Lotte Super Tower 123

The Lotte Super Tower 123, so named because it will have 123 stories, will be built over a transportation hub near the Han River in the Jamsil shopping and entertainment section of Seoul, South Korea. The light-toned glass and metal-accented structure blends a modern aesthetic with historic Korean art forms such as ceramics, porcelain, and calligraphy. “The tower’s uninterrupted curvature and gentle tapered form is reflective of Korean artistry,” said KPF design principal James von Klemperer, FAIA. “The seam that runs from top to bottom of the structure gestures toward the old city center.”

The 1,831-foot-tall building, designed to achieve LEED Silver, will house the corporate headquarters for the Lotte Group, a 66-year-old, $50 billion a year Korean business conglomerate. In addition, the high-rise will serve as a mixed-use vertical community with five distinct zones: retail, office, residential, hotel, and observation. Construction is scheduled to finish in 2014. If completed as planned, it will be the world’s second tallest building behind Adrian Smith’s 2,684-foot-tall Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

KPF is managing to stay busy during the recession with several large-scale commissions in South Korea. The New York-based practice developed the master plan for the Songdo International Business District, located on 1,500 acres of reclaimed land along Incheon’s waterfront, 40 miles west of Seoul. The $35 billion, 65,000-resident complex calls for offices, homes, shops, schools, and hotels—some of which KPF is designing. The firm’s 100-acre Songdo Central Park opened in August after three years of construction, and the 100-million-square-foot financial district developed by Gale International and Posco E&C, is expected to finish in 2015.

“The Korean construction industry has built supertall buildings around the world—most notably Burj Dubai,” which was built by Samsung Corporation, says Mustafa Abadan, AIA, SOM’s design partner in charge. “This building has become an important symbol for them in terms of bringing that expertise to bear at home.”

The 725,000-square-foot skyscraper—a concrete structure clad in glass and aluminum—appears to swell slightly as it rises, evoking traditional Korean pottery that is slender at the base and flared at the top. Snaking façade details, to be made of either extruded aluminum or stainless steel, soften the building’s corners, which Abadan says breaks up wind forces on the structure while also creating different shading conditions.

The tower is topped by a crown that extends beyond the inhabitable floors, which is meant to accentuate the building’s height, capture light, and help power an array of wind turbines. With a host of other energy-producing and energy-saving features, such as natural ventilation from a powerful stack effect, photovoltaic panels that double as shading elements, and radiant cooling through beams, SOM estimates it will be able to reduce the building’s energy use by up to 65 percent, compared to more conventional towers.

The 133-story skyscraper will offer retail spaces, offices, a hotel, residential units, and an observation deck; it will be the centerpiece of a new business district for media companies. It is one of several new towers planned for Seoul, including the Lotte Super Tower 123 by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, and a Daniel Libeskind-desigend tower in the Yongsan International Business District.

In September, an Emaar spokesperson had sent this newspaper a statement that the last of the cranes atop the Burj Dubai would be taken down in a few weeks. The cranes were originally supposed to come down by end of August.

The building, when completed, will meet all four criteria listed by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) – the body that classifies the world’s tallest structures.

CTBUH measures the height of buildings to the structural top, the highest occupied floor, the top of the roof and the tip of the spire, pinnacle, antenna, mast or flag pole.

Emaar said last month that the Burj Dubai tower has accomplished a world record for the highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade. Keeping the tower façade clean will be the next engineering challenge, it said. “To guarantee that every corner of Burj Dubai sparkles, 18 window-washing units are built into the tower,” said the statement.

The 5-year project would reduce the tower’s electricity use by 80 percent and save 24 million gallons of water a year, building owners and architects said. Separately, a 50-story, 500-room privately funded luxury hotel with its own green components would be built next to the skyscraper in 3 1/2 to 5 years.

In a move that suggests the property bubble has finally popped in Dubai, government-owned developer Nakheel said it was halting “further work” on the building’s foundations.

It is not known just how much work has already been completed.

“This is part of our readjustment of our immediate business plans to better reflect the current market trends and match supply with demand,” Nakheel said in a statement.

