505 Fifth Avenue, New York, USA

505 Fifth Avenue, a new office tower in Manhattan, New York, USA, was occupied in the first quarter of 2006. Construction of the tower began in 2004 and was completed late in 2005. The Kipp-Stawski Group was the developer for the project and Kohn Pederson Fox Associates (KPF) was the official architect.

505 Fifth Avenue replaces several small office complexes of ten to 20 floors and a one-storey strip mall. 505 Fifth Avenue is one of the prime sites in Midtown Manhattan.

The site is in distinguished company, including the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, and Grand Central Terminal. Axel Stawski the prinicipal of the developer believed that although the site was small the location more than made up for it and it deserved a tower with an elegant design.

This building is the first commercial cast-in-place reinforced concrete superstructure for Kipp-Stawski. 505 Fifth Avenue is called the CIT Building after the building's anchor tenant, consumer finance company CIT Group Inc. CIT Group moved in during the first quarter of 2006.

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

By New York standards, 505 Fifth Avenue is a low-rise complex, rising 125m over 28 storeys. Designed by KPF, the slender tower is constructed of concrete, steel and glass. The building contains 300,000ft² of space. There is 25,000ft² of combined commercial space in the underground floors, ground floor and the first floor. Office space starts from the third floor and provides a further 275,000ft².

During the planning stage, designers focused particularly on the views from the building. The columns were kept away from the perimeter of the tower and the main façade was designed to provide undisturbed viewing from the building. A higher quality of concrete was used to reduce the column sizes of the towers and increase office space.

CIT BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

505 Fifth Avenue used the latest concrete technologies combined with steel and glass. A 15in-thick slab frames the 15ft cantilevers at the spandrel to meet the curtain wall design requirements while still allowing 15ft dual cantilevers at the southwest corner of the building. High-strength concrete was also used in the 30ft columns and 11in-thick concrete slabs.

After several design alterations, KPF decided to install an 11in-deep, conventionally reinforced concrete flat-slab that has 22in-deep capitals as the economical floor framing system. The floor offers large interior spans and does away with floor beams that are used to support the slab.

The system also reduces floor-to-floor height, reducing costs incurred on formwork and building frames. The upper floor columns of the building recede by 15ft to make provision for curtain walls and allow sufficient sunlight to pass through.

The perimeter columns support cantilevers as well as a part of the interior span, allowing the spans to go almost 45ft from the curtain to the core. The cantilevers provide for a column-free perimeter, slim spandrel beams, and 11ft floor-to-ceiling windows, which present perfect sights of neighboring landmarks like the New York City Public Library, Empire State Building, Bryant Park and Rockefeller Center.

SECURITY AND SAFETY

Fireproofing and extra security measures were installed to meet all eventualities, including the threat of terrorism. A concrete curb on the first floor will act as a check for vehicle intrusions. The inner lite of the double glazing is laminated and sprinklers run at the perimeter every 6ft to provide extra fire protection.

KEY PLAYERS

Washington-based Pavarini McGovern Construction Co, Inc. is the general contractor for the building project. Rosenwasser / Grossman Consulting Engineers PC executed the structural engineering and Gordon H. Smith Corp consulted on the façade.

Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. consulted on the environmental aspects of the site and the project. Benson Global were responsible for cladding and curtain walling in the building.

CONCRETE CONTRACTORS

The concrete hi-rise contractor for the building was Northside Construction and the superstructure concrete supplier was Quadrozzi Corporation. The foundation contractor was JCivetta & Sons and the foundation concrete supplier was NYCON Supply Corporation.




505 Fifth Avenue uses the latest concrete technologies combined with steel and glass.




By New York standards, 505 Fifth Avenue is a low-rise complex, rising 125m over 28 stories.

Slike novih projekata u Dubaiu




Dubai Festival City and the new Creek bridge



Al Badia Golf Resort and Dubai Festival City




Architectural model of the gulf side of the Al Qasr Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah





Dubai Festival City

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House of Sweden (Swedish Embassy), Washington, DC, USA

The construction of the House of Sweden began in Georgetown Harbor during April 2004. The project involved the construction of a new purpose-built Swedish Embassy and a trade exhibition area and conference centre.

The building was developed by Lano-Armada and Hoffler Harbourside LLC on the Georgetown Harbor site on the bank of the Potomac River, along with a six-story, 115,000ft² office complex on the northern side of the site. Lano-Armada and Hoffler Harbourside LLC purchased the site from Crescent Real Estate Equities in 2002.
HOUSE OF SWEDEN OPENING

The project is scheduled to be completed, and the Embassy inaugurated, by the third quarter of 2006 when it will assume a central role in the promotion of Swedish culture and trade in Washington DC. Following the inauguration an 18 month program of activities promoting Swedish business, technology, culture, art, design, music, cuisine is planned to strengthen Swedish–US relations.

