LOWER PAREL | Namaste Tower - W Hotel | 301 m | 62 fl | U/C

[IU]

Originally Posted by India101

Good find IU. You can sort of see the Minerva site at the base of Bellissimo, but not very well.

Yup. You can also see the concrete batching plant of Orchid Turf View in line with planet godrej.

Anyways, the construction contract for this tower has been handed to BE Billimoria & Co:

Namaste - Hotel & Office Tower at Lower Parel, Mumbai. 3 Floor Basement + 67 floors



They're constructing some new residential towers :

Madhav Bhavan - at Lower Parel, Mumbai - 1 tower with basement, ground + mezzanine, 5 podiums + 45 floors

Lotus Complex - at Lower Parel, Mumbai - 2 residential towers with 34 floors, 1 commercial building with 17 floors & 1 service apartment with double basement, ground+7 level podium + 38 floors


also, the tower is now up on Atkins' website:

http://www.atkinsglobal.com/projects/namaste-hotel

[taller the better]

Originally Posted by IndiansUnite

Yup. You can also see the concrete batching plant of Orchid Turf View in line with planet godrej.

Anyways, the construction contract for this tower has been handed to BE Billimoria & Co:

Namaste - Hotel & Office Tower at Lower Parel, Mumbai. 3 Floor Basement + 67 floors



They're constructing some new residential towers :

Madhav Bhavan - at Lower Parel, Mumbai - 1 tower with basement, ground + mezzanine, 5 podiums + 45 floors

Lotus Complex - at Lower Parel, Mumbai - 2 residential towers with 34 floors, 1 commercial building with 17 floors & 1 service apartment with double basement, ground+7 level podium + 38 floors


also, the tower is now up on Atkins' website:

http://www.atkinsglobal.com/projects/namaste-hotel

Thats good new! I assume Billimoria is the same company that has constructed Casa Grande-? clean, strong construction.

[Vicky007]

Namaste Tower: A symbol of India's economic boom.

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide...m/20110624.htm

[Effer]

Any update on the project?

[Savz]

Effer, jus passed through the site yesterday, work is on full swing, now the pit looks even deeper with crane moving in all directions.....im sure the work is very much in progress

[dunefreezer]

Thanks for the info savzLove to see this sexy baby is trying to rise

Its funny he calls himself effer, and then you go effer, just passed by and stuff makes it look u r mad at him....lol

[Effer]

Originally Posted by Savz

Effer, jus passed through the site yesterday, work is on full swing, now the pit looks even deeper with crane moving in all directions.....im sure the work is very much in progress

Thanks, that's great news!!

Originally Posted by dunefreezer

Its funny he calls himself effer, and then you go effer, just passed by and stuff makes it look u r mad at him....lol

[Coolguyz]

The base is concretised.I guess they wait till monsoons to get over to move up

[Swapbeck]

Namaste Tower is almost similar to BEACHFRONT TOWER HOTEL which is never going to built in Dubai, tower is also design by Atkins ..........
it is Good to c that such an iconic building is gonna build in Mumbai and not in Dubai
i found this thread in Dubai Project > never built
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=535769

[dunefreezer]

Shit...Yeah..They are both very similar.....I thought Namaste Tower design was based solely on the Indian culture....Now it worries me if it really is...since it looks like a copy of a design that is intended for another country.

[India101]

The shape is the main similarity, but I wouldn't say it's a copy. It doesn't matter anyway as the one in Dubai is cancelled.

[sathya_226]

Anyways there are similarities, but Namaste tower looks more sleek...

[bhargavsura]

Shape is similar but its still got the hand joining patterns to say Namaste.

[dunefreezer]

Shit...I just realised "NAMASTE" came from "Namasthey" (welcome)...Thanks for pointing out.

[India101]

Did you even read the first post? It nicely explains everything.

The traditional Indian greeting of ‘Namaste’, where the hands are clasped together in greeting, is the inspiration for the design of this tower. In Sanskrit “Namaste` means “I bow to you`. It has a spiritual significance of negating one’s ego in the presence of another.

The Architecture of the Namaste Hotel builds on this ancient Indian expression. The two wings of the hotel are clasped together like hands greeting the city of Mumbai.

[dunefreezer]

Originally Posted by India101

Did you even read the first post? It nicely explains everything.

I remember reading the building is designed after "welcome" gesture....But I didn't realise the name of the building came from it.

[sammyk]

Originally Posted by dunefreezer

I remember reading the building is designed after "welcome" gesture....But I didn't realise the name of the building came from it.

Well, what did you think "Namaste" meant?

