SOFIA, BULGARIA | Ropotamo Plaza | 341 FT / 104 M | 30 FLOORS

[T1000]

Just announced on Friday and on Saturday the preparation of the site has begun

I have some renders, but are quite small (sorry for that):


and one from the demolishing of the old building:


The tower is being built on the place where untill yesterday was sitting Restorant Ropotamo - one of the best places 15-20 years ago. Sadly it went to the toilet, and the building was a wreck. This weekend it was demolished, and they announced this new highrise. It will have an estimated floor count of 30 (+/- 2 or 3) and an estimated height ot 103 meters/338 feet. The building will have 4 underground floors that will be used for 200 parking spaces and 25-50 more on the ground. The tower will house the new version of Restorant Ropotamo, SPA Center, Pool, Fitness Center, a small Mall, 7 floors of offices and the rest will be high class expensive residential apartaments. There is a possibility that instead of the offices, the floors will be used for a "5-or-more stars" hotel. The building will be the first one to have an own 30-meter long tunnel which will allow cars to get to the parking spaces. On the ground the building will be surrounded by water and a small park. All of this will be great news for the people who will live there, but they will have to pay quite a lot for that. The building will have two energy and water sources and the maker claimed that it will be built entierly to furfill all of EU reglaments...

If done right, this one will try to claim the title of the tallest building in Sofia (how sad is this - only 100+ meters and "Tallest" title ...). The current tallest building is Hotel Rodina - 104 meters. It was built in 1981 and has 25 floors. It is followed closely by two other buildings that are 99 and 98 meters tall. They are even older - built in 1979 and 1976 respectively. So the new one will actually be one of the first newly built highrises over here.

Personaly speaking I quite like the Ropotamo Plaza. It's not the best desing in the world but it's a good start for the "new european look" of our city. Let's just hope they'll build it properly I will follow the construction and I will try to give updates of the progress in the near future (if there is interest of course).

So to sum up, Ropotamo Plaza will have:
Floors: 30 (+/- 2 or 3)
Floor space: 32 000 square meters
Height: 103 meters/338 feet
Materials: Steel, Concrete, Glass, "precious stones"
Construction starting: May 2007
Completition date: somewhere in 2009
Building price: 30 million euro (estimated)

[Awkab]

^ Thanks for posting T1000. Bulgaria isn't a country that shows up often here, so it's nice to get some information about projects there.

I'm not crazy about the design though....something about it looks sort of 1980's-ish. But I think this may also be the case of the actual completed building coming out much better than the renderings.

[M.K.]

Resemblance with Citicorp in NYC, with something different in glasses, but I like. Good to see it there improving the city. go up, let's let this one also beeing building... Keep us informated.

[BorisMolotov]

If they use the right kind of glass, then this will look awesome. And as for the sliced roof, that always looks cool. This has the potential to be a pretty cool building. Thanks for showing us T1000!

[brinvion]

I like this one. simple geometric shapes that please the eye.

[T1000]

A small sad update:
The people who live in the building next to the future Ropotamo Plaza are against the project because "it is too close to our building"... So they have taken it to the court. Nevertheless the site is almost ready for construction and all they need now is a green light from the court. Knowing how they judge over here, it won't be long until they get it It seems like the owners don't care that much and still say that the construction will begin in May.

[M II A II R II K]

How far did they get with this one?