Gunnar Lund, the new Swedish Ambassador, expects the Swedish Cultural Centre at the Embassy to be a great success following its promotion by The Friends of House of Sweden (FoHoS), a non-profit corporation, which promotes networking opportunities and exchanges of information relating to all aspects of Swedish culture and commerce.
FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF THE PROJECT

Sweden decided it needed a purpose-built new Embassy in order to achieve a higher profile to assist trading legations from its country to the United States. Also Sweden was the only major country left in Washington without its own purpose-built Embassy.

The new building will include 70,000ft² of floor space, two floors of Embassy facilities and a conference centre with exhibition areas and an auditorium. The top two floors of the building will be a residential area, which will be sold as luxury riverside apartments to private buyers, and there will be a single-level car parking garage.

The Swedish National Property Board has signed a lease for 40,000ft² of the 70,000ft² building with an option to buy the Embassy space at a future date. The project will cost an estimated $34 million. In addition, from January 2007 Sweden have an added resource in one of the most commercially dynamic parts of the US when its new Consulate General in Houston, Texas opens.
SWEDISH EMBASSY CONTRACTORS AND DESIGNERS

The building design was decided through a design competition between five of Sweden’s top architects. The competition started in 2002 and the winning design was picked out by jury vote in September 2003.

The design chosen was one by Wingardh Architects of Gothenburg (Gert Wingardh and Tomas Hansen). The building was constructed by Armada and Hoffler Construction of Washington DC, who were also involved as the developers.
,p>The design incorporates building materials and systems used in Sweden to showcase the country’s resources. The building is of a modern glass design interspersed with a framework of wood. This gives the building a transparency (to give a feeling of openness to the building) and as the building has a large wooden component, a feeling of the use of natural Swedish materials for construction.

The Swedish National Property Board retained Karchem Property to assist them in presenting the design to the Commission of Fine Arts, the Old Georgetown Board and the National Park Service (which control the Potomac area) for planning permits and permission to start the construction.
DESIGN OF THE BUILDING

The exterior skin of the building is clad with screened glass and gives the building a transparent appearance. On looking through the building, the inner structure is visible along with an excellent view of the Potomac River and Rock Creek beyond. At night, floodlights illuminate from the transparent skin within.

The green roof helps the building absorb and filter storm water runoff, while simultaneously reducing interior building temperatures and extending the life of the roof membrane.

Other sustainable strategies that have been used in the construction include the use of renewable building materials, construction recycling, and alternative heating and cooling systems that substantially reduce energy and equipment lifecycle costs.

SWEDISH EMBASSY SECURITY

Security at the new Embassy complex is set to present problems since the building has such an open glass design. However, the site on which the Embassy has been built has only one entrance and exit and this allows the first line of security to be more easily maintained.

The glass panels of the building are alarmed with a state-of-the-art system and there is extensive internal security, such as CCTV, pressure pads and infrared detection systems.

SWEDISH EMBASSY LANDSCAPING

Landscape architect Johan Paju designed a five 'room' garden complex for the new Embassy. Each of the 'rooms' has a separate microclimate and illustrates a different theme of the Swedish countryside.

The themes include: winter terrace, the barren rocky garden, the wild flower meadow, the forest pond and the birch forest. The same type of garden theme continues across the site to include the landscaping of the office complex on the northern end.

LEADING UP TO INAUGURATION

The building work is now substantially complete and already pre-inaugural events have been held at 'The House of Sweden'. On 23 March 2006 an exhibition featuring artwork by students of the Beckman's College of Design was hosted by the bare concrete floor of the 5th floor of House of Sweden.

This turned out to be a contempary exhibit combining artwork of graphic, product and fashion designs by 14 students. The press conference following the exhibition also indicated some of the House of Sweden’s future tenants, which will include Volvo, Saab, and the president of International Finance Corp.




Construction began on House of Sweden, the new purpose-built Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC, in April 2004.





The new building will include 70,000ft² of floor space, two floors of embassy facilities and a conference center with exhibition areas and an auditorium.





A six-story, 115,000ft² office complex is also being developed on the northern side of the site.




The exterior skin of the building will be clad with screened glass and will give the building a transparent appearance.

Bravo kolega.Aj samo stavi izvore ovih postova

Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse, New York, USA


Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse is an important element in New York's courthouse renovation and construction. Jonathan Stark, principal and director of Perkins Eastman, outlines the complexities of designing a classically imposing structure that is also a state-of-the-art office building.

At 32 storeys and 473ft high, totalling more than 1.1 million ft², the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse at 330 Jay Street is New York State's largest and most programmatically complex courthouse and office building.

It is home to the New York State Supreme Court, with 50 courtrooms; the Kings County Family Court, with 34 courtrooms and hearing rooms; and a number of state and city agencies.

The building also includes a 750-person jury suite, a 250-person detention facility, support spaces for the courts' administrative functions and 150,000ft² of speculative office space.

The project represents more than ten years of development, design and construction, and has become a major addition to the landscape and the local economy of downtown Brooklyn.

