper floors of the narrow building. These timber pods enclose a child’s bedroom, the family bathroom and a study that links with a roof terrace overlooking the garden. A pivoting flap opens or closes the child’s bedroom to the atrium, offering views over the kitchen.
Read more

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### dezeen.com 6 July 2015 at 1:46 pm
Beyoncé-inspired skyscraper to be built in Melbourne
By Amy Frearson
Australian firm Elenberg Fraser has won planning approval for a 226-metre-high Melbourne skyscraper that will feature a curvaceous form taken from a music video by Beyoncé (+ slideshow). The new Premiere Tower at 134 Spencer Street will boast a series of curves and bulges designed to make it as structurally efficient as possible, but that also reference one of Beyoncé’s music videos.

The shape is an homage to the undulating fabric-wrapped bodies of dancers in the singer’s music video for Ghost – a song from her self-titled 2013 album, which was originally published as one half of track called Haunted but released as a stand-alone music video. “For those more on the art than science side, we will reveal that the form does pay homage to something more aesthetic – we’re going to trust you’ve seen the music video for Beyoncé’s Ghost,” said the Melbourne-based studio.

beyonceVEVO Published on Nov 24, 2014
Beyoncé – Ghost
BEYONCÉ Platinum Edition.
Music video by Beyoncé performing Ghost. (C) 2013 Columbia Records, a Division of Sony Music Entertainment

The 68-storey structure, which was approved by planning officials in May, will be located at the west end of the city’s central business district. It will contain 660 apartments, as well as a 160-room hotel. Parametric modelling – a type of computer-aided design that allows complex shapes to be created in response to data constraints – was used to develop the unique form, which will swell in and out at various points around the facade.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tragic names: Torch at Dubai, on fire

Updated post Sat, 7 Mar 2015 at 2:11 p.m.

█ Wikipedia currently lists the tallest residential buildings in the world.

### NZ Herald Online 1:28 PM Saturday Feb 21, 2015
Dubai skyscraper fire: Blaze rips through Torch residential building in marina district
A fire has ripped through the Torch in Dubai – one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. The skyscraper, which is 336.1m (1,105ft) tall, is in the marina district of the city. The fire is believed to have started on the 50th floor and is spreading quickly, in part due to high-winds. One witness said it looked like “the Titanic going down”, Gulfnews.com reports. Terrified residents were forced to flee and emergency crews rushed to the scene to tackle the blaze which burned across several floors of the enormous structure. There were no reported injuries, officials told NBC News, but it was unclear whether all the residents had been accounted for.
Read more

● BBC News: Fire rips through Dubai skyscraper (video, with commentary by Kathryn Dickie 13th floor resident)

The Marina Torch, also known as Dubai Torch or just The Torch, is a supertall residential skyscraper at the Dubai Marina, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The 79-storey Torch opened in 2011.

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Wikipedia (update) —2015 fire
A fire broke out in the building on 21 February 2015 2:00 a.m. local time. Eyewitnesses stated that the fire started with a grill located on one of the building’s balconies. Although it appeared no fatalities occurred, seven people were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. Video footage shows structural debris falling from the burning storeys to the ground. The fire appeared to have started in the middle of the building and spread rapidly due to high winds, causing the flames to flare up, resulting in “massive problems” for the fire department and the backing up of traffic on the nearby highway for several miles. External cladding was charred from the 50th floor to the top of the tower. Eyewitnesses reported the fire starting in the middle of the tower, and falling debris setting lower levels on fire. Link

Jaime Müller Published on Feb 20, 2015
The Torch Tower On Fire . Dubai Marina . Dubai #1
[ENG] The Torch Tower is burning up in Dubai Marina!
[PTB] O Torch Tower – meu prédio vizinho – está pegando fogo!

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Dubai Marina – cap of Torch showing, upper centre right [elitetowerdubai.com]

Dubai Marina, view from Torch 76th floor Sept 2009 [imredubai.blogspot.co.nz]

The Torch Skyscraper [via BBC] was the world’s tallest residential building at its opening, but has since been surpassed by six others; it’s now thought to be the 32nd tallest building in the world, according to the Skyscraper Centre. It has 676 apartments. A two-bedroom flat starts at more than $500,000 (£325,000). Residents have access to an eight-storey garage and a swimming pool overlooking Dubai’s waterfront.

