Archivist
Senior Member
It's not an egg, it's a gherkin. And it's fabulous. I'd put that gherkin anywhere.
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Projects cancelled or on hold due to the Credit Crunch
- Thread starter Automation Gallery
- Start date
ProjectEnd
Superstar
Agreed, there's nothing bad to say about the old Swiss Re building.
markel
New Member
I wonder if this 1000 footer being built in London by Pinnacle International
is still a go considering that the Vancouver one and Toronto tower 4 are on hold.
look at the bottom right side. London has there very own Holiday Inn/Hyatt on King!
AKS
Senior Member
It's those short miscellaneous buildings clashing with the tall ones. The design on those look so odd they don't work well at all together. They should tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain. Then build some more tall building designs that enhance each other.
oreoshack
Active Member
is that canary wharf? and if so.....its so ugly. what happened to 'European sensibility'?
Observer Walt
Senior Member
No that's not Canary Wharf. It's a few high-rises in a city which, until very recently, was strictly low-rise.
Are the Europeans any more "sensible" than us?
Are the Europeans any more "sensible" than us?
adma
Superstar
Pfloyd
New Member
I can't believe I just read this. You have to be kidding! What you gotta do is take a trip to London to see it firsthand. Toronto feels like a village with ugly, banal buildings when you get back from London or Paris-OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but not by much...
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AKS
Senior Member
the building on the bottom right hand side doesn't look historical. It might be the size of the photo but it just looks messy. Looking at it, I don't get any historical vibes. Italy, Rome, Venice, those I get historical vibes.
adma
Superstar
AKS, evidently you've either never been to London, or you're a total ignoramus re London's historical urban form...
AKS
Senior Member
nope I haven't been to London. I'm just judging it from the photo's skyline. That's why I said it looks messy. But then I wasn't that impressed with Paris architecture either. I was in awe of Versailles though. That was probably my highlight of the visit to France.
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Versailles was built for a monarch who believed in divine right. London is an ever-evolving city where people live and work in.
Archivist
Senior Member
First of all, you can't a judge a city by photos, ever. I can't say this enough. It may not seem possible, but you have absolutely no idea what that part of London feels like from that photo. Not from any number of photos. That's the cool thing about cities, you have to be there.
Secondly, no, they should not "tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain". How can such a thing be suggested from a high level photo? The genius of London is the very arbitrariness of it's messy urbanism, not so much unlike Toronto in many ways. I have always found London so much more interesting and satisfying to walk through than, say, Paris. In the end, Paris's over-programmed landscape can be rather monotonous at times.
Back to the idea of what you understand of cities from photos - How many times have you seen photos of domesticated chickens walking on barely paved roads with dirt sidewalks lined by shitty little shack buildings, in Dubai?
In the end, one just needs to understand that you can't say anything much about a place until you've been there.
Secondly, no, they should not "tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain". How can such a thing be suggested from a high level photo? The genius of London is the very arbitrariness of it's messy urbanism, not so much unlike Toronto in many ways. I have always found London so much more interesting and satisfying to walk through than, say, Paris. In the end, Paris's over-programmed landscape can be rather monotonous at times.
Back to the idea of what you understand of cities from photos - How many times have you seen photos of domesticated chickens walking on barely paved roads with dirt sidewalks lined by shitty little shack buildings, in Dubai?
In the end, one just needs to understand that you can't say anything much about a place until you've been there.
condoboy
Banned
First of all, you can't a judge a city by photos, ever. I can't say this enough. It may not seem possible, but you have absolutely no idea what that part of London feels like from that photo. Not from any number of photos. That's the cool thing about cities, you have to be there.
Secondly, no, they should not "tear down some of the buildings, build a tall nice looking one and landscape it with a big park and water fountain". How can such a thing be suggested from a high level photo? The genius of London is the very arbitrariness of it's messy urbanism, not so much unlike Toronto in many ways. I have always found London so much more interesting and satisfying to walk through than, say, Paris. In the end, Paris's over-programmed landscape can be rather monotonous at times.
Back to the idea of what you understand of cities from photos - How many times have you seen photos of domesticated chickens walking on barely paved roads with dirt sidewalks lined by shitty little shack buildings, in Dubai?
In the end, one just needs to understand that you can't say anything much about a place until you've been there.
Haha...I wonder how much the sheiks in Dubai would have given the guy that took this photo to conveniently get rid of it?
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wyliepoon
Senior Member
Getting back on topic... supertall projects appear to be dropping like flies!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081121.wrustower1121/BNStory/International/home
Russian skyscraper construction on hold
YULIYA KOMLEVA AND MARIA PLIS
Reuters
November 21, 2008 at 10:33 AM EST
MOSCOW — Construction of Russia Tower, a 600-metre steel and glass symbol of new Russian wealth and power designed by Norman Foster to be Europe's tallest building, has been halted for lack of funding, its developer said on Friday.
“Say thanks to Alan Greenspan and George Bush,” Russian oil and real estate magnate Shalva Chigirinsky told Reuters.
The end of the era of cheap global credit orchestrated by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has hit Russia's developers hard, and many have frozen all but a few key projects.
