Torres de Hércules. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The building height is 126 meters and has 20 floors. The last floor is 80 meters high, and above that there is a lookout restaurant. Both white towers are rising from the flat pillar of water, because the building is close to Bay of Algeciras and main highways from Seville to Gibraltar and also the Costa del Sol or Jerez de la Frontera airport. There is also parking with 200-lot space for cars based on the ground level. Some small commercial spaces are also provided with travel agency, a bank, messenger service or coffee shop.

Torres de Hércules. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The construction covers area of 19.600 sq meters and is prepared to serve as an office building. Being close to Cadiz and Gibraltar makes this building not only a landmark, but also well-placed highrise that could manage to get some money from office rental. Still, above last floor restaurant there is roof-top with panoramic view to beautiful neighborhood.

Torres de Hércules. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Torres de Hércules. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Here are some renders of this proposed skyscraper:

Miami Supertall - Miapolis 1. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Miami Supertall - Miapolis 2. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Miami Supertall - Miapolis 3. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Miami Supertall - Miapolis 4. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Beijing New South Station during construction in 2008. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The shape of this construction is oval and was designed by Hong Kong/UK company of Terry Farrel and Partners. It was also a single collaboration with the Tianjin Desing Institute. Materials used to create this monster are: almost 500,000 cubic meters of  concrete and 60,000 tons of steel. Over 4,000 workers was on construction site in three years of building. The station outer wall is covered by glass and roof contains 3,246 solar panels that create electricity for the whole complex. The stations possess 24 platforms with an ability to service about 30,000 passengers/hour. In yearly scale that gives about 241,920,000 in every twelve months. There is also large waiting area with ability to create space for almost 10,000 people. The whole complex is much bigger than Beijing National Stadium.

Beijing New South Station final look, visualization. Photo taken from skyscrapercity forums.

Beijing New South Station inside. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Beijing New South Station railway. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

World Trade Center complex. Freedom Tower is first on the left. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

World Trade Center complex. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

After the destruction of original World Trade Center during the terroristic attacks in 2001 debate about the place started. Few options appeared and many ideas. There were voices of re-building the original towers exactly the same way they used to be, but it appeared that old buildings were not such great project after all and this idea was abandoned fast. Next proposition was to re-build the original towers but bigger and taller. There were also some ideas to “leave the place alone” creating a just memorial park. That last idea became a part of final project. There was an architecture competition which win Daniel Liebeskind and his project of the whole complex was not accepted by local residents and public opinion. The main tower was become a kind of “memorial garden” which was over 500 meters high and the office part was not higher than other surrounding buildings. The whole concept of this building was really great but it couldn’t become new landmark of New York so this project has been re-invented few times until the final shape has been achieved.

1 World Trade Center construction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

1 World Trade Center construction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Lech Poznan stadium: workers are currently focused on roof construction and filling up the corners.

Lech Poznan stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Lech Poznan stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Lech Poznan stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

National Stadium, Warsaw:

National Stadium in Warsaw. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

National Stadium in Warsaw. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

National Stadium in Warsaw. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

City Stadium, Wroclaw: The build is currently on hold because of the problems with delays. Now new executor is preparing to take over the building-site.

Wroclaw City Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Arena Gdansk: workers are preparing to set the upper steel construction.

PGE Gdansk Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Gdansk Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Gdansk Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium: the building site slowly develops.

Kiev Olympic Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Slaski Stadium in 2005. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

In mid 2009 stadiums capacity was approximately 47.000 seats and it was in half-way reconstructed after another re-built. By this time stadiums construction was obsolete – half of tribunes was based on ground wall. Not another reconstruction is on the way. The whole stadium will get two-level up-to-date tribunes with all modern technologies and solutions.

Slaski Stadium in late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

After final reconstruction stadium will get semi-transparent roof and will hold 55.211 seats (51.480 after deduction of VIP seats, places for cameras, journalists etc.). There will be also 571 parking places (18 for buses) and 1451 business-class places. Stadium entrance will be divided to 9 main gates with 104 turnstiles, each of capacity 500 people/h. New light system will have power of 2000 lux. There will be also two rooms with panoramic view on the south side of arena.,

Slaski Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

There are still doubts about the color of finished stadium. Some people say that it should be white and red (Polish national colors) as the stadium is former National Stadium (new one is being built in country capital – Warsaw). Local lobbers wishes to see yellow and blue seats (Silesia colors) or just blue (the stadium was totally blue after installing seats). This discussion shows how it can be difficult to achieve compromise in the most simple things.