It is a bitter blow for the firm, which has also downed tools on the Trump Tower and International Hotel in December and delayed work on projects including Frond N villas, Gateway Towers and schemes at the Waterfront and the Palm Jebel Ali.

The New York Times says the world’s hottest property market – Dubai – has gone cold and that this could be the beginning of a big property slide in the emirate.

Nakheel Tower (Nakheel/PA Wire)

At least that is the rumour setting the internet ablaze at the moment – an official announcement has yet to be made.

Witnesses in Dubai say the tower has hit well over 800m and will not be going any higher and Wiki claims topping out was achieved 17 January.

Local media reports the skyscraper is being prepped for an 09/09/09 soft opening.

What we do know for sure is that workers are adding an antenna with a blinking light to the tower.

Samsung Engineering and Construction has confirmed its’ workers are on the job.

Next up is a 632-meter, 128-floor building dubbed Shanghai Tower. China’s latest fantastical super-tall shopping, office and hotel skyscraper is designed to curl heavenward, incorporating “green” elements such as rainwater capture and wind redirecting technology. Gardens will grow in between and around what are essentially nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop one another, all of it visible through a transparent façade.

Shanghai Tower is being built by a consortium of companies owned by the municipal government — two years ago the local government had put the project on hold amid a big corruption scandal. San Francisco-based Gensler is the designer, while the design institute of Shanghai’s Tongji University will act as the local partner.

Shanghai Tower is set for a 2014 completion.

Shanghai Tower

Although, several other projects were announced that claimed to surpass Burj Dubai’s height, analysts now agree that all such projects would require several billions for completion, and hence, they have all been bought to a halt.

The crisis is expected to govern global lives for the next three to five years, and an additional five years at least, would be required for the towers to surpass the 818 meters final height of Burj Dubai, and hence, it is now safe to say that the astonishing landmark, Burj Dubai, would cement its place as the world’s tallest building till 2019.

About four projects have been announced till date to outstrip Dubai. One being the Al Burj Tower by Nakheel in Dubai, the others are the Murjan Tower 1 in Bahrain, Burj Mubarak al-Kabir in Kuwait, and a kilometer high tower for Jeddah by Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal.

Launched on 6 October – the first day of Cityscape Dubai and Sunland’s 25 year anniversary – the development’s unique and majestic design is set to be one of Waterfront’s most iconic buildings reaching 278 meters above sea level.

Set in landscaped gardens and enjoying head-turning views across the Arabian Gulf, The Atrium will provide a collection of stylish residences including studios, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, Skyhomes and four and five bedroom penthouses. Levels 2 to 68 of The Atrium will be dedicated to residences with an entire floor of lifestyle amenities on level one. This will include a residents’ lounge, two swimming pools, gymnasium, health spa, business lounge and library, juice bar, two private residents’ cinemas, billiards room, children’s activity centre, golf simulator, and function room.

At lobby level there is a 24 hour concierge providing access to each residential wing, along with ground level specialty retail shops and restaurants with secure basement parking. The collection of luxury apartments will range from 60 m² for a studio apartment up to 1,250 m² for a presidential-style penthouse on the top 68th residential floor.

In reflection of The Atrium’s location on Waterfront, one of Dubai’s most important masterplan projects, Sunland Group launched an international external design competition for the project and shortlisted four of the world’s foremost architectural firms. The winning architectural practice was award-winning Pickard Chilton, who designed Four Seasons Place in Kuala Lumpur which was designed to complement the neighbouring Petronas Towers.

The Atrium will rise as two arching towers, blending together at the 47th level as one to form a sculpted gateway, framing and maximising view to the Arabian Gulf and the City. The distinguished design captures the sophisticated essence of the international and dynamic city that is Dubai.

It would not comment on the exact height or cost of the Islamic design-inspired Nakheel Tower. The building will have “more than 200 floors” and be part of “a multi-billion pound development”, the company said.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, a cautious Nakheel chief executive officer, Christopher O’Donnell, said: “From our perspective, we are building a tower that’s going to be over a kilometre in height. This is a complete iconic development. It may be the tallest.”

The tower and harbour project will take more than 10 years to complete. Apart from the landmark structure, there will be another 40 towers, ranging in height from 20 floors to 90 floors. The entire development will be home to more than 55,000 people and a workplace for more than 45,000.

Dubai said Sunday it is embarking on an even more ambitious skyscraper: one that will soar the length of more than 10 American football fields.

That’s about two-thirds of a mile or the height of more than three of New York’s Chrysler Buildings stacked end-to-end.

The tower, which will take more than a decade to complete, will be the centerpiece of a sprawling development state-owned builder Nakheel plans to create in the rapidly growing “New Dubai” section of the city. Foundation work has already begun, O’Donnell said.

About 150 elevators will carry residents and workers to the Nakheel Tower’s more than 200 floors, the company said. The building will be composed of four separate towers joined at various levels and centered on an open atrium.

The company said the new project is inspired by Islamic design and draws inspiration from sites such as the Alhambra in Spain and the harbor of Alexandria in Egypt.

“There is nothing like it in Dubai,” said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Nakheel’s chairman.

Perhaps not quite. But Dubai is already home to the world’s tallest building, even if it remains unfinished.

That skyscraper, the Burj Dubai, or Dubai Tower in Arabic, is being built by Nakheel’s chief competitor, Emaar Properties.

Constructed by rotating structural slabs from axis and comprising cantilevers, protruding balconies, and profiled slab corners, 56 Leonard Street will appear something like a Brobdingnagian stack of glass Jenga pieces or a flamboyant nod to architecture’s Metabolism movement. This irregular arrangement of blocks yields a different floor plan for each of the 145 condo units.

Above the double-height lobby—under whose shifting volumes artist Anish Kapoor will slip a giant, kidney-shaped mirrored sculpture—and a private parking garage on the second level, the building divides into several zones. The lowest, contained within four floors that the architects have dubbed “the townhouses,” is articulated to relate to the immediate context and includes amenity spaces such as a 75-foot-long pool and adjoining sundeck, film screening room, and conference and fitness centers. One- to five-bedroom residences populate floors eight through 45, while the top nine stories, seemingly precariously stacked, contain 10 full- and half-floor penthouses ranging in size from 3,650 to 6,380 square feet.

Herzog de Meuron were responsible for the design of the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Bejing.

1. The elevators will have the world’s longest travel distance from lowest to highest stop

2. Hot air on the outside will condense due to the large cooling needs of the building. The condensation will be collected and used to water the buildings flora and fauna. 20 Olympic sized swimming pools per year of water.

3. There are 1,210 fire extinguishers on the site.

4. At the peak cooling times, the tower will require approximately 10,000 tonnes of cooling per hour.

5. The tower’s observation deck will be located 442 metres above ground, the highest publicly accessible observation deck in the world.

6. Condensation on the building will be collected and drained down to a holding tank located in the basement from where it will be pumped into the site irrigation system for use on the tower’s landscaped gardens. This system will provide about 15 million gallons of supplemental water per year, equivalent to nearly 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

7. The amount of steel rebar used for the tower is 31,400 metric tons – laid end to end this would extend over a quarter of the way around the world.

8. Dubai has set a new world record for vertical concrete pumping for a building, by pumping to over 460 metres. The previous record was held by Taipei 101 for pumping concrete up to a height of 448 metres.

9. Burj Dubai will also break the world record for altitude transportation of concrete before construction is complete.

10. The total area of cladding used to cover the Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

11. The concrete used for the Burj Dubai is equivalent to: a solid cube of concrete 61 metres on a side, a sidewalk 1,900 kilometres long, the weight of 100,000 elephants.

12. The tower’s peak electricity demand is estimated at 36MVA, equivalent to roughly 360,000 100-watt light bulbs.

13. There will be 200 metres of dancing fountains at the foot of the Burj Dubai.

14. The Burj Dubai will feature the world’s first Armani Hotel.

15. Burj Dubai derives its design inspiration from the desert flower, Hymenocalis, and incorporates patterning systems that are embodied in Islamic architecture.

16. 54 lifts are to be installed in the tower.

17. The Burj Dubai spire will be visible from as far away as 95 kms.

18. At 5,500 kg capacity, the firemen/service elevator will be the world’s tallest service elevator.

19. First mega-rise to have elevators with specially programmed, permit-controlled evacuation procedures. (I wonder how they work? Weren’t we supposed Not to use evaluators in case of an emergency)

20. Highest publicly accessible observation tower at 442 meters. ( Go up and watch miles and miles of desert as well as ocean I guess!)

21. The curtain wall of Burj Dubai will be equivalent to 17 football fields.

22. The total glass requirement is 142K sq/m

23. The car park has approx. 3,000 parking places in four levels and a total area of just under 89,000 m2.

24. The car park ventilation system must comply with the USstandards Ashrae and AMCA for air quality and fan requirements and must in case of fire be suitable for operating at 300°C for not less than 60 minutes.
25. The double deck cabin elevators are the fatest in the world and also the one to travel the longest from a lower to higher point. The speed of the cabin is 18 m/sec (40 mph).

26. It also has the worlds first programmed and controlled evacuation in the world.

27. It can withstand the worst storm to hit dubai in a 100 years

28. It has 15,000 sq ft of fitness facilities.

29. A cigar Club
30. Connected to the largest mall in the world.

And for the environmentally inclined person:

1. Power requirement is 36 KVA is equivalent of 36K lights bulbs of 100 watts each operating at the same time.

2. The cooling requirement is 10K tonnes of melting ice every day.

3. 15 Million gallons of supplemental water are collected and drained every day

And lastly, 33,236 Men in Blue work at the site on a regular basis.

These buildings will stand at least 400 meters high, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.

Seoul alone will have six skyscrapers, including Dream Tower, with 152 stories at a height of 620 meters in Yongsan, and the second Lotte World building in Jamsil. In the nation’s largest port city, Busan, four skyscrapers will be constructed, including Busan Lotte World, 120 and 510 meters high.

Korea is expected to outrun other nations in terms of number of skyscrapers with over 100 stories if all these towers are completed. Currently, the United Arab Emirates has six skyscrapers of a similar scale, followed by the United States with four and China with one.

Such constructions are expected to become a landmark and serve as a new source of tourism and regional economic growth. The existence of such high buildings also helps its neighborhood become better developed.

Some are concerned they may be hazardous in the face of natural or human disasters such as earthquakes and fire.

“We have basic guidelines for the construction of skyscrapers, which consider the city’s overall appearance and safety,” an official from the Seoul City Government said.

Another problem might be financing the construction.

The construction of buildings with more than 50 stories requires approximately twice the budget as those with fewer than 50. They also require high-tech methods of construction with the combination of various industries.

Consequently, projects for the construction of skyscrapers face difficulties in finding business partners or forming consortiums.

Some of the projects are pending due to finance issues, such as the construction of a skyscraper in Junggu, downtown Seoul, and a tour resort complex in Haeundae, Busan.

The Burj Dubai tower currently stands over 1,700 feet tall. The state-owned developer Emaar Properties said completion would be postponed until sometime in 2009. It did not give specifics, but the newspaper Gulf News and the online news site ArabianBusiness.com said the delay would be four months.

“The company would rather opt for a nominal delay in total quality execution of the Burj Dubai … than compromise on any aspect of quality,” Emaar, one of the main builders in this Gulf boomtown, said in a press release without elaborating.

Emaar did not give the reason for the delay.

The final height of Burj Dubai is a closely guarded secret. Emaar’s representatives previously said the tower will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.

Last summer, the company said the skyscraper had reached 1,680 feet, surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.

When completed, the Burj Dubai will have more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

More..

The Burj Dubai tower currently stands over 1,700 feet tall. The state-owned developer Emaar Properties said completion would be postponed until sometime in 2009. It did not give specifics, but the newspaper Gulf News and the online news site ArabianBusiness.com said the delay would be four months.

“The company would rather opt for a nominal delay in total quality execution of the Burj Dubai … than compromise on any aspect of quality,” Emaar, one of the main builders in this Gulf boomtown, said in a press release without elaborating.

Emaar did not give the reason for the delay.

The final height of Burj Dubai is a closely guarded secret. Emaar’s representatives previously said the tower will stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.

Last summer, the company said the skyscraper had reached 1,680 feet, surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004.

When completed, the Burj Dubai will have more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.

More..