Saturday, January 20, 2007

Broadgate and 201 Bishopsgate on the skyline

Quite a sabbatical it's been.

I couldn't upload photos until late on Monday, on Tuesday I was on a cooking course, on Wednesday I met Laura and went to see Last King of Scotland, on Thursday there was the excitement with the wind and the Trial of Tony Blair, and last night I went to the pub with Sharna and one drink turned into 3am.

So there are reasons for my absence.

Today I'm going to write/show that both Broadgate Tower and 201 Bishopsgate are pretty significant addition to the skyline, and yet scanadalously they get little or no media attention.

Pioneer skyscraperExhibit A: Broadgate is a pioneering building. I don't think I could make it any clearer than pointing out the words on the billboard in the photo on the right. Coinicidence? I think not.

Exhibit B: Not only does 201 Bishopsgate (the Ernie Wise of the partnership - i.e. short and always stifling a giggle) tower above buildings dating back to the days before steel frame construction, it is also already taller 201 Bishopsgate vs the streetthan all the other buildings on Bishopsgate, as demonstrated in the photo to the left. And it's not even finished - by my calculations it still has 2 storeys to go until it reaches the final 13.

They've been using girders which have big circles cut out of them to build, which must save money and weight... but have they considered the safety implications? EVERYBODY knows that triangles give structures the greatest stability, (particularly in the context of trusses). Mind you, circles, when packed together, do tend to arrange themselves in triangles. So maybe it's not so unwise.

I'll finish with an illustration of how fast work is moving. Only a month and a half between these photos, and I imagine work stopped over Christmas too.
201 Bishopsgate curve201 Bishopsgate 14/1/07

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