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GHENT | Project Gent-Sint-Pieters | 90m | 276ft | 22 fl | T/O

17K views 43 replies 11 participants last post by  Puinkabouter 
#1 · (Edited)


Presenting Project Gent-Sint-Pieters, a multifaceted railway station renewal and urban development project featuring a tower built for the Flemish government that will be 90m (276 ft) high. The projects architects are Jaques Voncke (station), Alain Marguerit (landscape) and Popocini&Lootens (tower). With 45.000 embarking passengers on an average day, Ghent Sint-Pieters is – depending upon the measure used – the second or third busiest railway station in Belgium. It lies on a major connection point for multiple intercity train lines. The infrastructure hasn't really caught up with the recent growth of rail traffic. Outdated cargo platforms occupy much needed space. The light rail service is heavily congested and tracks run between the entrance and the main square, hindering pedestrians. An important traffic connection ran through the station neighborhood. A big area was left underused and the buildings looked old and grimy. These buildings have now been demolished. The biggest underground carpark in the Benelux (2 800 vehicles, 10 000 bicycles) was built, featuring the foundations for a strip of redevelopment along the tracks. The light rail station will be enlarged to feature twice the amount of traffic and will be relocated beneath the platforms, diagonal to the rail tracks. The bus station, which was divided by the rail tracks, will also be integrated to this transit loop. The tower, housing Flemish government agencies, will feature a low-rise arm to engulf and embrace mobility in the top of this area.


Location

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province. With 240,191 inhabitants in the beginning of 2009, Ghent is Belgium's second largest municipality by number of inhabitants. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,205 km2 (465 sq mi) and has a total population of 594,582, which ranks the fourth most populous in Belgium.


History

The origins of the railway station is a small station on the line Ghent-Ostend in 1881. At that time the main railway station of Ghent was the South railway station built in 1837. At the occasion of the 1913 world exhibition in Ghent, a new Sint-Pieters railway station was built. It was designed by architect Louis Cloquet and finished in 1912 just before the World Exhibition.
The station is built in an eclectic style with a long corridor dividing the building in its length which provides access to diverse facilities. A tunnel (designed by ir. P. Grondy) starting from the income hall provides access to the 12 platforms. This gives the station its cross-form design. The original waiting rooms for second and third class are now serving as a buffet and restaurant. The station was classified in 1995, this means the original building from 1913 is protected. Since 1996 the station is being renovated, with in 1998 the renovation of the interior of the western wing. The car traffic corridor was closed. An alternative connection to the city's ring way, that also opened up acces to the college. In 2007, the tower at the entrance of the station has been renovated. In 2008 a new glass canopy was placed at the main entrance. In 2010, the murals of the main entrance hall have been renovated.


Images




















The 12 platforms will feature one continuous glass and steel canopy, about the length of the station building. Beyond that width the platforms will be covered by individual canopies.



The narrow existing corridor will be engulfed by a contiguous space beneath the tracks. Elevators and escalators in both directions (only one elevator direction per platform and one (!) elevator for the whole station currently). The commercial surface area of the station will also be enlarged considerably.



The backside of the station will get a decent acces to the station and a new square. Attached to the glass exterior facade will be colored panels, representing a platform. When a train has arrived, the corresponding panel will light up. This theme will return in other locations throughout the project area.



The station building itself is a reserved monument and has been renovated for a large portion.





Concept images of the open corridor beneath the tracks.





By removing the redundant cargo platforms between the passenger platforms, every platform can grow a couple of meters.


Glass wil be installed along a strip of the platform floor, allowing light to pass through all the way to minus 1, the bicycle storage level.





By relocation the railroad, light rail and bus station in the environment, all transfers between these methods of transport will occur around a single location, named 'The Magic Triangle'.

In the future, all light rail lines servicing the main station will stop underneath it in stead of dispersed in an area over 20,000 square meters or 5 acres.



Right next to the station building, there will be a bus station accommodating 24 articulated busses beneath a steel canopy.