Slaski Stadium roof construction example. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Slaski Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Slaski Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The stadium was renovated multiple times. The first one in mid-1960s, second in 1970 and last four years. After the second re-build stadium capacity reached 30.000 seats. At this time also the first roof and drainage system appeared.  The third renovation started in 1979 and after demolition of a part of the stadium was hold until 1998 when the whole enterprise was resurrected. It appears that the third renovation lasted 20 years. The fourth set of renovations was ordered as a part of Ukraine’s Euro 2012 preparations. the whole capacity of stadium was increased to 41.411 seats. There is new roof and some general renovation elements and aesthetics quality increase.

The fully renovated stadium was opened on december 5 2009 and now Metalist Stadium is finished and fully prepared for the upcoming Euro 2012 event.

Take a look of some of the pictures of the completed arena:

Metalist Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Metalist Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Metalist Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Metalist Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Metalist Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Arena final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Arena final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The stadium will have very sophisticated look because of the special polycarbonates used to build the elevation. Te facade will appear with the amber color – which is very symbolic to close Baltic Sea. Amber is precious stone that appears almost only on Baltic shore and Poland is the main  source of this mineral. This will be surely one of the most impressive stadium during the tournament and the most beautiful. The project greatly refer to the characteristic of Euro organizers.

PGE Arena late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Arena late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

PGE Arena late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

At the end of 2009 there were some changes added to the main project that included roof montage technique, screens and sound systems. Luckily the main roof project has not been changed. There is no doubt that any change to that would be provided with huge loss to the whole building concept.

Donetsk Donbass Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Interesting thing about Donetsk stadium is a fact that this building looks poor from outside, but the inside look is just outstanding:

Donetsk Donbass Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Donetsk Donbass Arena. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Wroclaw City Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The characteristic roof look is based on the outer net undone between steel rings around the stadium.

Stadium cross-section. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The stadium will be fully capable of hosting big international events, concerts and games. This innovative construction will be surely one of the most beautiful stadiums on this tournament. Just check some samples of proposed night ilumination:

Wroclaw City Stadium at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Currently the building is being constructed. The whole enterprise started in 2009 and is supposed to end ad mid 2011.

Wroclaw City Stadium late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Wroclaw City Stadium late 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium final look

The rebuild turned a little bit slow because of the economic problems in recent years (Ukraine is facing huge recession) and corruption problems (large amount of government’s money just disappeared without a trace). But this reconstruction is not easy, and it is visible that workers are still on the site, so I think we can be optimistic about this one. Ukraine must face worse problems than stadiums. The whole logistic base of the country is still in mess. There are not so many hotels, and existing are mostly not comparative to UEFA standards. The same things could be told about the roads (Poland have also problem with those, many investments are being forced lately) and the whole communication system. I hope that Ukraine will manage to fix all those problems and the tournament will be hosted in four Ukrainian cities.

Reconstruction photos:

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Kiev Olympic Stadium reconstruction. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Final look of Poland National Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This object will contain almost 56 thousand seats. The construction stands on over two thousand reinforced concrete pillars, because of characteristic geological conditions in the area. Stadium’s grass will be placed on reinforced concrete plate, over eight meters above the ground. Two rings of tribunes will give audience excellent visibility during sport and music shows. The roof will become totally independent construction covering not only the tribunes but also pitch – that gives enormous possibilities in creating a theater of many spectacular events.

Poland National Stadium construction site. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Unfortunately this stadium will not be used by the most popular local football club Legia Warsaw. Some people say that building two big stadiums in one large city (about 2 millions residents) is not such exceptional thing, but still, every stadium could use a club appearance. In my opinion this is just a little waste of money and place that could serve more multiple purposes.

Poland National Stadium construction site at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This stadium will host Euro opening game, some group matches, a quarterfinal and semi-final. The big final is decided to be played in Kiev, but with Ukrainian problems with cash flow this show is in still jeopardy. It is still unknown how many matches the Ukrainian will finally host and some of the Polish stadiums must be prepared just in case, to take some of those games.

Poland National Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Poznan City Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The first stadium we will check is the Poznan City Stadium (used by the local club Lech Poznan). This arena was first placed in 1980. The first version of this stadium had a shape of a horseshoe and had a part opened to the city from the north side of the pitch. After installation of chairs and refitting existing tribunes the stadium could hold up to 25.000 people. I late ’90s city council decided to build the missing part of the stadium, giving the whole object new shape. This one tribune (called “The Fourth”) contains about 8.500 seats and will remain as an integral part of the new stadium. Everything else is brand new. The picture below presents the old view of the stadium (with characteristic four spotlight towers) taken from The Fourth:

Poznan City Stadium - an old view. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The old tribunes were dismantled and new ones are being currently built. New stadium will contain 41.018 seats during Euro 2012 tournament and 45.830 seats after this event. The whole stadium will be 213 meters long, 220 meters wide and 56 meters high (this is approximately the height of 18-floor building). The most interesting part of the whole stadium will be the roof (currently being constructed). This construction will be based on two main frameworks, each at weight of 1.400 tons and two auxiliary elements, each weight 450 tons. The movie below is taken from Skyscrapercity forums and shows the auxiliary element no. 1 placed on two main frameworks:

The whole stadium construction was supposed to be finished on may 2010, but this time limit will be probably shifted to autumn 2010. This is still very reasonable term – two years before the tournament starts.