SELECTING THE SITE

As many of the city's courts are currently housed in overcrowded, inefficient and outdated facilities, the City of New York has drawn up an aggressive strategy to replace these aged courthouses as part of its city-wide masterplan for the renovation and construction of courts within the five boroughs. This has resulted in the construction of major facilities in Queens, the Bronx and now Brooklyn.

In support of the New York State Office of Court Administration's initiative to move towards a unified court system, the decision was made to move the Supreme and Family Courts to a single location in Brooklyn. This will allow judges to oversee multiple types of cases and increase the overall efficiency of the two courts.

A multi-year effort to find a suitable location for the new courthouse was conducted throughout the Brooklyn downtown area. This resulted in the selection of a site controlled by Forest City Ratner Companies, the prominent developer of the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn.

The site is in close proximity to the downtown Brooklyn Civic Center and is easily accessible by public transportation.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE CITY

Although the site was originally earmarked for an office building, the developer offered the City of New York the chance to become the primary tenant.


The site's location near the existing Supreme Court, Family Court and Government Center, its size – sufficient to house both courts and related government agencies in one building – and the opportunity for the city to lease the building and avoid a lengthy and complicated procurement process made it the ideal new home for the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courts.

Ultimately, the project was developed as a turnkey public / private partnership between the City of New York and Forest City Ratner Companies. The site did come with some complications.

To allow for the development of over a million ft² of space on the site, the developer and an adjacent hotel entered into a Zoning Lot Development Agreement (ZLDA), which stipulated the maximum height of the new building (473ft), as well as numerous setbacks for the building and sightlines that could not be obstructed.

This helped create a fixed, tight envelope which Perkins Eastman had to adhere to when designing this state-of- the-art courthouse.

THE MODERN COURTHOUSE

Philosophically and architecturally, the courthouse traces its roots back to ancient Greece and Rome. To this day, the word 'courthouse' evokes images of classical architecture – precisely because many of those early public buildings were designed to reflect the order and harmony of the young US nation.

The modern courthouse, however, is in a period of transition. It is no longer limited to heavy stone and columns, and now aspires to be a less foreboding, more user-friendly environment.

Nevertheless, the design must still convey the dignity of the judicial system, providing a sense of ceremony from the approach to the courthouse to the corridors leading into the courtroom.

The modern courthouse should demonstrate an appreciation of detail and of how the language of civic architecture has evolved. It must also incorporate technological advancements designed to expedite the judicial process and tighten security.

The design should be influenced by its surroundings, present a positive image of the government, and create a space that is user-friendly, open and accessible. It should aim to be well regarded by the wider community and refrain from any inappropriate aesthetic flourishes.

The ideal courthouse is, above all, a rational building, epitomising good judgment and perfect harmony with its immediate environment.

DESIGN CHALLENGES

Designing a major new courthouse in a busy urban environment such as downtown Brooklyn presented special challenges:

Addressing neighbourhood concerns: in an urban environment, there is little space between buildings, so issues of traffic and queuing space (for both vehicles and pedestrians), bus routes and parking had to be addressed.

Pedestrian movement: the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse handles a very high volume of cases, requiring particular attention to pedestrian movement into and within the building.

Verticality: the smaller lot sizes of urban environments meant combining two courts into a vertical building and dealing with all of the additional complexities of planning functional and efficient spaces and circulation systems.

Security: the smaller urban site made achieving an adequate building stand-off more difficult. Blast protection, ballistic protection and electronic security were all very complex, but also very important.The design team needed to address these requirements without creating an intimidating, fortress-like structure.

Secure parking and prisoner access: the sally ports and parking for judges required a considerable amount of space, which was best accommodated on belowgrade floors of the building. Prisoner bus access also had to be secure without impinging on the surrounding neighbourhood.

Natural light: in any place of work, employees value natural light. The challenge for the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse was to provide natural light in secure zones of the building while obscuring judges' movements from surrounding buildings.

WORKING WITH A TIGHT ENVELOPE

Given the tight envelope and the predetermined building mass, the design team concerned itself primarily with laying out a modern court floorplate that was functional, efficient and easy to navigate by all occupants of the building. This gave rise to a number of design challenges involving the building's exterior.

Influenced by the local context of the MetroTech office complex and surrounding residential districts, the façade combines elements of brick, glass and stone into a traditionally inspired piece of courthouse architecture, which also satisfies the developer's requirement for a state-of-the-art modern office building.

Brick, a common building material in Brooklyn, gives the building a feeling of solidity, while vision and spandrel glass windows suggest the façades of modern steel and glass office buildings.

The verticality of the façade, highlighted by the brick, serves multiple purposes. Stylistically, it makes subtle reference to the columns of a traditional courthouse. The vertical expression also brings order to the many different floor-to-floor heights visible on the façade.

Supreme courts, which have a larger footprint, require higher ceilings than family courts, and those floors with courts are generally taller than floors that contain offices alone.