The World’s tallest apartment tower chronologically (Dec1/2011 status) – hosted at flickr [click to enlarge]

*Note the graphic by R Braddish (above) claims The Torch has “86 floors” whereas multiple sources state it has “79 storeys”.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Small apartments —then !! New York by Gehry #2011nuclear

### design-milk.com 13 Jun 2014
Tiny 100-Square-Foot Apartment Virtually Transforms Throughout Day
Posted by Gregory Han
When it comes to forecasting the future, there are two schools of thought: one that sees our planetary cup still half full, the other alarmingly half empty. You can cast Bernardo Schorr, MFA candidate in Parsons’ Design and Technology program and Creative Technologist, with the camp predicting a gloomy dystopian future…. a future where a great many of the world’s population will have to live in much smaller dwellings out of necessity, “in windowless apartments with areas limited to 100 square feet.”

But not all is lost! Schorr also believes digital technologies can be engineered to allow occupants of these micro-apartments to escape the sensation of being confined within prison cells by projecting immersive virtual environments to “expand” the walls far beyond their true dimensional boundaries. Offered as an “utopian solution for a dystopian scenario”, Schorr’s “Mixed Reality Living Spaces” project serves as an experiment for a future when windows will have become a luxury and our circadian rhythms regulating sleep and activity will be cued increasingly by a pixel perfect simulacrum of the world outside.
Read more + Photos

Bernardo Schorr Published on May 15, 2014

Mixed Reality Living Spaces
[Conceptual only, what would 3D printers make for body hugging multi-use furniture, here we don’t find out – but the design principle is worthy. -Eds] Mixed Reality Living Spaces is an imagination of how current and near-future technologies will help us cope with issues of space scarcity and confinement that will derive from urban development.

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### design-milk.com 16 Apr 2014
Transforming Apartment Maximizes Small Space
Posted by Caroline Williamson

With 60 square metres (approximately 645 square feet) to work with, Russian designer Vlad Mishin designed the Transformer Apartment which contains several transforming elements. The apartment is separated lengthwise by a massive, faceted wall structure that is made up of black metal framework and plywood that hides away various household functions.
Read more + Photos

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New York by Gehry at Eight Spruce Street

█ Video + Slideshows (floor plans and more) http://www.newyorkbygehry.com/
█ ArchRecordTV Frank Gehry’s Beekman Tower on design and construction
█ Videos at Youtube for Beekman Tower and 8 Spruce Street

Overview via Wikipedia:
8 Spruce Street, originally known as Beekman Tower and currently marketed as New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry in the New York City borough of Manhattan at 8 Spruce Street, between William and Nassau Streets, in Lower Manhattan, just south of City Hall Park and the Brooklyn Bridge.

8 Spruce Street is one of the tallest residential towers in the world, and the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere at the time of completion in February 2011. The building was developed by Forest City Ratner, designed by Frank Gehry Architects and WSP Cantor Seinuk Structural Engineers, and constructed by Kreisler Borg Florman. It contains a public elementary school owned by the Department of Education. Above that and grade-level retail, the tower contains only residential rental units (898 in total), a rarity in New York’s Financial District. The skyscraper’s structural frame is made of reinforced concrete, and form-wise it falls within the architectural style of Deconstructivism together with the begun later and completed earlier Aqua skyscraper in Chicago.

28.11.11 New York Times – The Appraisal
Living in a 76-Story Work of Art, and a Symbol of Rebirth

The school is sheathed in reddish-tan brick, and covers 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of the first five floors of the building. It will host over 600 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classes. A fourth floor roof deck will hold 5,000 square feet (460 m2) of outdoor play space. Above the elementary school is an 898-unit luxury residential tower clad in stainless steel. The apartments range from 500 square feet (46 m2) to 1,600 square feet (150 m2), and consist of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units. All units are priced at market-rate, with no low or moderate income-restricted apartments. It does not contain any units for purchase.

The building also includes space for New York Downtown Hospital. The hospital will take up 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2), and will have public parking below ground. There are public plazas on both the east and west sides of the building, one 11,000 square feet (1,000 m2) and the other somewhat smaller. Street-level retail, totalling approximately 1,300 to 2,500 square feet (120 to 230 m2), is included as part of the project.