Video


20384696​


Frequently updated photostreams


History in

Construction of the massive car park, look at left side of the screen for reference





Current situation





















The steel columns that will soon form a new platform, platform 12 to be specific!










Dancing construction worker. :cheers:
 
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#4 ·
Do you think that is due to its design or just to the fact that it's a tower?

The thing is, the project development is a key factor to the success of the reconstruction of the station. It's basically an entirely new station behind an old station building. It involves a lot of underground construction, a couple of new tunnels, and entirely new platforms - all of which is to be constructed without interrupting train traffic (it must be noted that this station is the second most important hub in Belgian train traffic).

That costs a fortune. A big part of that fortune will come from the project development new to the station, on the grounds that used to be a freight station. In order to get a profit out of that development you need to build plenty of surface on a relatively small plot of land. This will necessitate several midrises, of which that one will be the first and probably the tallest. On the other hand it's also functional in terms of mobility: this way a lot of people can work right next to their train station. It saves them a transfer or two, or a lot of driving and parking troubles.

So: no towers, no station. It's that simple.


Designwise: this was selected after a design competition. There were more flashy things in that competition, but flashy isn't necessarily better. All things considered I think the best design won. Sure enough the cladding is grey, with warm tones, but it's brick and not concrete, and so far I've only seen it with cloudy weather and it's not displeasing.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I think it could be worse. I'm curious to see the other designs, as there will be multiple towers along the strip of redevelopment along the tracks. The aim is to connect two green areas on the east-west axis and connect the two station square on the north-south axis. Lower towers will be concentrated around the first towers (height 90m/276ft), moving west there will be a neighborhood center, a sporting hall, a medium supermarket, a daycare center,... Amenities this neighborhood didn't have until now. Moving to the westmost area, the area will be the greenest, connecting to the Blaarmeersen recreational park over the water. There will be another tower of about 90m / 267 ft built here. Foundations were prepared in the underground car park, which you can see being built in ther first post.

Remember that an elevated platform will be built on the second floor, along with the arm. The unfinished portion of the building is a good indicator of the profile of the arm. Pictures are not mine, you can check out more recent pictures in the first post:

 
#5 ·
Design mainly; its lazy and almost 60s like - the worst kind of architecture. It also looks like it was just planted there with no thought and consideration for the surroundings whatsoever... Although Id rather have no tower at all. A low-rise with a bit of flair would have been a for more attractive choice. Something that would compliment the elegant old station building.
 
#6 ·
A low-rise wouldn't cover the costs of the infrastructure. This isn't London where office space can be rented at astronomical prices. People seem to forget that money is the most crucial aspect of any project. No money, no project. Besides of that it would also be unwise to build only very limited office surfaces so close to such an important and busy railway station.

It's not lazy architecture either, by the way. I've visited the construction site with an engineer more than once and there's a couple of engineering niceties involved. There's more consideration put into the surroundings than you might think at first sight. I agree it might seem awkward that the entrance is at an elevated level, but that's due to the fact that the street level is taken by a big bus station. An entrance there wouldn't be very... charming. The elevated entrance gives any visitor a balcony from which one gets a nice view over the station area.

Two other sides of the tower also border infrastructure. There's only one street side to it, which is deliberately kept low, at about the same height as the building on the opposite side of the street. The tower itself is one of the few elements in the masterplan that are allowed to stick out of the '45° envelope'. More than one study has been conducted on the effects of this building and the other future midrise developments; all have concluded that effects are minimal.
 
#8 ·
Hardly. Have to consider budgets. "Ugly" is a personal appreciation about which discussions are pointless. Box on the other hand... Any odd shape in concrete costs a multiple of a standard rectangle or square. It's not one box, but two intersecting boxes of different proportions combined with a low-rise arm that separates the bus station from the residential areas.

Besides, you base your judgement upon pictures and renderings that intend on showing what that office tower will look like, so obviously it distracts all attention from the station in those images, because it is intended as the subject of the pictures. In reality it is less dominant. Further more, the building will in fact offer a public lookout spot from where anyone can see the station from an entirely new perspective, and obviously without the tower behind it ;)

A flashy high-budget tower would distract a lot more from the station building.
 
