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Battersea Power Station £8bn redevelopment | Nine Elms | U/C

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#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
EDIT: Continued from previous thread.

- wjfox


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I wonder what Boris & Simon will think of this hmmmmmmm.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3116482

Battersea Power Station - images

19 June, 2008

By Will Hurst

The first images of Rafael Viñoly's mixed-use design for Battersea Power Station have been revealed.

Owner and developer Real Estate Opportunities (REO) is aiming for the £4 billion scheme to become a zero carbon exemplar, BD's sister paper Property Week is due to report on Friday.

REO, part of Irish firm Treasury, aims to restore the derelict Grade II*-listed power station and convert it into a range of uses including apartments, retail, and a hotel while the remainder of the site will host a range of residential and office uses within a transparent structure topped by a 300m-high tower.

The tower itself appears to echo the chimneys of Giles Gilbert Scott’s power station itself.



 
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#2,065 ·
£1.5m Battersea power station apartments held back from market
theguardian.com
21st April 2016

Downturn at top end prompts developers to withhold from sale 150 flats designed by Frank Gehry and Norman Foster

Luxury £1.5m apartments being built in the Battersea power station redevelopment are being held back from the market, as the downturn at the top end of the London property market hits sales.

Prices start at £1.39m for a two-bedroom apartment designed by the architect Frank Gehry on the £8bn site on the south bank of the Thames, while homes from Foster + Partners are marketed for £1.55m and upwards.

The chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development company (BPSD), Rob Tincknell, told PropertyWeek that 35 apartments were currently up for sale, while another 150 were being held back. “If there is market demand, we will release more units, but the market has softened,” he said.
Continued in link
 
#2,068 ·
#2,071 ·
Stopped by the scheme yesterday and took a few photos.
Just looks as though the construction has slowed down a bit, but, maybe its just me. Will upload a few photos once i work out how to post to thread.
  1. Set up an Flickr or Imgur account its up to you
  2. Register yourself with one of these services
  3. Use the in-app camera function or uphold the photos from your phone camera roll
  4. Using Flickr : login on your PC and copy and paste the BBcode from Flickr to the chosen thread and post
  5. Using imgur login to your account and copy and paste the BBcode from that photo and follow the last steps as seen with Flickr
 
#2,072 ·
There's a lot of internal work going on - for example piling is underway in the main boiler house, and excavations in the western turbine hall. The chimneys were meant to start rising quite a few weeks back so not entirely sure what's holding them up, but I can try and find out somehow. :)
 
#2,077 ·
The bill for the Northern line extension to Battersea Power Station is set to soar by as much as £240 million

The bill for the Northern line extension to Battersea Power Station is set to soar by as much as £240 million following “significant” design changes.

Transport for London and the Malaysian-owned developers of the former electricity generator are locked in talks about the overhaul of the plans for the Underground station at the £9 billion development — and who will pick up the extra costs.

The Standard understands that the changes relate to a section of the 39-acre site known as Prospect Place, a dramatic cluster of apartment buildings designed by the Californian “starchitect” Frank Gehry.

The new plans envisage more ambitious “over station development” (OSD) than in the original Battersea Power Station masterplan from Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly.

Now the Underground stop is to be fully incorporated into Prospect Place so that passengers arriving at the power station will emerge direct into one of its most striking buildings.

However, this will require the station “box” where the platforms and track are located underneath the building to be far stronger than planned in the original contract. The soaring costs were revealed in minutes of last month’s meeting of TfL’s policy and finance committee, which warned that the changes led to “a requirement for significant additional design work to develop a revised integrated station design which is capable of supporting the very different OSD to that originally intended and contracted”.

The Northern line “spur” serving the power station and Nine Elms is seen as vital to the success of the vast regeneration of the south bank district.

Battersea Power Station Development Company is already committed to making a £200 million contribution to the cost of the extension, initially estimated at up to £1 billion.

A £500 million contract was awarded to construction consortium Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke in 2014 and work was officially launched by former Mayor Boris Johnson in November.

David Hughes, director of major programme sponsorship at London Underground, said: “Changes have been made to the proposed development and the new Tube station beneath. These design changes will lead to an increase in the overall cost of the project.

“We are in constructive discussions with the developer about how this cost will be attributed. We are now working with Battersea Power Station to agree the necessary changes to the contractual arrangements between us to reflect these revised designs.”

It is understood the final estimate of the extra costs has not yet been determined but it could be as much as £240 million. A TfL spokesman said the changes will not affect the overall programme for the line, which is due to open in 2020.

A Battersea Power Station spokeswoman said: “Provision for design changes was made at the outset, given the scale and complexity of this major infrastructure project. TfL and BPS are working collaboratively on those designs and any related costs.”
 
#2,080 ·
Mosque, circus, Neverland UK… the best failed ideas for Battersea Power Station

Read 'em and weep... Any one of these ideas would have been preferable to the overstuffed turd, this monument to Mammon and mediocrity, one of the most magnificent edifices in London is in the process of being reduced to.

Fwiw, for once I am in agreement with Terry Farrell and his vision of a 'managed ruin'. The idea occurred to me when I visited the Chinese Power Station art installation exhibition held there back in 2006. It could have been one of the most magnificent, awe-inspiring, atmospheric, chill-out zones on the planet. Something utterly unique, utterly London. Instead, we're lumbered with another testament to Boris Johnson's serial uselessness. What a waste.
 
