GHENT | Project Gent-Sint-Pieters | 90m | 276ft | 22 fl | U/C

[Jongeheer]

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 Outdated cargo platforms occupy much needed space.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

Frequently updated photostreams

• the Belgian thread about De Link: 1 2
• the Belgian thread about Project Gent-Sint-Pieters
• JumpV: De Link | Project Gent-Sint-Pieters
• Lander_V: De Link

History in

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





Current situation

image hosted on flickr

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

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Dancing construction worker.

[El_Greco]

Its a shame they decided to stick a tower in there too. It will look horrible, especially on a rainy or overcast day. Otherwise its a nice project, sleak and well thought out.

[Jongeheer]

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:

[Puinkabouter]

Originally Posted by El_Greco

Its a shame they decided to stick a tower in there too. It will look horrible, especially on a rainy or overcast day. Otherwise its a nice project, sleak and well thought out.

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.

[El_Greco]

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.

[Puinkabouter]

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.

[El_Greco]

It is lazy architecture - an ugly box that looks like it came from a drawing desk of some architect from the 60s! It detracts awfully from the elegant station building too. Surely a more imaginative and attractive solution was possible?

[Puinkabouter]

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.

[El_Greco]

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.

[Jongeheer]

They're anything but ignored in this build. I don't know how familiar you are with our skyline, but rest assure: this building will not ruin anything.

[Jongeheer]

Originally Posted by Dequal

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Activity has been focused around the cantilevers, to bring that area 'up to speed' so the 'footprint' takes the form it will have the next 13 floors. A new crane has also been erected.

[ranny fash]

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.

[Jongeheer]

Update 12/05/2012

Originally Posted by Dequal

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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

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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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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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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

[Jongeheer]

I took some shots today

[Jongeheer]

[CF221]

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.

[Jongeheer]

image hosted on flickr

[Jongeheer]

The first rebar for the columns underneath the arm of the building has arrived, now waiting for a pour. Cellphone pic from G-4-EVer:

Originally Posted by G-4-Ever

De eerste bewapening voor de kolommen onder het uiteinde van de zijarm zitten klaar. GSM-foto van deze middag:




Toekomstbeeld:

[angelinaB]

Wow! That was amazing. That will make a country progressive and rich.

[Godius]

Nice development project, it looks very clean and attractive on the rendered images.