30.3.11 Architectural Review
Eight Spruce Street by Frank Gehry, New York, USA

Early reviews of the 8 Spruce Street tower have been favourable. The building was also heavily criticized for “appearing as a nuclear meltdown”, for being the most expensive per square foot residential tower in Manhattan and for receiving $204 million in federal bonds for its $875 million construction cost. In The New York Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff praised the building’s design as a welcome addition to the skyline of New York, calling it: “the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen’s CBS building went up 46 years ago”. New Yorker magazine’s Paul Goldberger described it as “one of the most beautiful towers downtown”. Comparing Gehry’s tower to the nearby Woolworth Building, completed in 1913, Goldberger said “it is the first thing built downtown since then that actually deserves to stand beside it”. CityRealty architecture critic Carter Horsely hailed the project, saying “the building would have been an unquestioned architectural masterpiece if the south facade had continued the crinkling and if the base had continued the stainless-steel cladding. Even so, it is as majestic as its cross-town rival, the great neo-Gothic Woolworth Building designed by Cass Gilbert at 233 Broadway on the other side of City Hall Park.” Gehry designed both the exterior, interiors and amenities spaces, along with all 20 model apartments.

█ Frank Gehry is perhaps the most celebrated practicing architect in the world today. He has been the recipient of dozens of awards recognizing excellence in architecture including the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which honours “significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture”. Over the past five decades, under Gehry’s creative direction, Gehry Partners, LLP has designed public and private buildings in North America, Europe, and Asia. Hallmarks of Gehry’s work include a particular focus on creating spaces that are comfortable to the people who use them, and that exist well within the larger context and culture of their location. The firm’s approach to design is one in which the client becomes fully engaged in the process, making each project a true collaboration.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: New York by Gehry at Eight Spruce Street (from top) businessinsider.com, urbanedgeny.com, architectural-review.com, en.wikipedia.org

Auckland’s Civic Building first skyscraper #Modern

Photographer Patrick Reynolds says the Civic is an important building by an important architect – chief city architect Tibor Donner (1946-1967) – and it appealed enormously as “Hotel Moderne” with its modernist credentials.

### metromag.co.nz June 10, 2014
Urban Design
The Civic Building: Modernist Folly, Architectural Treasure
By Chris Barton
Why we should all be up in arms at the threatened demolition of the Auckland Council Civic Building.
There’s a surprise at the top of the hated Civic Building. From afar, you could guess there was some sort of observation deck, but the central roof-top courtyard open to the sky and to terrific east and west viewing across the cityscape to the harbour is a delight. Shut to the public since the 1970s, the restricted area is looking a little shabby, but one can easily imagine how the space could be brought back to life and, combined with a makeover of the staff cafeteria a level below, could be the tearoom talk of the town. Here might be a rare commodity in Auckland — public space on high — given that most other high places are either off limits, commercialised or privatised.
No 1 Greys Ave, formerly known as the Auckland City Council Administration Building, has plenty of other unique features: the rolled Corbusian corners of the metal-clad plant room, the curvy Le Corbusier-inspired entrance canopy, the mezzanine lobby and the precast terrazzo treads and iron balustrades of the open staircase.
Read more + Photos by Patrick Reynolds

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### NZ Herald Online 11:51 AM Tuesday Nov 18, 2014
Bid to save NZ’s first skyscraper
By Bernard Orsman – Super City reporter
Plans to save New Zealand’s first skyscraper, the Civic Building on Aotea Square, or demolish it have been outlined to councillors and the media today. Council officers have been investigating options and market interest to refurbish the building, which will be empty by the New Year after serving as the city’s main civic administration building since 1966. The wrecking ball has been hanging over the building since the Auckland Council paid $104 million for the 31-storey ASB Bank Centre in Albert St for its new headquarters. The 100m tower was designed in the 1950s and completed in 1966. It has been criticised as an ugly box, but many architects marvel at its features. Architect Julia Gatley, an authority on modern architecture in New Zealand, has praised it as a beautifully proportioned, slender building that encapsulates modernism. It has no heritage status, but two reports have suggested it warrants a category A listing, and the council’s heritage division says it merits category B status. Heritage New Zealand also wants to see it gain heritage status and saved. The council’s property arm said without major refurbishment and the removal asbestos it would be unsuitable for council or other uses, such as commercial, residential and hotel. Auckland Council Property said it would cost about $78 million for full refurbishment to modern office and code requirements, or $60 million for a residential conversion. Demolition and site reinstatement is estimated at between $11.5 million to $12.5 million.
Read more

Civic Building demolished – revamped Aotea Square with new ‘teletubbie’ commercial buildings | Regional Facilities Auckland

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from top) heritageetal.blogspot.com – Former Auckland City Council Administration Building, 1 Greys Avenue (1981); metromag.co.nz – Civic Building on Aotea Square by Patrick Reynolds; stuffcrush.blogspot.co.nz – Civic Building, fenestration detail (2011) by Caleb

Hotel: The height of arrogance

Don’t care how much you’ve spent on slapping Dunedin’s face, chook.
GO AWAY —give your ‘Swarovski crystal’ to some other place.