#9 ·
Which is why I said that a low-rise with a bit of flair would have been a much better and indeed a more attractive choice. With some planning and thought it would have been possible to cover costs and produce something memorable. Sadly it is always the cost that does the talking...The result of this is dull/ugly buildings that blight the urban landscape for years to come. Aesthetics are ignored.
 
#12 ·
I agreed with El Greco for a minute, and still do to a certain extent. But picture 1 in the last post looks really cool. That brick cladding is nice! And the composition of the photo looks really cool with all the straight lines! They should stop building and leave it like that, it would be a really interesting building as it is...with the rest of the project finished of course. Purely aesthetics from me there, no thought for practicalities!

El Greco, I'm with you on the renders though, they look bad imo.
 
#13 ·
Update 12/05/2012

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2. Size is becoming an issue, it's getting hard photographing the tower up close with my lens.


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9. The construction site of the L-shaped arm building.


10. The core is being modified at the moment, a part had to be knocked down because the plans have changed. The core of the arm should have risen to +4 in the summer.


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15. Cladding attachment.


16. A lot of water inside, had the impression these holes were later dug to allow the water to drain down to ground level.


17. Back cantilever


18. Elevator tubes.


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20. Floor +3 featuring the restaurant/cafetaria


21. This wall separates the restaurant from the city-balcony on the other side.


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26. Restaurant


27. Tiling.


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30. Pretty dark here in this kitchen area, could be that it'll be used for storage later.


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34. Art festival stuff at the old station tower (they're building a hotel room around the clock)


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38. Glass!


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43. Front cantilever


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48. One of the multiple mini-atriums, spanning two floor spaces and featuring one big glass pane.


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50. Ventilation en sprinklersystem.


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52. These steel cables pull the cantilevers inside, and down through the core. You can imagine it being the ribbons of a corset.


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60. The bigger brother in the distance.


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63. The cantilever, quite the construction marvel.


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77. We were lucky to catch the placing of a prefabricated wall section. Precision work, but it went along smoothly.


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80. The historic Ghent skyline


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82. Floor 13 - 60 meter |*200 feet high


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84. Towers at the Watersportbaan.


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That's it :D
 
#16 ·
The tower looks a little bit outdated in looks. Ruins the whole historical area imho according to the presented renderings. Maybe it turns out to be much better than expected visually. It will hopefully be so.
 
#21 ·
Some views from a distance of the tower that's U/C next to the station:



1.



With a nice summery sky. Notice the skyline of the western parts in the middle of this view and the historical skyline to the right.​



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The western skyline of Ghent :)



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Focus on Saint Peter railway station.​



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And now on the tower itself. The height of the crane is at 60m right now, but material has been delivered to make it climb up to 120m next week. The tower itself will peak at 90m, so the facade is about halfway up.​
 
#23 ·
I took the liberty of translating and editing your post Puinkabouter, I hope that's ok?

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Directly to the right of the tower (that reached slightly over half of it's height), they have started the construction of the arm that will embrace the transportation hub.​




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This is the entrance to the underground kiss-and-ride​




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To give an idea of the arm's dimensions: the red steel girder is suspended at approximately half of the buildings height. The wing will be slightly higher than the modernist neighborhood that surrounds it.​




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Those girders are quite impressive by the way, this picture gives an idea of their size when delivered to the site.​




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The core of the L-shaped wing. It used to be a concrete box, but it's soon to become the backbone of a building. A process that will repeat itself a lot of times in the coming years: the terrain directly behind the building is littered with these 'stumps'.​




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The crevices in the lower left of the picture will be future retail, bars, etc. for the users of the train station. Maybe entrances or amenities for the residences on top.​




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This little patch of grass will be the future floor of a slightly bigger retailer, I think.​




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The soon-to-be esplanade, or walkway between the development. Still working on the tiling, this 'street' isn't going to pick up it's definite function for a few years, so no stress :)




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According to what can be deduced from official documents, the spot on the left of this picture is going to be filled with social housing.​




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The cladding panels, straight from the Netherlands!​




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Back to the rumor mill [sic ;)]: a residential bank headquarters is going to be built on this spot. The designers are Asymptote Architecture, and it should have a respectable height.