Mr. Chigirinsky's comments appeared to take Foster's London-based firm by surprise.
“The project isn't on hold as far as we are concerned,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mailed comment to Reuters.
Russia Tower was to crown Moscow City, Russia's answer to London's Canary Wharf or La Defense in Paris, which rises from an old industrial site between a highway, a railway and the Moscow River, surrounded by cargo yards and Soviet apartment blocks.
Mr. Chigirinsky enlisted Mr. Foster, architect of the London Swiss Re building popularly known as the Gherkin, as he was garnering a huge following in the former Soviet Union.
Foster + Partners' website describes it as the tallest naturally ventilated tower in the world, with 118 occupied floors, and one of the greenest new buildings in Europe. It calls the project an “investigation into the nature of the tall building” like Mr. Foster's Tokyo Millennium Tower.
The first stone was laid in 2007. The tower was due for completion in 2012.
It now shares the fate of U2 Tower, planned for Dublin's Docklands as Ireland's tallest building by a consortium of Mr. Foster and the Irish rock band. Negotiations on U2 Tower were suspended for 12 months because of financial market uncertainty.
The glitzy new Russian commercial district was to give rise to a new international financial centre, a dream of President Dmitry Medvedev's Kremlin administration.
Earlier this month, one of the anchors of the project, state bank VTB, announced it would put off its move into Federation Tower, the second-largest building in the development, to keep costs down.
Mirax, developer of the Federation Tower, which like Russia Tower is a multi-use building with offices and flats, said last month that resilient demand for high-end real estate would soak up its $5 million flats with interiors by Giorgio Armani.
Mr. Chigirinsky, born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and ranked by Forbes among Russia's richest men with a fortune of $1.6 billion, said he could not predict the future of real estate and the resilience of rich Russians' spending power.
“Even if we had funds (to complete the building), we still wouldn't know what to do with it,” he said.
Mr. Foster has designed two more Chigirinsky projects: the Zaryadye cultural, residential and business centre which replaces the Hotel Rossiya, a Soviet-era eyesore next to Red Square; and New Holland Island, a stadium complex on an artificial island in St Petersburg's Neva River delta.
Mr. Chigirinsky did not give the status of those projects.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081121.wrustower1121/BNStory/International/home
Russian skyscraper construction on hold
YULIYA KOMLEVA AND MARIA PLIS
Reuters
November 21, 2008 at 10:33 AM EST
MOSCOW — Construction of Russia Tower, a 600-metre steel and glass symbol of new Russian wealth and power designed by Norman Foster to be Europe's tallest building, has been halted for lack of funding, its developer said on Friday.
“Say thanks to Alan Greenspan and George Bush,” Russian oil and real estate magnate Shalva Chigirinsky told Reuters.
The end of the era of cheap global credit orchestrated by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has hit Russia's developers hard, and many have frozen all but a few key projects.
Mr. Chigirinsky's comments appeared to take Foster's London-based firm by surprise.
“The project isn't on hold as far as we are concerned,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mailed comment to Reuters.
Russia Tower was to crown Moscow City, Russia's answer to London's Canary Wharf or La Defense in Paris, which rises from an old industrial site between a highway, a railway and the Moscow River, surrounded by cargo yards and Soviet apartment blocks.
Mr. Chigirinsky enlisted Mr. Foster, architect of the London Swiss Re building popularly known as the Gherkin, as he was garnering a huge following in the former Soviet Union.
Foster + Partners' website describes it as the tallest naturally ventilated tower in the world, with 118 occupied floors, and one of the greenest new buildings in Europe. It calls the project an “investigation into the nature of the tall building” like Mr. Foster's Tokyo Millennium Tower.
The first stone was laid in 2007. The tower was due for completion in 2012.
It now shares the fate of U2 Tower, planned for Dublin's Docklands as Ireland's tallest building by a consortium of Mr. Foster and the Irish rock band. Negotiations on U2 Tower were suspended for 12 months because of financial market uncertainty.
The glitzy new Russian commercial district was to give rise to a new international financial centre, a dream of President Dmitry Medvedev's Kremlin administration.
Earlier this month, one of the anchors of the project, state bank VTB, announced it would put off its move into Federation Tower, the second-largest building in the development, to keep costs down.
Mirax, developer of the Federation Tower, which like Russia Tower is a multi-use building with offices and flats, said last month that resilient demand for high-end real estate would soak up its $5 million flats with interiors by Giorgio Armani.
Mr. Chigirinsky, born in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and ranked by Forbes among Russia's richest men with a fortune of $1.6 billion, said he could not predict the future of real estate and the resilience of rich Russians' spending power.
“Even if we had funds (to complete the building), we still wouldn't know what to do with it,” he said.
Mr. Foster has designed two more Chigirinsky projects: the Zaryadye cultural, residential and business centre which replaces the Hotel Rossiya, a Soviet-era eyesore next to Red Square; and New Holland Island, a stadium complex on an artificial island in St Petersburg's Neva River delta.
Mr. Chigirinsky did not give the status of those projects.