Bored housewife syndrome:
If you’ve spent a million already your consultants are out of control.

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### ODT Online Fri, 14 Feb 2014
Harbour hotel now ‘a long shot’
By Chris Morris
The woman behind the plan to build a $100 million waterfront hotel in Dunedin says the proposal is now “a long shot”. Betterways Advisory Ltd director Jing Song, of Queenstown, told the Otago Daily Times she was frustrated by the delays and cost involved, after spending more than $1 million so far on pursuing the project at 41 Wharf St.
Read more

DEPLORABLY, Mayor Cull has held several meetings with the developers in Auckland “to try to advance the project”. The Mayor deliberately mixes HIS politics with a resource management matter, SHAME.

*Mr Rodgers is Mr Cull’s personal solicitor.

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Related Post and Comments:
25.6.13 Hotel/Apartment Tower decision to be appealed

For more, enter *hotel* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin (apartments) Hotel: Better ways to lipstick a pig

Dunedin Hotel proposed [screenshots from fly-by video by ARL]

Let’s “Articulate” the Dunedin waterfront, let’s sculpt and distort ideas of cheap tower design, or hey, we could use explosives. We’re not the first to think of it —the “prettying the tombstone” part.

This is late reply to the evidence to hearing from Auckland’s Jeremy Whelan of Ignite Architects, entitled Dunedin Hotel Design Direction Analysis, dated 18 March 2013, for Betterways Advisory Ltd (applicant).

Whelan presented 16 “exemplars” of “design directions” for the proposed tower at 41 Wharf Street. These outlined possible(?) cladding and modelling options —none of which were part of the actual application for resource consent. Previously, we had listened to Dunedin architect Francis Whitaker wax lyrical on the considerable merits of the slab design for an interminable three hours in submission —it would be an insult to call the pronouncements ‘evidence’. Unsurprisingly, by the time Whelan came to trot his stuff ALL had become uncomfortably strained in the Edinburgh Room despite a toothy semblance of tolerance shown by the hearing panel.

The following images are selected and scanned from photocopy evidence of Whelan’s 25-page PowerPoint presentation, thus drop-off in picture quality and sharpness. Nonetheless, you can see where he’s headed, to win the panel… (it simply wasn’t enough that Animation Research Ltd had removed the rail corridor to ‘contextualise’ the tower by rendering fake gulags up to its base).

The exemplars were presented in the serious hope that resource consent would be granted for a near 100-metre tall building that (at the time) had not been “designed” or detailed sufficiently clearly by the applicant.
Enjoy. [click to enlarge]

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█ Betterways Advisory Ltd is a company directed by Steve Rodgers, a Dunedin solicitor. For a very short time Jing Song was appointed as a director of Betterways —her directorship started and ended (or so it appears) the same day that Wharf Street Property Ltd was incorporated.

From NZ Companies Office records:
Former Director (Betterways Advisory Ltd)
Full legal name: Jing SONG
Residential Address: 56 Old Coach Way, Rd 3, Drury 2579, New Zealand
Appointment Date: 05 Apr 2013
Ceased date: 05 Apr 2013

LMW Trust Ltd is the sole shareholder for both Betterways Advisory Ltd and Wharf Street Property Ltd. Steve Rodgers is co-director/shareholder for LMW Trust Ltd, with solicitor and vineyard owner Evan Moore. LMW Trust is a shareholder in other (wine-based) companies directed by Jing Song.

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█ Further to Jeremy Whelan’s art of persuasion (gasp, where was the budget?) here’s a sample of manipulated images that might equally apply.

### dezeen.com 8 January 2014
Photographer Victor Enrich turns a Munich hotel upside down and inside out
A hotel in Munich is stretched, twisted, distorted and exploded in a series of 88 manipulated photographs by Spanish photographer Victor Enrich.
Enrich, who also works as a 3D architectural visualiser, based the series on one view of the Deutscher Kaiser hotel, a building he passed regularly during a two-month stay in the city. Some images show parts of the building turned on their sides, while others show sections of it duplicated or sliced away. Some shots show it curving into different shapes and some show it pulled it apart.
Describing the manipulation process, Enrich says: “What I basically do is create a 3D virtual environment out of a 2D photograph. The process involves capturing the perspective, then the geometry, then the materials and finally the lighting. The techniques I use are often described as ‘camera matching’ or ‘perspective matching’ and several 3D software packages provide functionalities that allow you to perform this.” He does a lot of the work by hand to “reach the level of detail needed to achieve high photorealism”.
Read more + Images

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Towering inferno: Fire engulfs luxury apartments and 5-star hotel

Thanks to Source. Oh dear.

