LONDON | Project Compilation Thread

[Newcastle Kid]

Thanks Jef.

[wjfox2004]

http://www.cnplus.co.uk/News/2008/04...eel_prize.html

Cleveland Bridge favourite for Shard of Glass steel prize

Published: 02 April 2008 10:18

Cleveland Bridge is being tipped to carry out the steel contract on the Shard of Glass in London as front runners for the key subcontract packages on the 310 m-high building begin to emerge.

Main contractor Mace is due to make a series of decisions on trade contracts by the middle of next month before it makes a summer presentation to developer Teighmore, which has told it not to bust a £300 million budget.

The steelwork deal would be the Darlington firm's most high-profile scheme since the £60 million Wembley Stadium contract, which it turned its back on when it walked off that job nearly four years ago.

The firm has priced the work along with a rival team featuring ZNS, the sister firm of Dutch company Hollandia - the contractor that ended up replacing Cleveland Bridge at Wembley - and Belgian contractor Victor Buyck.

A winner is expected to be named in May with the deal carrying a price tag of about £25 million for 11,000 tonnes of steel.

Steel will be used in the first 42 storeys of the project, which will house hotel and commercial space, with the next 30 floors residential and featuring a concrete frame, before steel is used again in the remaining floors.

Two firms, Byrne Bros and John Doyle, are pricing the concrete contract, also expected to come in at around £25 million, with Mace due to make an announcement on the winner after the steel contract has been sorted.

Demolition firm Keltbray finally began tearing down the main fabric of the existing building this week as part of its £7 million contract at the site, which is next door to London Bridge railway station. It has been on site for more than two months carrying out asbestos removal.

Mace is hoping piling work, which will be carried out by Stent, can begin by July with construction work finishing in 2011. The M&E deal is expected to be the last major package to be sorted out with the contract split into two. Phoenix Electrical is one firm looking at the deal.

Author: David Rogers. News Editor

[jef]

Good news. We all so much hope works will at last start on this new European landmark skycraper that will rival the Eiffel Tower, in my opinion.

[Newcastle Kid]

Originally Posted by jef

Good news. We all so much hope works will at last start on this new European landmark skycraper that will rival the Eiffel Tower, in my opinion.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. I'd say the Shard could end up being to London what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, or what the ES Building is to New York.

[Shep]

Cheers for the update WJ!

I must admit I was a tad worried what with all the finance issues going on!

This seems relatively safeish!

[jef]

Originally Posted by jef

LBTH reports that Canary Wharf has submitted a application for the erection of a 37 storey building comprising a 150 bedroom hotel and 78 serviced apartments on the land bounded by Park Place, Westferry Road & Heron Quays Road.

Overall height of 145.6m AOD, with a screen extending to 149.9m AOD

[wjfox2004]

New rendering of 1 Park Place, posted by NG.

Exact height is 191m to the roof, with a facade overrun going up to 197m.

[wjfox2004]

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?...de=3110309&c=1

Bernard Ainsworth is hired to take on the Shard

2008 Issue 13

By Roxane McMeeken

Legendary project director leaves Atkins to lead development of 312m London Bridge tower

Bernard Ainsworth, the project director of the Millennium Dome, has been brought in to head the development of the 312m Shard tower for Sellar Property Group.

Ainsworth is leaving Atkins, where he is currently projects director, to project manage the Shard, and the surrounding London Bridge Quarter.

Ainsworth, 61, said he had intended to retire this year from his role at Atkins but changed his mind after he received Sellar’s offer. His work for Atkins included a secondment to doomed London Underground consortium Metronet.

He will start his job on 14 April. He said: “I am very excited. I’m a project management guy, I like big projects and the Shard is a great project.”

Ainsworth, who is in Building’s Hall of Fame, made his name on the Millennium Dome before becoming chief operating officer for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, which was lauded for regenerating the east of the city.

Ainsworth’s title is project managing director with specific responsibility for the £2bn London Bridge Quarter, which includes the Shard development.

The 72-storey Shard has an estimated construction value of £350m. Building revealed last week that Mace, which is building it under a fixed-price contract, may revert to a construction management procurement route if a deal is not agreed by September.

Irvine Sellar, chairman of Sellar Property Group, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have attracted one of the construction industry’s leading builders to lead what we believe to be Britain’s most prestigious regeneration project.

