Sunday, April 15, 2007

The Broadgate Tower is glazing over

Broadgate Tower North side
The Broadgate Tower is glazing over. It wasn't so long ago that I measured the rate of completion of the Tower in Diamonds. Now I can do likewise for the vertical reach of the glass. Broadgate Tower close-upAs you can see from the photo, it's nearly 1 diamond high. As this photo from mid March shows, the extent of the glazing has grown by half a diamond in 1 month. Assuming a linear growth rate, this means the tower will be fully glazed in about another 4-5months. Scenes such as that to the right will soon be a thing of the past.

One thing that concerns me is that the outer casing overlayed onto the main supporting struts (eg the outline of the diamonds) are concave, and will surely just collect grime. They're also ideal nesting sites for pigeons. Now, i like pigeons, but I'm pretty sure the developers would rather keep the tower pigeon poo free.

It's difficult to tell from external appearance how close to completion a skyscraper is. I'll write tomorrow about the Willis Building, where I think it's most likely on the last lap (it's due for 'practical completion' (whatever that means) soon anyway). But, as I've just said, the Broadgate Tower, proceeding at the same rate as today, should be fully glazed by sometime in early Autumn... though it's not scheduled for completion until May 2008. Maybe progress gets significantly slower the higher up you go.

Here is a demonstration that 201 Bishopsgate is glazing over too. And that Bishopsgate is a far less busy street at the weekend.
pano201 Bishopsgate

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