Friday, August 29, 2008

Construction topped off on Trump Tower

Concrete crews hauled up the final bucket of concrete to the top of Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, officially completing the 92nd floor of the tallest reinforced concrete building in the Western Hemisphere.



The actual building next to it's rendering.




Trump is the tallest building erected in the United States since Sears Tower, completed in 1974.




Chicago skyline.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Shanghai World Financial Center opens to the public

On Saturday (August 30) the Observation Deck of Shanghai World Financial Center will be opened. The sightseeing spot is 474m above the ground. Until now, world's highest observation deck has been the Sky Pod of the CN Tower in Toronto at 447m high.

The ticket is $25.



- construction began on August 27, 1997

- it was planned to be the tallest building in the world when it was designed in 1997.

- the building reached its full height of 492 meters
on September 14th, 2007

- Shanghai World Financial Center is the second tallest building in the world. It is 16 meters shorter than the 508 meter Taipei 101 in Taiwan, although this is because of the spire atop Taipei 101. Counting by roof height the Shanghai World Financial Center is a full 44 meters taller than Taipei 101.

Friday, February 29, 2008

New #1 on Top 10 largest buildings in the world opens today.

The world’s largest building – the new Terminal at Beijing Capital International Airport - opens today. Designed and completed in only four years, Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport has opened.

Here is the new top 10 largest buildings in the world, the buildinbs are ranked by the amount of floor area.

1 Beijing Airport (Beijing, China, 1300000 m²)




2 Aalsmeer Flower Auction (Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, 990,000 m²)

It is the largest flower auction in the world. The auction building of the flower auction in Aalsmeer is the largest commercial building in the world, in terms of floorspace (99 hectares).




3 The Venetian Macao (Macau ,980,000 m²)

The Venetian Macao is a casino resort in Macau, China owned by the Las Vegas Sands hotel-casino chain. The Venetian is a 40-story, $1.8 billion anchor for the 7 resort hotels which are under construction on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The 10,500,000-square-foot (980,000 m²) Venetian Macao is modeled on its sister casino resort – the The Venetian in Las Vegas – and is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia.



4 Berjaya Times Square (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 700,000 m²)

Berjaya Times Square KL is a building containing a huge shopping centre and two five star hotels located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was opened in October 2003.

It is tagged as the "world’s largest building ever built in a single phase", with 7.5 million square feet (700,000 m²) of built up floor area. It is set to become an international landmark offering shopping, luxury accommodation, business, food and abundant entertainment.





5 The Pentagon (Arlington County, United States, 610,000 m²)

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.



6 Hong Kong International Airport (Hong Kong, 564,000 m²)

Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport, due to the fact that it was built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation.

The airport opened for commercial operations in 1998, replacing Kai Tak Airport, and is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway for destinations in China, East Asia and Southeast Asia.





7 Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Building (Seattle, United States, 533,000 m²)


The Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Building is part of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington that was established in 1970, although many of its component units have been operating for much longer.




8 Sears Tower (Chicago, United States, 418,000 m²)

The Sears Tower is a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It has been the tallest building in the United States since 1973, surpassing the World Trade Center, which itself had surpassed the Empire State Building only a year earlier.



9 Chrysler Technical Center (Auburn Hills, United States, 409,000 m²)

The Chrysler Headquarters and Technology Center is the world headquarters and main research and development facility for the automobile manufacturer Chrysler. It is located in the Metro Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The headquarters complex has 4,400,000 sq ft. (409,000 m²) on 504 acres (2.04 km²).



10 Boeing Plant (Everett, United States, 398,000 m²)

The Boeing Company's Everett, Washington Factory is where Boeing 747s, 767s, 777s, and the new 787 Dreamliner are built. Located on the northeast corner of Paine Field, it is the largest building in the world by volume at 13.3 million m3 (472 million cu ft) and covers 398,000 m2 (98.3 acres).

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Aspire Tower

The Aspire Tower is a 318 meter structure located in the Sports City complex in Doha, Qatar. Designed by architect Hadi Simaan, Aspire Tower served as the focal point for the 15th Asian Games hosted by Qatar in December 2006. The Aspire Tower is currently the tallest structure in Doha, but it is expected to be surpassed by the Dubai Towers and the Barwa Tower.


The tower was a landmark of the 2006 Asian Games due to its size and proximity to the main venue, the Khalifa International Stadium. The tower housed the Olympic Flame during the games and holds the record for tallest ever Olympic Flame and highest positioning of the Flame, which was visible throughout Doha for the duration of the games. The design employs a concrete core which acts as the primary support. The remainder of the building is a steel structure that cantilevers out from the concrete core. The exterior of the building is covered in a steel mesh which, during the Asian Games, was festively illuminated by vibrant LED lights. One of the most interesting features of the tower is the broadcast of videos which was carried out around an 8 meter section of the tower; this was done through the use of Color Kinetics, Inc.'s Chromasic technology.


Monday, November 5, 2007

New York Times Building

Recently New York Times Building was completed. The project was announced on December 13, 2001, shortly after the Hearst Corporation was given approval to construct a tower over their landmark six-story headquarters. In conjunction with the Hearst Tower, the site selection represents the further westward expansion of Midtown along Eighth Avenue; a corridor that had seen no construction following the completion in 1989 of One Worldwide Plaza.


CC


Design

The tower rises 228 m (748 feet) from the street to its roof, but the exterior curtain wall extends 28 m higher to 256 m (840 feet), and a mast extends up to 319 m (1,046 feet). The building has 1.54-million square feet (143,000 square meters) of gross space. On November 11, 2006, the building reached its pinnacle height of 319 m (1,046 ft.) when the remaining piece of the spire was assembled. The building is currently tied with the Chrysler Building as the second tallest building in New York and the 6th tallest in the United States. The tower was designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboraton with FXFOWLE Architects.


CC


CC


Facade

One of the New York Times Company top priority was to create a energy-efficient building. An unusual feature of the building is its fully glazed curtain wall. Thin horizontal ceramic tubes placed on a steel framework one and a half feet in front of the glass will screen the double glazed, spectrally selective, low-emissivity, full-height glass wall around the building, thus reducing the building's cooling loads.


CC


CC


CC


CC

Interior

Gensler Associates
provided interior design.

Cafeteria

CC

Newsroom

CC

Fire gate

CC

Desks

CC

Few other photos, enjoy!


CC


CC


CC


CC