These vertical lines also take advantage of the building's shape, as determined by the sightline preservation requirements. Corners by the setback of the tower and the building's curved torso create a harmonious whole, with the vertical lines guiding the eye in a single direction.

THE PROGRAMMATIC CHALLENGE

Combining 84 courtrooms and ancillary spaces for two court systems with 150,000ft² of office space into an existing envelope required more than the usual amount of programming and planning expertise.

Each of these uses – the Supreme Court, Family Court and the commercial office space – had such specific needs that it made more sense to use a building-within-building layout.

Each is accessible only from the ground floor, and has its own circulation system, lobby and entrance. The building's layout is further broken down so that the Supreme and Family Courts can provide circulation paths for judges, public visitors and prisoners.

Judges take special access-restricted elevators to their chambers, courtrooms and dedicated parking, while the public takes elevators located right off the main spine of each floor, leading to the courtrooms and State and City agencies.

This reinforces the idea of the procession; the clear delineation of spaces as one moves from the lobby through to the courtrooms themselves. Prisoners take elevators located at their arrival points, which lead directly to holding areas assigned for every two courts.

CATERING TO INDIVIDUAL AGENCIES

The commercial office spaces are located on the uppermost floors of the building, occupying the 26th–30th floors.

The rest of the building, however, is devoted to the courts and more than a dozen City agencies, including: the New York City Corporation Counsel; the New York Police Department; the New York City Department of Corrections; the New York City Administration for Children's Services; the New York City Department of Juvenile Justice; the New York State Office of Children and Family Services; the Kings County District Attorney; Victim Services / Safe Horizons; Legal Aid and The New York State Office of Mental Health.

The design team worked with representatives of the courts and each City agency to determine space needs, functionality requirements, adjacency requirements, paper flow and work conditions in order to develop innovative planning solutions both within and among the agencies.

Determining the appropriate locations of the agencies involved a lengthy process of consensus building, as each agency had its own agenda and requirements.

In many cases, each of the agencies became separate design projects in their own right. Ultimately, the individual requirements of each agency and the courts had to result in a harmonious layout and circulation patterns that were simple and intuitive for employees and visitors alike.

STRENGTHENED SECURITY

Building security – both structural and electronic – is a major concern for any new building in New York.

For the Brooklyn Supreme and Family Courthouse, the design team incorporated advanced physical and electronic security throughout the building. The structure system was designed to resist a car bomb and to protect against progressive collapse of the columns.

The slab between office floors and court occupancy is hardened for blast protection, as is the truck dock on the commercial lobby level and the separation between court and commercial spaces.

The windows are a composite material of laminated and tempered glass, with blast-resistant frames. The curtain wall at the judges' chamber floors conforms to UL Level III anti-ballistic construction, while the blast protection measures used in the building meet GSA modified level C blast requirements.

Specific criteria were developed through a Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA) in cooperation with the courts, the Department of Corrections and the NYPD.

Bollards placed around the building provide protection from vehicular threats. Exterior columns and all interior columns in public lobbies are jacketed in concrete for protection from hand-held explosive devices.

Public lobbies, loading docks and vehicular entry areas have blast-strengthened walls and slabs. In addition to the structural enhancements, sophisticated electronic security has been incorporated throughout the building. In fact, the building contains more than 4,500 units of the most advanced electronic security equipment.

COURTROOM AND COMMUNITY

The design team addressed community concerns regarding quality of life and neighbourhood security issues, believing these to be an equally important part of the project. These concerns include increased traffic in and around the area, as well as queues of buses and visitors outside the building.

The design team performed numerous studies and came up with the solution of constructing a full-floor sally port in the first level basement, along with parking areas and stacking and queuing areas for buses, to avoid having to park on the street with prisoners.

A cellblock for 250 prisoners permits a reduction in the number of trips the buses make in and out of the building due to court scheduling. In addition, a number of courtrooms are wired for video arraignments and motions, making it unnecessary for some prisoners to go to court at all.

The large lobby not only gave the courthouse the requisite sense of scale, it also allowed visitors that typically queue inside and outside the courts to remain fully indoors rather than standing outside the building.

A separate study to determine how quickly people could go through the magnetometer allowed the design team to ascertain the number of magnetometers needed at any given time to accommodate pedestrian traffic through the lobby area.

A NEW BEGINNING

Perkins Eastman approached the design as a means of reviving the failing image of the city's courts as well as addressing its physical inadequacies.

Chief Judge Judith S Kaye summed up what had been achieved: "The physical environment of a court should reflect the gravity and seriousness of the business conducted within, and engender respect for the administration of justice. In this regard, the buildings that currently house the Family and Supreme Courts in Brooklyn have been woefully inadequate."

"Now, after decades of hardship, these courts will finally have a suitable home at 330 Jay Street for the 6,000 or so court users who enter their doors daily. This exciting new project in Brooklyn is part of New York City's masterplan for the renovation and construction of courthouses in all five boroughs."






The south-east elevation of the courthouse.




Detail of the east façade.




A view of the east façade of the courthouse.