[dunefreezer]

Originally Posted by sammyk

Well, what did you think "Namaste" meant?

I actually had no idea about it...I thought it was some kind of English word when I realise now it clearly isn't.....lol

I was used to calling it NUM-MAST tower....so I didn't really think it was namhasthey

[sixsigma1978]

The neighbourhood principle

A few hundred yards down the road from Nana Chowk to Tardeo, next to Sunkersett Mansion on the road's left, there stands a small temple. It has a handsome arched entrance and clear space on three sides. This is not one of the over-built modern temples that substitute spirituality with size and commerce; this is an old, quiet place of worship that appears ageless. It also looks like a last act of defiance against the towering monstrosities that surround it. A little further on is another, an agiary. That, too, has withstood the steady onslaught of commercial high-rise development.

These city holdouts are fast disappearing, and you have to look much harder to even see them as, one by one, they get engulfed in outsized construction. The view over the city from the balcony or rooftop of one of these tall buildings – ideally, a building on one of the city's few remaining hills — is remarkable, and for all the wrong reasons. The first impression is one of unredeemed ugliness: virtually every one of these new buildings seems to have been designed by an alumnus of the post-aesthetic school of design. Worse, none of these buildings seem to bear any relationship whatsoever to their surroundings.

At Nana Chowk, there are over four towers so tall it is almost impossible to see their tops from the street; and these stand in an area where the average height is perhaps no more than three or four floors. The same story repeats itself near Khetwadi and Kotachiwadi, at Khar and Santa Cruz, at Hughes Road. More horrors are planned at Bhendi Bazaar. The trouble is typified by a nascent proposal for the development of a defunct textile mill at Prabha Devi. This 8-acre plot is being allowed to use an FSI of 10: three million sq ft of built up area.

In Lower Parel, a 62-floor supertall skyscraper called the Namaste Tower is proposed (with, it seems, the primary objective of catering to the Big Fat Indian Wedding). At the narrow Hughes Road intersection, that uncrowned king of all things over-the-top, Mr Donald Trump, is building a 60-65 floor condominium; and at the even narrower Marine Lines Road near Charni Road station we are soon to have another splendid addition to Mumbai's deluxe hotels.

All these oversized developments are permitted because FSI is treated in isolation from all other factors, divorced from the needs and requirements of the locality and, consequently, the city itself. When there is a single flattened FSI that does not account for differing community or area needs, the result is what we see coming up before us.

Despite the protests of many architects, planners in complex cities are veering to using form-based codes. The traditional zoning used in our master plans segregates and freezes land-use. Using abstractions like FSI, setbacks and marginal spaces, it results in incongruities. The built form is ignored: what will the city look like? How will its buildings be used? Form-based codes attempt an upending of this view.

They assess buildings in relation to each other, to city blocks, streets and public use. Form-based codes integrate an essential aspect of all planning: meaningful public participation in planning. These codes also set community standards for open and public spaces, building design and function, landscaping, signage, traffic and environmental issues. They are more sensitive to existing character and context.

How does this help the city? By shifting focus to the urban form from a 20-year frozen land-use pattern, this method of planning allows development without sacrificing quality of life. Buildings remain; their uses may change over time. They inhibit disproportionate and out-of-scale construction and support the mixed-use neighbourhoods and spread of housing types that are even today a part of our daily life, resulting in urban development that is gentler and more urbane.

Developers benefit too: competing development is equally controlled, and once local standards are defined, the permission process is shorter and more predictable. Most of all, developers do not have to make in-house arrangements for local infrastructure as this is already part of the local area's form and design. Imagine buildings in the mill lands area around large central parks and median parking; or lower but more expensive apartments in Dadar next to older, less expensive ones, all sharing common public amenities.

In 2009, Miami approved a form-based code. Denver followed a few months later and now over 300 such codes have been or are being adopted across USA and Canada. Miami's code, Miami 21, involved over 500 public hearings. The result, in some neighbourhoods, was that public protests against high-rise development in residential areas finally found acceptance. The city's planning director, Anna Gelabert-Sanchez, said that the new codes reflected many community demands such as conservation and a restriction on out of scale development incompatible with the neighbourhood.

To be sure, the method is not without its critics. But at its heart, form-based codes planning reflects a principle well known in law and justice, though in a completely different context: the neighbourhood principle. If that principle, so far only applied to product liability and negligence cases, which says that a duty of care is owed to your neighbour, could be translated into city planning we might yet see a more just and humane city.

Source : Link

[Bombay Boy]

good article. the lack of urban planning in our cities is disturbing and ultimately disastrous