Asymptote Architecture is no stranger to this development area: they were one of five contenders in the design contest of the building currently under construction. If they had won, the Link would be a white box with angled squares as windows.​




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This is the future home of the twin towers.​




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I hadn't noticed this earlier: there lies quite a big gap between the elevated train tracks and the twins.​




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In a few weeks, this traffic sign isn't the only thing that will indicate that you've just entered the urban area of Ghent :)




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This is going to be a nice sight when the development is done.​




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Click the picture for a bigger size

A city-scape: the three medieval towers slightly off to the left, and to the right our new addition settling quite nicely between the Boekentoren and the Saint-Peter Abbey.​




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From the nearby campus.​




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View from the end of the Clementina Avenue​



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#24 · (Edited)
Photo update from today by me.


2012-08-22 08.59.49 on Flickr
The new railway viaduct for platform 12


2012-08-22 09.02.10 on Flickr
The viaduct again, with the "De Link" tower under construction in the background.


2012-08-22 09.03.05 on Flickr
A pole which will support the roof.


2012-08-22 09.03.45 on Flickr
One of the 4 support poles for the new back of the station, freshly delivered.


2012-08-22 09.06.53 on Flickr
Some more work on platform 12


2012-08-22 09.08.52 on Flickr
More work on platform 12


2012-08-22 09.09.06 on Flickr
Overview of the new platform (also note the elevator under construction)


2012-08-22 09.12.53 on Flickr
"De Link" tower (will be 90m) under construction


2012-08-22 09.13.39 on Flickr
Laying the new tracks for platform 12.


2012-08-22 09.15.16 on Flickr
A "decorated" train.


2012-08-22 09.19.25 on Flickr
The new bus station


2012-08-22 09.20.59 on Flickr
Construction on the arm of "De Link"


2012-08-22 09.21.25 on Flickr
Construction on the arm of "De Link"


2012-08-22 09.23.33 on Flickr
The same construction from a different point of view.


2012-08-22 09.23.56 on Flickr
A new pedestrian bridge.
 
#27 ·
Some pictures taken on tuesday 28-08-2012:



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A view from the U/C office tower next to the station.​



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A soaring piece of fine engineering.​



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Little bonus: the other end of the station square.​



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Overview of the old station complex, including the historical station building (°1912).​



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A strip of concrete has been poured in this inclination. It's not definitive, as this is bound to become a garden (cf. renderings in the first post of this thread). It will be used to access the underground bicycle depot. The permanent access to that depot will probably be finished next year, as it is temporarily swallowed up by the construction yard of that tower.​



6.



The elevator shaft is quicky being wrapped up in concrete. It's a very fast progress: this picture was taken yesterday evening, but this morning the whole thing was covered.​



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New railway viaduct between the former tram and pedestrian tunnels.​



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Now this still feels like the outside of the station, but pretty soon this area will lie behind a glass facade and be part of the interior of the complex.​



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Old & new :)



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A future corridor.​



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On to the steel framework: the first fragment of the big canopy that will be built over all the platforms in the next years. Notice that the lower tubes, that will carry the facade, are already taller than the average house in that area. The canopy will reach even higher. It's going to stand out, that's a sure thing.​



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It takes some imagination to see it, but in time this patch of land will become a second station square at the rear side of the complex.​



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The perspective from some of the streets in the area will change heavily because of the new canopy. Instead of a discrete grayish-brown brick wall with a dilapidated green shelter on top, there will be a remarkable construction in steel and glass at the horizon.​



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For the time being, the station looks even more underwhelming to the average traveler than it used to. It consists partially of containers...​



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Platform 10.​



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Compare the size of that thing to those guys at work :)



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