“He has a superlative track record of delivering large and complicated construction projects on time and within budget.”

[Newcastle Kid]

Originally Posted by jef

Overall height of 145.6m AOD, with a screen extending to 149.9m AOD

Originally Posted by wjfox2004

Exact height is 191m to the roof, with a facade overrun going up to 197m.

These two should sit right next to each other, I think they will complement each other well. But then the smaller one will hardly be visible with Riverside South up.

[jef]

Credit to Atkinson for these pictures of future residential development in Canary Wharf. I think it is the residential tower to be developed by Canary Wharf adjacent to Westferry Circus although I am not sure.

[wjfox2004]

Official website of the Heron Tower - http://www.herontower.co.uk

And some new renderings ...



















Basement level construction is expected to begin this month.

[jef]

The last two renderings are ... AWESOME.

A couple of screenshots in GE showing CW with RS and HQW.
The models are extracted from the planning documents deposited at LBTH.
I have made my best for the textures.

[jef]

FT: JPMorgan is understood to be committed to taking the office space leased to Bear Stearns in Canary Wharf (instead of sub-letting). They have not yet communicated which operations they will move to the Wharf.

[jef]

FT:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/bb3c32ac-068...ies%2Fproperty

Minerva agrees to £150m office scheme
By Daniel Thomas, Property Correspondent

Published: April 10 2008 04:57 | Last updated: April 10 2008 04:57

Property group Minerva is to announce a £150m ($297m) construction contract with Skanska that will give the green light to the development of one of the largest City of London office schemes.

Minerva’s St Botolph’s office development, which will provide 560,000 sq ft of office and retail space on a site near Aldgate, has been short-listed as a potential home for newspaper publisher News International.

Occupier interest in the site, as well as the construction agreement that is to be announced today, will be welcomed by the developer. Minerva's share price has dropped almost 80 per cent over the past year to at 89p yesterday, partly because of fears over its development exposure to the City, where it has two large office schemes.Minerva has been talking to Skanska about building St Botolph's for almost 18 months, and will hope that the signing of the contract will now quash rumours about issues with its development pipeline.Tim Garnham, Minerva's group development director, said: "With a construction contract now signed, a significant pre-let agreedand funding in place, we look forward to delivering the St Botolph's development into the market on schedule in 2010." However, the talks with News International throw up one potential headache for the developer, which has has already agreed a letting of 84,000 sq ft of the offices to Lockton, the insurance broker.It is thought that Lockton is aware of the talks and is not posing any problems.A deal with News International would see the entire building taken, which would be a considerable coup in an increasingly uncertain City office market.Skanska will receive £150m from Minerva to build the offices. HSH Nordbank and Landesbank Berlin have already agreed to provide development finance for the project.


Minerva's Announcement

Minerva plc ("Minerva") today announces that it has signed a £150 million
construction contract with Skanska for the Company's St Botolphs development.
Skanska has commenced the enabling works on the site.

St Botolphs will provide 560,000 square feet of high quality Grade A office and
retail accommodation in the City of London. The scheme has been designed by
leading architects, Grimshaw, and is due for completion in 2010.

[Fabb]

^^^The renderings of the Heron Tower are very realistic. I like them.

[wjfox2004]

New renderings of the Minerva scheme in Aldgate:

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?...de=3110904&c=1

[pricemazda]

such a let down...

[jef]

JP Morgan: axe to fall on 40,000 London jobs
Siobhan Kennedy

In the most dire forecast so far of the impact of the worldwide credit squeeze on UK jobs, it was today predicted that as many as 40,000 posts in the City will be cut.
...
Banks such as HSBC, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have been axing staff as demand for complex debt and mortgage products has dried up in the wake of the global squeeze on credit.
...
Based on a rough space requirement of 150 square feet per office worker, 40,000 jobs equates to about 12 of London's landmark "Gherkin" buildings.

Thus, city vacancy rates were likely to reach 12.2 percent in 2009 while City office rents were set to decline by 16 percent in 2008-2010.

[wjfox2004]

New rendering of the City, courtesy of Hayes Davidson -

[wjfox2004]

Elephant & Castle video I made -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHc4gaFRJLw