Other construction pictures:

One of stadium main frameworks at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

One of two auxiliary roof elements. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

View on two main frameworks and The Fourth (smallest tribune). Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Miramare Business Center. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The project is based on a crossing of the two roads: Miramarska and Bednjarska. The building is supposed to join two urban city concepts: north and south. The northern side is filled with classical city blocks, and the southern consist many public and social buildings.

Miramare Business Center. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The complex contains semi-open atrium between the two buildings that is also connecting them to pedestrian space around. There is simple diversity of roles between floors: underground floors are garage spaces, ground floor will contain shops, restaurants and bars, and all higher floors will be filled with offices (around 20.000 square meters). There is also a view point predicted on the top of the higher building. The facade is made of glass modules that are pulled in and out.

Miramare Business Center. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Miramare Business Center. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This original project comes from great architect Santiago Calatrava.

Peace Bridge, calgary. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums, copyrights by Santiago Calatrava.

Peace Bridge, calgary. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums, copyrights by Santiago Calatrava.

Peace Bridge, calgary. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums, copyrights by Santiago Calatrava.

Cuatro Torres Business Area. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Cuatro Torres Business Area means: the Four Towers Business Area. This complex is placed in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the examples how to build some interesting buildings that are high, elegant and sophisticated. Cuatro Torres Business Area consist four high towers: Torre Espacio (57 floors, 226 meters high, 774 feet), Torre Caja Madrid (45 floors, 250 m, 820 ft), Torre de Cristal (52 floors, 249,5 m, 818 ft) and Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso (52 floors, 236 m, 774 ft).

Every tower has its own original design and architecture.

Cuatro Torres Business Area. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Torre Espacio was topped out on March 19, 2007 and is surpassed by Gran Hotel Bali.

Cuatro Torres Business Area. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Torre Caja Madrid is the tallest of the four buildings, and designed by Norman Foster.

Cuatro Torres Business Area. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Torre de Cristal is designed by Cesar Pelli and filled with offices.

Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso was completed in 2008 and designed by Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walter.

Cuatro Torres Business Area. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

La Courneuve, the surroundings of Paris. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The Rockets, Zagreb:

The Rockets, Zagreb. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Westin Hotel, New York:

Westin Hotel, New York. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Residential building Gloria, Bratislava:

Gloria, Bratislava. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Residential block, Moscow:

Residential block, Moscow. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The house of soviets, Kaliningrad:

Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

And that’s how the hotel looks like in 2009. I guess that after finishing it won’t be so ugly after all:

Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

And here are some examples of finished buildings that are not very pretty:

Ministry of Interrogation, Moscow:

Ministry of Interrogation, Moscow. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Mirador, Madrid:

Mirador, Madrid. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Genex Tower, Belgrade:

Genex Tower, Belgrade. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Elephant Building, Bangkok:

Elephant Building, Bangkok. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Tower Velasca , Milan:

Tower Velasca , Milan. Taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Chicago Spire construction site, August 27 2009. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The tower will contain 150 floors, 1193 apartments, every floor will rotate at 2.44 degrees between floor plates, the lobby footprint will be 1,414 sq meters (15,220 sq ft). The building will have the highest elevator run (about 570 meters, 1864 feet) – this elevators will move directly from the ground floor to any floor in the building, there will be 17 of them.

Chicago Spire inside. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Chicago Spire inside. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Cost of an apartment in Chicago Spire will start from 750.000 dollars and end at 40.000.000 dollars.

The building looks similar to rotating towers in Dubai and Moscow, but the construction is a little bit different and the outside look of the building is more static leaving observers with only one look of the building. The facade is not so dynamic and it is not changing shapes.

Chicago Spire. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Chicago Spire. Image taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Rotating skyscraper. Photo taken from www.dynamicarchitecture.net. Copyrights by David Fisher.

Of course this is only a project but interesting enough to write about it. This can be a start of new wave of moving buildings that will have changing architecture.  The plan predict that this building will have 70 floors and 400 meters high (that is 1312 feet). Potential cost of that building is estimated at 400 million dollars. At first the building construction should start in late 2008 and be finished in 2010, yet, during the financial problems it has not started yet.

Rotating skyscraper. Photo taken from www.dynamicarchitecture.net. Copyrights by David Fisher.

This could be one of the most interesting buildings in the world as long as there will be only few of them. This can really be some kind of architectural revolution that will show us totally new ways of projecting, planning and building skyscrapers.

Rotating skyscraper. Photo taken from www.dynamicarchitecture.net. Copyrights by David Fisher.