London, with a twist

[marmar]

from the Next American City blog:


A Rotating Tower of London
Matt Bevilacqua | Next American City | Feb 15th, 2012





Because it’s late afternoon on a Wednesday, here we present a mesmerizing video rendering of what developers hope will be the planet’s first rotating skyscraper, slated for construction in London sometime this year.

Each floor on the 80-story tower will move independently, creating a fluid effect not unlike the background for Windows Media Player circa 2005. The firm behind the project, David Fisher’s Dynamic Architecture, seems set on eventually bringing the concept to four additional cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Dubai (the original intended site of the prototype, which makes sense because a dancing skyscraper sounds very Dubai-esque).

Anyhow, this is worth a minute and a half of your time: http://americancity.org/buzz/entry/3348/

[virgogal]

1. Fascinating video. You would have to knock me out to get me

even near the upper floors.

I also find it ugly and out of place.

[lunatica]

2. I think it would look cool in a super modern city of such buildings

[virgogal]

7. Yep,like Dubai.

[marmar]

3. It is out of place in that part of London.....

I don't know why they don't build it down in the Canary Wharf area, where it would be a better fit.

[dana_b]

4. I don't know if I'd want to work in that building

nothing like having to take Dramamine every morning before work.

[RebelOne]

11. Neither would I. It would make me dizzy. n/t

[valerief]

5. Why a building with special effects? We have enough bad movies with them. Meh. nt

[WCGreen]

6. It's cool but I wouldn't want to work there.....

[Historic NY]

8. Nope, don't like it one bit....

reeks havo on the viewscape. IMHO.

[Bad_Ronald]

9. Weird....but cool

[Joe Shlabotnik]

10. Another good example of: Just because we can do it, doesn't mean we should do it.

Whats the point. How is this thing going to be powered? How much power is going to be needed to twist a building around for no practical purpose. How do you evacuate a writhing 80 story building in case of a catastrophic fire? I find it hard to believe they will actually build it, let alone in downtown London.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Looks like a bit of self-publicity, without a chance of being built

Article on the 1st claim that it was to be built in Dubai:

Fisher acknowledges that he is not well known, has never built a skyscraper before and hasn't practiced architecture regularly in decades.
...
In a biography he had been distributing for months, he said he graduated from the University of Florence in 1976, came to New York in the mid-1980s and later developed hotels and ran a company that specialized in stone and prefabricated construction materials.

The biography also said he received an honorary doctorate from "The Prodeo Institute at Columbia University in New York." No such institution exists, however, and Columbia said it had never awarded Fisher an honorary degree.

Asked to explain the discrepancy, Fisher said, through his New York publicists, that he had been awarded the degree by the Catholic University of Rome during a ceremony in 1994 held at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, which is near Columbia's campus.

Asked again to clarify the name of the school that conferred the degree, Fisher's publicists said in an e-mail that the information has been removed from his bio "because he wants to be entirely accurate and cannot be with this information."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-06-25-3761293872_x.htm

"Construction of the London tower should begin sometime this year" - bollocks. At 80 stories, it would be the tallest building in the EU (the Shard, currently under construction, will be that, at 72 stories). It takes years to get permission for such a tall building in London, and there's been nothing about this until now.

I think the Londonist website sums this up well:

Whether anything will happen is dubious, to say the least. Originally called “The Dynamic Tower“, the concept was first announced in 2008 with a stated completion date of last year. And architect David Fisher admits to having limited credentials.

Indeed, no details are given about an intended building site, planning permissions, funding, or potential tenants, and we suspect the notion is more spin than twist.
...
PS, We checked the calendar and April Fool’s Day is still some way off.

http://londonist.com/2012/02/rotating-dynamic-tower-coming-to-london.php

Finally, note that an earlier report for the Dubai claim said "The apartments, which will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation". The video shows the floors swinging back and forth every 10 seconds or so. You really would throw up in those. The video has nothing to do with anything that is proposed (thank goodness), which is another reason for not taking it seriously. The video is just there to be 'pretty', not show what it's like.