#2,082 ·
Mosque, circus, Neverland UK… the best failed ideas for Battersea Power Station Read 'em and weep... Any one of these ideas would have been preferable to the overstuffed turd, this monument to Mammon and mediocrity, one of the most magnificent edifices in London is in the process of being reduced to. Fwiw, for once I am in agreement with Terry Farrell and his vision of a 'managed ruin'. The idea occurred to me when I visited the Chinese Power Station art installation exhibition held there back in 2006. It could have been one of the most magnificent, awe-inspiring, atmospheric, chill-out zones on the planet. Something utterly unique, utterly London. Instead, we're lumbered with another testament to Boris Johnson's serial uselessness. What a waste.
If only London had a large power station by Gilbert Scott available for large scale art installations eh!!! Curse us all for yet another missed opportunity.

Just think... if they'd gone that route it could've been one of the world's most popular art galleries by now.
 
#2,081 ·
Really? this scheme may not be ideal but thank god we finally have a project that is financially viable, we're getting a new tube station, public realm, housing, retail, some top name architects, hotels, viewing gallery and office space for a range of industries. A ruin may have been lovely but it wouldn't have been viable and ultimately this icon would have just decayed even further.
 
#2,086 ·
Battersea Power Station was the initial planned location for Tate Modern. However, due to its very large scale, very poor condition including high adaptive reuse costs, and its location the site was considered unfeasible in the mid/late 1990s, though plan B was to use the vacant Bankside power station, which as everyone knows turned into a huge success.

Since the 70s and 80s, gradual improvements were taking place along the South Bank to create a continuous riverside walk between Tower Bridge and the National Theatre/South Bank complex. Initially it was very complicated and involved walking away from the riverfront along many sections. Not many people walked this route though I did so often in the 80s, and I came down to this riverfront in the 70s when HMS Belfast was first moored here. By the late 80s the route was continuous from the South Bank to Southwark Bridge, complete with a pub infront of public housing next to the Bankside power station and there were many people who walked the whole length, though not the crowds who do this today. By 2000 the remainder of the walk was in place and the footbridge across the Thames jointly made a big impact. Certainly the New Tate helped,as did the new city hall and the replica of the Shakespearean Globe Theatre, and mass tourism along the whole length of the South Bank has arrived.
 
#2,087 ·
If I was honest, I do have slightly mixed feelings about this scheme. Much of what surrounds the power station itself leaves me cold - without the power station it's just a high density housing development that could be anywhere. (I also really don't get what people see in Gehry for example). I also feel that something can get lost if too much of London's grit gets replaced with polish. The best schemes in London right now try to get the best of both so I do sense in the industry that this is a growing trend - Kings Cross, and to a lesser extent Blossom Street attracting tenants and interest that more anonymous developments can't match.

The challenge with the main building is to maintain its character as it gets developed. It is however the reality that no-one was going to repair or retain the old building out of the goodness of their heart. If it works, the area will at least become part of London where people live, work and shop, as opposed to an ugly polluted wasteland surrounded by security fences an barbed wire, albeit with a romantic decrepit air and an architecturally impressive centrepiece that you can view from a distance. If the dignity of the original landmark is maintained, there are worse fates. How many people too have had the opportunity to be inside the powerstation's amazing internal spaces, see the art deco control rooms and beautiful industrial-austere interiors.

Anyway, I remain optimistic Wilkinson Eyre can do a good job on that score, and even with the (inevitable) involvement of Mammon, this will be a pretty amazing experience when complete.
 
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#2,089 ·
I just hope it has enough of a draw that it doesn't become a sort of dead zone like a massive Tobacco Dock. The ideal is for the draw of the South Bank to extend from Westminster Bridge down to the Vauxhall, Nine Elms and then ending on Battersea Power Station. Currently the tourist trail is Tower Bridge to the London Eye, then it dissipates because nobody knows what's beyond and there isn't enough of a draw. Battersea should be the marker at the end of the trail just as Tower Bridge is at the start.
 
#2,091 ·
I think the problem is that developers are focusing too much on luxurious flat; as this is the easier way to make money.

However, they're not the ones to blame, as both Wandsworth and Lambeth are happy to approve all applications regardless of quality and how they will impact the whole community (work, live, play) that they say they want to create in the area.
 
#2,092 ·
Agree that the emerging 9-Elms is more of a concern. Well, more of a missed opportunity. It won't be a terrible place, it's just unlikely to be any sort of 'place' at all, just some tallish buildings alongside the road. A rather depressing lack of vision.
 
#2,093 ·
I think its still too early to judge the whole NE/V area as at the moment its still largely a disjointed construction site. Once a few more developments had finished and been allowed to bed in it could be quite pleasant. The linear park is connecting them hasn't really started yet as different parcels of land are still U/C.

The A3205 is always going to thunder through the area so its not really the fault of anyone that this part isn't going to be tranquil.

I have high hopes for BPS and with all the mix of uses with resi, events space, hotels and potentially the new rumoured Apple HQ and opening up of the riverside there should be quite a buzz about the place
 
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