Moscow International Business Centre (MIBC), Moscow, Russia

The Moscow International Business Centre (MIBC) is an ambitious engineering project in the centre of Moscow. The site is on an old urban area near the river embankment. The goal of the project is to create a new business district within the city.

The whole complex is to be built on a 100ha site (divided into 30 plots) designated for new development on the Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. The management company for the project is CITY Joint Stock Company (CITY JSC), a company first set up in 1992 as a collaboration between the Russian government and private investors.

The project was first launched in the early 1990s but has been stalled for much of the last 10 years due to a lack of investment. In 2003 the project started to attract investment again and has been gaining momentum ever since.
PLOT 1: BAGRATION BRIDGE AND TOWER 2000 OFFICE COMPLEX

The first major building constructed in the MIBC project on Plot 1 was the Bagration Bridge (pedestrian bridge) and mall, completed in 1999. The second project was the Tower 2000 office complex, a multi-use business complex begun in 1996 and completed in 2001. The building is 106m high and has 30 storeys above ground and four storeys below. The total floor area of the complex is 60,000m².

The underground area contains parking garages, restaurants, retail areas and a fitness centre. Floors 3–15 and 17–26 are business offices while floors 8 and 27 have a media centre, large exhibition hall and piano bar.

The business areas are served by structured cable network, fibre optic cable, satellite broadcasting, Wi Fi and ADSL Internet access, automatic digital telephone exchange with integration of services, local broadcasting system, municipal broadcasting network, electric timing system, data collection and processing system, audio and video systems, simultaneous interpreting system, conference system, video projection system and security systems including biometric access control and a monitoring system.

The tower also has a central air conditioning system, auxiliary exhaust ventilation system, cooler and heat supply systems, Uninterruptible Power Supply system (UPS), automatic fire security system, automatic volumetric fire-fighting system, sprinkler system and automatic smoke removal system.

The general contractor for the tower was Promstroytechnologia-M Company Ltd. The facade of the tower, which is made of glass and structured concrete, was constructed by Transwall Technology. The tower is equipped with 17 computerised rapid elevators, supplied and installed by Schindler Aufzuege AG, and an outer panoramic elevator, supplied and installed by Kone Lifts. The exterior lighting equipment was supplied and installed by Thorn.
PLOTS 2 AND 3: MOSCOW WEDDING PALACE AND CITY SQUARE

The sites designated by plots 2 and 3 are now to be developed as the Moscow Wedding Palace and City Square. This will include a city square, an underground retail complex and a 14 storey multipurpose complex, which will include the Wedding Palace, banquet halls, restaurants, shops and a hotel.

The developer is Capital City Developments. The architect is Mosproject – 2. The construction started in 2005 and is scheduled to be complete by the end of 2007.
PLOT 4: AQUAPARK

The Aquapark leisure complex was started in 2002 and was completed in 2005. The site occupies a 1.74ha area adjacent to Krasnopresnenskaya embankment. It includes:

    * Complex of swimming pools, water mountains and leisure attractions, restaurants and cafes and retail areas (24,352m²)
    * Five-star, 30-storey hotel complex (54,640m²) built on a six-storey podium containing retail areas, restaurants and nightclubs
    * Parking to accommodate 425 vehicles (13,050m²)
    * The aqua park will be connected with a mooring on the Moscva River

The developer of the complex was Aqua-City Palas Company Ltd. The project required an estimated investment of $230 million. The general contractor was Liard Stroy Ltd and the designers were Mosproekt-2 of Russia and Tkhomesto Engineering of Finland.
PLOTS 6, 7 AND 8: UNDERGROUND MALL AND METRO STATIONS

A large underground complex containing the central core of the MIBC, an underground mall and two metro stations is located on these plots. Construction started in late 2001 on the 5.1ha site and was completed in mid-2004. The complex has a total floor area of 150,000m² and includes:

    * 35,000m² shopping mall
    * 20,000m² multi-purpose performance complex
    * 10,000m² dancing complex
    * 15,500m² sports and leisure complex
    * 30,000m² 'Wonderful World of Entertainment' theme park
    * 7,000m² restaurant complex
    * 30,000m² hotel

The complex developer was CITY JSC and the designers were Mosproekt-2. The construction engineers were Bovis Europe and Jones Lang Lassale of the UK.
PLOT 9: CAPITAL CITY PROJECT

This project involves the construction of two connected tower blocks and a dome. The towers will be of 73 and 62 storeys high, with a 16-storey domed building containing an atrium. Connecting the buildings will be a podium building with three storeys above ground and 4–6 below ground.

The lower levels of each tower will be for office space (200,000m²), while the upper levels (above 80m) will be residential and the dome will be used as a retail area. The investment for the project is $250 million.

The developer is Capital Group; the construction engineers are Bouygues Construction and the architects are Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects of Holland. Construction has been underway since 2005 and the project is scheduled for completion in mid-2007.
PLOT 10: NABEREZHNAYA TOWER

This project involves the construction of a new office and apartment complex consisting of three A-Class buildings 16 (86m), 27 (135m) and 52 (250m) storeys high, with a total floor area of 220,000m². The construction began in mid-2003 on the 2.55ha site with the smallest of the three buildings.

The first building was completed in autumn 2004. Enka, a Turkish construction company, is carrying out the development and construction. Enka has invested a total of $150 million so far. Work is continuing on the other two buildings with completion expected in 2007.
PLOTS 11 AND 12: MIXED-USE TOWER BLOCK

The major project on these plots will be a 300m, 75-storey, mixed-use tower block with over 204,000m² of floor space. The facilities will include commercial and government offices, residential areas, retail space, leisure and health centres and a four-star hotel.

Offices will occupy the floors 4–45, while apartments are on floors 48–66. The building was designed as a two-tier skyscraper, 30 floors in the first tier and 37 in the second one. The second floor of the building will be occupied by a casino. The 47th floor will be occupied by a gymnasium.

The designers for the project are Swanke Hayden Connell Architects and the investors are Techinvest, who are investing $270 million. The contractors for the construction are Summa, a Turkish development company. Groundwork was carried out by Kaskatas. Construction on the building started in the third quarter of 2004 with completion scheduled for late 2006.
PLOT 13: FEDERATION OFFICE COMPLEX

The Federatsiya (Federation) office complex is to consist of two towers, one 57 storeys high and the other 87 storeys (345m), and a podium. The 87-storey tower will hold offices and the 57-storey tower will include residential apartments and a hotel. The total floor area of the complex will be 240,000m².

The podium will have three to five levels and 30,000m² of floor space and will contain retail areas, banking facilities, cafes, restaurants and leisure facilities. The complex will have 14 lifts built between the two towers, including four 'Shuttle' round-observation lifts.

Stroimontage and NIKoil Financial Group will invest more than $500 million in the project. The architects for the project are P Schweger, S Tchoban and A Asadov of Germany. Stroimontage is the general contractor for the project. Construction started in April 2004 and the complex is scheduled for completion by 2008.

PLOT 15: CITY HALL AND DUMAS

Plots 2 and 3 are owned by the Moscow City Government and original plans were for the new City Hall and Dumas (Parliament) buildings to be located there. However, these buildings will now occupy Plot 15.

The construction on Plot 15 consists of four 70-storey interconnected 308.4m buildings. The project started in November 2005 and will be finished by the end of 2007.

It is expected that all government administration will be accumulated in the new complex to provide better organisation, allowing the buildings currently in use to be sold.

The four skyscrapers will be connected by several two storey bridges between towers and eight storey bridges at the top. The highest bridges will be built in shape of letter 'M' for 'Moscow'.
PLOT 16: RUSSIA TOWER

Plans for a 600m-tall tower to be built in Moscow to designs by British architect Sir Norman Foster were released in March 2006. ST Towers is the developer behind the project and is part of the ST Group.

The Russia Tower will be more than 50% higher than the Empire State Building and is to be built within the Moskva-City development on Plot 16 near the site's border with the Third Ring Road. It will overshadow the 430m Federation Tower under construction at Moskva-City, which developers say will be the tallest building in Europe when it is completed in 2008.

The 420,000m² tower is a striking design comprising three blade-like structures arranged in a trefoil-like plan around a central core and tapering sharply toward the top, with part of the steel structure exposed on the outside like an exoskeleton.

Described by the architect as a vertical city, the tower is to house parking and retail space on nine underground levels, a public ice rink on the first floor under a spacious, pyramidal atrium, a hotel with serviced apartments above, 24 floors of office, high-end apartments on the top levels and a public observation deck at the very top. The resident population of the tower could be 25,000.

The Russia Tower is billed as an environmentally friendly project, maximizing natural ventilation and lighting, with solar cells, the collection of rainwater and snow to reduce water demand and the recycling of energy between areas with varying levels of demand. In addition, atria several floors high are to be spaced throughout the building's central core and decorated with plants, providing the luxury apartments on the upper floors with private gardens in the sky.

The construction of the tower is expected to cost about $1.5 billion; of this about $150 million to $200 million would be supplied by ST Towers. Plans for the tower have been approved and it should be finished by about 2010. Construction has not yet started.

PLOT 17 AND 18: MULTI-PURPOSE OFFICE-HOTEL COMPLEX

The multipurpose complex will include two towers (80 and 78 floors), with a common underground space for parking. The high tower will contain office premises and the second tower will be a hotel.

The complex will also contain a roof-top restaurant with a panoramic view, cafes and bars, conference halls and billiard club. The architect is Skidmore, Owinds, and Merrill LLP. No dates have yet been announced.
PLOT 19: NORTHERN TOWERS

An office complex is being developed on this plot by ZAO Severnaya Bashnya. The Northern Towers will consist of three buildings – two 12-storey and one 29-storey. These will contain 135,000m² of floor space.

The architect is Project Institute 2 and the construction engineer is Bau Holding Strabag AG (Austria). Interior design in the building will be carried out by ABD Limited, and legal services with regard to lease documents are provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The first phase of Northern Tower is scheduled for shell and core delivery by the fourth quarter of 2006. The marketing and leasing campaign has already started. Raiffeisenbank has agreed to become the first tenant of the complex.

Northern Tower will feature spectacular atriums, prime office premises and a multi-level parking for 688 cars. There will also be a multi-functional conference hall for up to 200 people, banking premises, restaurants and cafes, a fitness centre with a swimming pool operated by Reebok, a professional dental clinic and a beauty parlour.
POWER PLANT CONSTRUCTION

The power supply for the new MIBC has been a subject of much contention among foreign investors. The complex requires an efficient power distribution system operating at 20kV rather than the more typical 10kV.

CITY JSC and power supplier Mosenergo JSC put forward a proposal in 1999 to the Moscow City Government to develop a new power network for the MIBC, mini-metro, metro junction core, Eurostation and Sheremetyevo-Moscow Rapid Transit System.

The power and heat supply for the MIBC will be provided from three sources: the Mosenergo power station 'SS-CITY-1'; the district heat and power station 'Krasnya Prsnya'; and the MIBC power plant on Plot 7A, which entered its first phase of construction in 2002–2003 and is now well into its second phase with completion expected in 2006.

Having established the power supply sources, the next part of the project was the bulk power and distribution network to support the MIBC. Phase 1 of the MIBC power plant has seen the construction of a Gas Turbine Unit (GTU) and Heat and Power Plant (HPP) with a capacity of 50MW and a substation with two transformers for 110V from 20kV and 110V from 10kV and two 63MVA distribution units. The next phase will see an increase of capacity up to 100MW.

The developers of the power plant are CITY JSC and CITY-ENERGO Company Ltd. The contractors for the project are Liard-Stroy Ltd and the designers of the plant were Mosproekt-2 and VNIPI Energoprom.
TRANSPORTATION CONSTRUCTION

The Moscow–Sheremetyevo line is the first phase of the RTS to connect the three satellite airports to the centre of Moscow. This first line, 34.3km in length, will provide interconnectivity between the airport, regional centres and urban junctions and also interconnect with the existing municipal transport system. The project was started in 2001 and eight stations were planned. This stage is now complete.

The developer for the RTS is CITY JSC in collaboration with the City of Moscow; the designer is SNC Lavalin of Canada. The Phase 2 section of the project to extend the line to cover Vnukovo Airport was started in 2004 and is now nearing completion (scheduled to open in 2007).

The RTS development not only concerns rail links to the new commerical centre of Moscow but it is also a development in its own right. The Plot 11 development will include the construction of the new Moscow transport terminal uniting the RTS, three lines of the underground and the intercity bus terminal.

The complex will include transport stations with waiting rooms, boarding areas for VIPs, a hall of customs inspection, left-luggage offices, a 342 room hotel and ticket offices.

For this section of the development Citer Invest B.V. of the Netherlands is the developer, Behnish and Behnish Architekten of Germany are the architects. The investment is $200 million and construction is underway with an expected completion in 2007.

MINI-METRO LINE

A mini-metro line was also constructed to provide transportation within the MIBC and to connect with the historical centre of Moscow. There are three stations, one constructed in Phase 1 of the project and two in Phase 2. The three stations are Dorogomilovskaya, International and Moscow – City.

The length of the line is 5.85km. The engineering and transport contractors were Metrogiprotrans JSC. The line along with the International and Moscow – City stations came into operation in September 2005.



City Hall [right] and Aqua City Palace [extreme left].



Plot 9 - Capital City.




Plot 10 - Naberezhnaya Tower.



The Naberezhnaya Tower is a new office and apartment complex.




Plot 13 - Federatsiya (Federation) office complex.




The Federatsiya office complex is to consist of two towers, one 57 storeys high and the other 87 storeys.




Russia Tower on Plot 16 could be the tallest building in the world when constructed



A mini-metro line is also being constructed to provide transportation within the MIBC and to connect with the historical centre of Moscow.

Milane, stavljaj izvore svojih informacija (to znaci stavi link ka strani sa koje si tu vest skinuo) inace ce takve poruke biti brisane

ok, moja greska. brzopletost

2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, USA

The relocation of ABC television has left Century City in Los Angeles ripe for redevelopment. Gene Watanabe of Gensler talks about a major new commercial and recreational space on a site rich with history.

Taking on the task of revitalising the Entertainment Center in the heart of Los Angeles' Century City means carrying the identity of the city on your shoulders.

It is not only a flagship development for the local community but also a site with a lot of history. As a result, developers have had to juggle the needs of the public and those of the private sector, as well as striking a balance between the past and the future.

The project is designed to offer a mix of commercial, office, retail, dining and public space on a site that was built 30 years ago for anchor tenant ABC Television Networks.