Flames have engulfed a 40-storey luxury skyscraper in the Chechnya capital of Grozny.

### msn.co.nz 05:30 Thu Apr 4 2013
Fire engulfs luxury skyscraper hotel
By MSN NZ staff
The building, a local centrepiece named the Olympus tower which is used to promote the city [Grozny] as a glitzy and modern hub, has been evacuated as the fire raged from the top to bottom floors.
It is understood the flames spread rapidly due to the plastic trimming on the building, which includes luxury apartments and a 5-star hotel.
Local police confirmed no one was injured.
State television pictures showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the sky and clinging to the sides of the building with bursts of yellow flames snaking down the facade.
“We have no reports of casualties … The fire is currently spreading across the building’s facade via the plastic outer panels,” the spokesman for the North Caucasus regional branch of the Emergency Situations ministry, Kantemir Davydov, told the Interfax news agency.
Eighty firemen were at the scene, the emergency situations ministry said.
A witness photograph posted on Twitter showed flames and smoke pouring from the building, which is topped by a giant clock face and stands 145m tall.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Hope springs eternal

Proposed 100m hotel: Damn right, the fight’s not over! #Dunedin

Great to see the letter by award-winning architect Richard Shackleton given prominence in the ODT today. It sent me hunting for my copy of Paul Goldberger’s book, The Skyscraper (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), bought in second professional year (BArch) at Auckland. Given what has happened since to skyscraper design internationally, the book is a little quaint, eclectic and short of stature – it will always be a useful commentary on the emergence and history of towers in the United States.

Most of the buildings Goldberger cites I visited on architectural study tour with a group of staff, students and friends of the Auckland School in 1984, at the start of my four-year fulltime Master of Architecture degree (thesis only). But that’s quite another rainy day story of ‘commercial facades’.

Goldberger begins his last chapter, ‘Beyond the Box’, saying:
“By 1980, one thing was clear: the box, the rationalist dream of the International Style [the austere glass box, his words], was making more and more architects uncomfortable. Not only was it no longer the clean and exhilarating structure that would serve as a clarion call to a new age, but it was not even able to hold out much promise of practicality. It was generally inefficient from the standpoint of energy, and it was not as marketable from the viewpoint of real estate operators either.”

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41 Wharf Street, Dunedin
For the applicant (Betterways Advisory Ltd), architect Jeremy Whelan of Ignite Architects (Auckland) is assisting Shanghai-based ECADI (Eastern China Architectural Design Institute), who were initially engaged by the client, with the conceptual design of the proposed hotel. It is claimed in Whelan’s brief of evidence that ECADI has significant international hotel experience and has completed projects for all major 5 star brand operators including Kempinski Hotels, Four Seasons Hotels, Marriot Hotels, Ritz Carlton Hotels and the Intercontinental Hotel Group.

The design of the 27-storey hotel tower crassly proposed for one of Dunedin’s best waterfront sites is the likes of which Goldberger correctly identifies as ‘tired’ by 1980 – at the time of writing, he hadn’t yet considered Arquitectonica’s work at Miami, Florida (see the landmark 20-storey luxury Atlantis condominiums built in 1982, famous for their cutout) – but Whelan certainly had, as a BArch contemporary of mine at Auckland School, and that building too is ‘tired’ as architectural metaphors and shared language go.

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ODT 3.1.13 Letter to the editor p12

Enter hotel in the search box at right to find recent posts and comments.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Does a stadium count?

### ODT Online Tue, 17 Jan 2012
Skyscrapers harbingers of financial doom – report
An “unhealthy correlation” exists between the construction of skyscrapers and financial crashes, according to a new report from Barclays Capital. The construction of the Empire State building in New York in 1930, along with towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 and Dubai in 2010 have all been followed by economic crises, the report noted. Reuters
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Conceptual Design: ‘purification skyscraper’

### edition.cnn.com May 6, 2010 Updated 0822 GMT (1622 HKT)
A skyscraper designed to make a rotten river run clean
By Emanuele Comi for CNN
Imagine a skyscraper that – instead of hosting offices – houses a system that purifies the water of a polluted river, employs the people living in surrounding slums and gives them a home in which to live. That’s the revolutionary idea behind an architectural concept that aims to solve the problems generated by the polluted Ciliwung River in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. The largest of 13 rivers which run through Jakarta, the Ciliwung flows through 72 subdistricts of the city. Along its river banks lie a ramshackle collection of illegal slums and around 400 businesses, according to a recent report by the Jakarta Capital City Provincial Government.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr