C Caleb Long

The Bank Of Oklahoma tower located in downtown Tulsa would come as a surprise to anyone previously unaware of it.  The tower looks startlingly like the towers that stood at the world trade center site in New York City until their destruction in 2001, but of course that was the whole point.  The Bank of Oklahoma Tower was built in 1975 by Minoru Yamasaki, the same architect who designed the twin towers in New York City.  The tower was built by commission of John Williams the CEO of Williams Companies to be a scale replica half the size of the original towers.  However there are a few design features that are not quite the same, for example the arches of the lobby level are big and round unlike the Venetian Gothic ogees, in the original design that flow directly into the columns which made up exterior of the towers.  Coming in at 203 m in height the Bank Of Oklahoma tower and its 52 stories is currently the tallest building in the upper midwest plains.

Currently the towers are undergoing about $16 million worth of renovation work with $6 million earmarked for pedestrian bridges and a granite coating for the base, along with windows, lots of windows.  The Williams company plans to replace every window on the eighth through forty-ninth floors.

The original design for The Bank Of Oklahoma Tower  was actually just a small set of towers each coming in at 25 stories, a pair of quarter scale replicas.  However John Williams is said to have altered the design by taking Minoru Yamasaki’s pair of towers and putting one on top of the other.  Some information suggests that part of the reason for this was that due to the amount of space required for the service core vs. the total floor area of each floor was not cost effective.  Due to this change that the Bank Of Oklahoma tower lacks the defining characteristic of the original world trade center site, its twin.

It’s interesting that not many people seem to recognize this tower as a remaining descendant of the original world trade center, but as a standalone with a different base the tower becomes less distinguishable from other office buildings.  It’s likely that if the building had been built in a manner more faithful to the original world trade center design, the Bank of Oklahoma Tower would have captured more attention.

For more Info: Wiki, The Believer, Tulsa World.

The not so subtle profile

Open portion of the building level with the parisian rooftops

Paris decided to release the restriction on building heights and a number of new sky scrapers have been announced for the city of love. One of them is the new tower being designed by Herzog & de Meuron. It’s been nicknamed the Delanoë tower after the Parisian mayor who fought to have the restrictions lifted and will definitely be a memorable addition to the city skyline if only for being the first of the six currently being planned.

Design concept for the Delanoë tower

There are a couple of great blog posts about this one, though opinion seems to be a little divided on the web,  the folks over at AMNP are not all that impressed about the tower, I have to admit I also find that the shape of the tower is of the kind that will either become an icon or end up reviled. Only time will tell, they did after all call the Eiffel tower hideous when it was built. AMNP also brings us a translation from france3.fr that talks about the components of the project.

The base of the tower should host a convention center. Then upstairs, we must find a luxury hotel from 300 to 400 rooms and offices. But the mayor of Paris has also wanted the implantation of businesses, including luxury, style restaurants, including pan, bars, shops. Equipment should also have their place: swimming pool, library, public gardens suspended. The municipality would also present a “museum of world languages.” [translated text from France3.fr]

The building most definitely cuts a striking profile depending on which side you look at it from, thin side on it doesn’t take up too much space, but move one point on the compass and it is quite a bit more imposing.

The boys over at OHLALAMAG say bonjour to Paris First Skyscraper in 30 years, though opinions are swinging towards revile in the comments.

Dezeen has a pretty extensive chunk of information from the architects themselves and reveals a couple interesting factoids. Evidently the triangular shape is to keep the building from casting its shadow on any of the surrounding buildings. The building of course achieves this is by pushing it’s footprint into the area that it’s shadow falls and thus prevents any other buildings from being built in those spaces, but really we’re just splitting hairs. Oh and the shape also allows for optimum solar and wind power generation. I am sure Herzog & de Meuron are pulling that factoid out for the haters. What do you think? is Paris’ next skyscraper a oui or a non?

The streetscape

As a young child I used to love lying in the sunbeam on my livingroom floor, but, then the sun would shift and I’d lose my sunbeam. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just swing your house around to follow the sun?

This isn’t a new idea, there have been spinning houses for half a century, built by various inventors and nutjobs around the world

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/01/europe/journal.php

François Massau built his first rotating house, pictured, in 1958 for his sickly wife so that she could enjoy sunshine and warmth any time during daylight hours. (Jock Fistick for The New York Times)

There are other spinning houses around the world, but are remarkably uncommon, and the concept is just not very popular. Who wants the neighbours to see the back of the house that hasn’t been painted yet? How can you buy circular furniture? What if the motor goes crazy and starts spinning the house like a merry-go-round?