ABC moved out in 2000, relocating to the Disney Studio lot in Burbank and leaving large amounts of office space vacant.

The site that is left is in need of radical improvement, but offers an opportunity to create a new identity for a high-profile site, reviving it as a commercial and public centre.
2000 AVENUE OF THE STARS DESIGN

The proposed development, known as 2000 Avenue of the Stars, will offer a 12-storey office area, multiple dining facilities, shops and cultural amenities. In addition, the concrete outdoor central plaza between 2000 Avenue of the Stars and century plaza will become four acres of landscaped green space.

"Century Plaza Towers, to the east of our project, is a very prominent address," says Gene Watanabe of Gensler Architecture and Planning, a senior designer on the project.

"There was a feeling that if a new high-rise went up around them that it would diminish their importance. The two ABC buildings that we are raising and reducing blocked pedestrian flow on the corner of Avenue of the Stars and Constellation, which is now the heart of the city."

PARKING AND PEDESTRIANISATION

Recognising the prominence of the site and the desire to attract more pedestrians, a comprehensive programme of improvements in parking and pedestrian access has also been undertaken.

Add to this the emphasis on power and water conservation technologies to improve the building's environmental performance, and it is clear that Gensler has had to face numerous challenges.

Not the least of these was finding the required amount of floorspace on the site, while preserving the lines of sight and achieving a sympathetic aesthetic interaction with the surrounding structures.

"For the amount of area we were looking to develop, it was a challenge to fit in 800,000ft² of office space," says Watanabe. "We knew it had to be high-rise, but we would have had to put half of the garage below the complex out of commission and put in new foundations. We couldn't do that. We were limited by the conditions of the structure."

IMPROVED FOUNDATIONS

Using the existing footings through the garage below, the maximum height that could be sustained was found to be eight storeys, resulting in a larger floorplate of 100,000ft².

"A low structure like that would have been disastrous for the site," believes Watanabe, "so we designed new buildings with premier-sized, class-A rent floorplates, which meant we had to raise the building. We could not use the skeletons of the existing buildings, and we needed to look at a new structural system integrated into the existing garage."

One potential solution was to add columns connected to the foundation through the garage and strategically placed to support office buildings. However, these columns would have had a negative impact on the available size and usability of the garage, and parking is at a premium in LA.

"We came up with a more conducive grid," says Watanabe, "putting the new footings on columns, almost symmetrically between the existing footings, which limited how large the new footings were. So, the whole basement level is on a single, large footing. With this layout, our height was still limited, but it was up to 12 storeys."

The result is a pair of 12-storey buildings with 27,000ft² floorplates. At the second floor, and again at the eleventh and twelfth floors, the two buildings are joined by a bridge, giving the three floors a combined area of 65,000ft².

"We are finding that these bridge floors are very desirable," says Watanabe. "The building will be a striking addition, with the hole in the structure between the bridges, but it was really driven by a need to solve the problem."

A SPACE FOR THE PUBLIC

The identity of the site will also be heavily influenced by the open space at its centre.

One of the project's goals is to increase public use of Century Park, previously blocked by the wall created by the ABC buildings, which hampered access from the outside.

The location of Century City means that there is not only plenty of commercial traffic in the area but also a number of desirable residential locations in the vicinity, giving the designers an opportunity to create a major focal point for the area.

The solution to the problem of opening up access to the park from the corner of Avenue of the Stars presented itself when the team was examining alternatives for the parking facility below the building.

"We staggered the floors of the garage," says Watanabe, "tucking the parking in underground. Century City had evolved to become very dense, and the park development was part of the idea of greening the area. There was a need for underground parking when it was built, so the easiest solution then was to have a hardscaped plaza. There was almost no green space that people could enjoy."

'GREENING THE AREA'

Given the area that was available for greening, the Gensler team felt they could truly create a destination for the local community as well as commercial and tourist traffic.

"From the ground floor of the Crown Plaza Towers to the lobby of the Avenue of the Starts building there is a 30ft slope. So we created a sloping park, all on one level, which creates a graded transition between the buildings. We used that depth for planting, so it is all grass – no planters and no dirt either."

Putting earth on would have added too much weight to the underground parking structure, so the slope is largely composed of Styrofoam, with planted material on top. The result is a functionally successful design which maximises rentable office space while providing an exterior that blends with the other architectural elements.

"It will be a valuable amenity for the city," adds Watanabe. "Everyone loves the building."

At present, construction is on course, the ABC buildings have been demolished and work on the lowest foundation is under way. The tower cranes are in place and steel is still being delivered, but when the cranes move out and the site is ready for occupation by its anchor tenant in 2006, Los Angeles will have another major architectural attraction.



2000 Avenue of the Stars is the latest in a long line of landmark developments in the heart of Los Angeles.




The concrete outdoor central plaza between 2000 Avenue of the Stars and century plaza will become four acres of landscaped green space.




The two buildings are joined by bridges at the second, eleventh and twelfth floors.


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