But the benefits are unbelievable. The houses are very energy efficient, simply by moving the inhabited room into the sun all day reduces heating costs all year long.

This is great for a house in the suburbs…but isn’t this website called the URBAN Neighbourhood?

Enter Dubai. The city famous for building whatever the hell they feel like. You want new islands in the shape of the Earth? No problem. You want to build the World’s tallest building. Fine. You want an apartment that you can swing around to watch the sunset? Why not?

Enter David Fisher and his brilliant new apartment concept.

It’s always said that a guy who has a big skyscraper has a big … investment portfolio. South Korea is a country where all men aspire to have big … investment portfolios. In the last few years, every town, village and post office box has announced it’s plans to build the tallest building in the neighbourhood, town, province, or galaxy. It’s gotten rather confusing, but I’m going to try and sort through the hype and look at some of the future giants that will make the skylines of Korea more unique. People might try to point out the lack of supertall buildings currently in Korea, but one must remember that the Burj Dubai is being built by none other than Samsung construction.

Samsung Tower Palace, Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Currently the tallest building in Korea is the beautifully named “Samsung Tower Palace building G”. The logic behind these towers sprouting up in almost every neighbourhood in Seoul is simple. Land is too expensive, but everybody wants 45 pyeong to themselves. (Don’t ask me what a pyeong is, I couldn’t tel l you even if I wanted to since the word became outlawed last year).

Seoul doesn’t have a Manhattan skyline, which is probably why it has avoided being destroyed by aliens. But, hoping to attract foreign and possibly alien visitors, Seoul is branching UP. Yongsan, currently the home to a US army base that (in theory) will be closing, and an ugly railway yard is going to change, and like all change in South Korea, it’s going to be drastic. Seoul’s office vacancy rate is currently hovering around 1%, which has driven prices up by as much as 25% this year. The Korean government is trying to attract foreign companies to the city, but with spiraling costs, it seems unlikely without new office towers being built.

The Proposed Yongsan Tower by Samsung

Proposed Hyundai Mir Tower for the same site

The planned Yongsan Landmark building

“In Seoul, the planned 151-story Yongsan Landmark Building, at 2,046 feet, will tower over all the city’s existing structures, and even some nearby mountain peaks. “Seoul is the capital, so it must have the tallest building,” said Han Bong-seok, an executive at Korea Railroad, the national railway company, who heads the project to build the tower on the site of an old train yard. “This is for the pride of Seoul.” “(NYtimes, May 2007)

Proposed Lotte World Tower Seoul by Skidmore Owings & Merrill

International Buisness Center

Also on the South side of Seoul there are other monsters planned, the Sangnam International Business Center which will (possibly) become the center of Sangnam Digital Media city. This one will be 580m and 130 stories tall. The other is Lotte World Tower Seoul, which would be 555 meters. Lotte World is already the world’s largest indoor amusement park, but construction has not started on either of these projects.

But, as Seoul might be the largest city in the country, it isn’t the only major city looking to change it’s skyline. Both Incheon and Busan and rebuilding their cities, and their images. In Incheon they are currently building some massive apartments that will become part of Songdo International city. Korean’s love placing “International” into titles, even if it has little or no meaning at the time. Songdo is being built in the former industrial south end of Korea’s western port city.

This is another 151 story monster that
will become the heart of a new waterfront development. There is also a new bridge under construction that will link Incheon city to the slightly ironic Incheon airport, which, though in Incheon’s metropolitian boundaries, must be accessed by driving into and then out of Seoul. Incheon, facing towards China, is dreaming of being the heart of growth and investment as the 21st century looks to China, just as the 20th looked to America.

The third city to be planning towers is Busan. Currently there are two towers being planned or constructed in the city. Busan is one of the busiest port cities in the world, and as such, has a much seedier and grittier image than either Seoul or Incheon. Most of Busan’s recent development has been centered around Haeundae beach and Gwangali bridge. Haeundae new town is the home to many of the tallest buildings outside of Seoul, and is seeing even more development planned in the future. In the south end of Busan is the old city center, Nampodong, which has missed most of the recent additions to the city. Nampodong has a rundown air, and is in serious need of urban and transportation revitalization.

How many of these towers will be constructed is anyone’s guess. Koreans are famous for talking big, but then, they are also famous for doing things that seemed impossible. Posco, Samsung, and Hyundai were all but dreams 40 years ago, and now each stands amongst the giants of the world. It is easy, as a foreigner, to dismiss Korea as just a small Asian country, but it is a small Asian country with big dreams. I wouldn’t be surprised if ALL of these towers were completed.