King's Cross Central | Camden & Islington | U/C

[Jaeger]

More here -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai...icampus105.xml

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdce40e6-a...nclick_check=1

http://www.channel4.com/news/article...ghtest/1144062

http://education.guardian.co.uk/high...222172,00.html

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/new...ember/18381989

[Varenukha]

It's all good.

Regular visitors to this thread will recall the "Lighthouse Island" debate - a chunk of un-renovated real estate next to the Regent's Quarter project. Well - there are new hoardings up around it (new to me anyway) that I saw on Monday that indicate development is afoot. If it is true, then great, provided they preserve the Lighthouse.

[El_Greco]

Originally Posted by Varenukha

The at risk buildings are the houses in the first 2 photographs

They are staying.I think...

[Varenukha]

Oh that's great news. I think Argent had kept demolition to a minimum anyway, but they were still at loggerheads about this with the local pressure groups.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by Jaeger

The land was once earmarked for expansion of the British Library, and was until recently leased to the Channel Tunnel terminus project.

Does anyone know any more about these British Library expansion plans? Presumably once the lab is built there will be no more land to expand on to?

[Jaeger]

Originally Posted by Dr Pepper

Does anyone know any more about these British Library expansion plans? Presumably once the lab is built there will be no more land to expand on to?

The British Library has plenty of room to expand, it could build on top of the vast courtyard for a start, if it needed to. The British Library building was built with expansion in mind.



The British Library has recently opened a new building behind the main buildings, which will be a world centre of excellence for book restoration and conservation.



Furthermore Boston Spa, the British Libaries Northern Centre has recently constructed a new respository which will house over 7 million volumes.

The British Libaries future plan include increased digitisation of newpapers, magazines and other works. The closing of Collindale (Newspapers etc), and moving more hard copies to Boston Spa, thus freeing up library space.

You can find more information on this thread - http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=550730

[Dr Pepper]

Thanks for that!

[Luke]

From Construction News - Taylor Woodrow sets sights on £90m King's Cross prize

Contractor hopes to build on its success at station with western concourse package
Taylor Woodrow is targeting a triumphant return to King's Cross amid claims that its interest in a £77 million Thameslink project has cooled.

The firm, which along with Costain recently finished work on the London Underground western ticket hall at King's Cross, has set its sights on the neighbouring _90 million western concourse package for Network Rail.

It is understood to have made the tender list alongside Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Kier and a Laing O'Rourke/Costain joint venture.

Work includes building a new 8,000 sq m, two-storey, semi-circular concourse between the main train shed and the rear of the adjacent Great Northern Hotel, as well as refurbishing the existing western range buildings running parallel to the most western platform. These will be turned into offices for train operators and other staff.

The concourse will be over three times the size of its predecessor, unifying the station.

Currently the main concourse lies at the southern end of the platforms, but it is poorly
integrated with London Underground and is overcrowded.

There is also a second concourse at the western side of the station, which is used by passengers travelling on local services.

The contract is part of a £400 million programme to transform King's Cross station by 2013. Next year Network Rail will be looking to appoint a contractor for the £18 million revamp of the main train shed roof, as well as a £22 million job to modernise platforms.

Bids are due to be returned in mid-January and work will start in 2008.

One bidder said: "It's going to be a rather tense Christmas period."

Taylor Woodrow is one of four bidders for the rebuilding of nearby Farringdon station under the Thameslink programme but, despite being responsible for pre-construction work at the site under the original Thameslink 2000 project, it is thought it is now prioritising the King's Cross job.

[Astounded]

Great mix of old and new but where are the skyscrapers? This was a great chance to build another cluster around King Cross.

ps that small British Library extension is uninspiring and dull, the tiny exhibition inside is worth visiting if you are into book restoration. The library itself is really worth seeing from the inside and the roof garden has some good views.

[potto]

I know, it is a complete waste of land use. There was one originally planned but it was dropped due to the infrastructure not being able to hold the extra million people! The fact that people can actually walk to one of the most connected places in London in about 5 minutes didnt seem to register. Im guessing that this is just another one of the many excuses used to appease our inherent phobia of tall buildings.

[Jaeger]

Originally Posted by Astounded

Great mix of old and new but where are the skyscrapers? This was a great chance to build another cluster around King Cross.

ps that small British Library extension is uninspiring and dull, the tiny exhibition inside is worth visiting if you are into book restoration. The library itself is really worth seeing from the inside and the roof garden has some good views.

I think the BL's new building is meant to be enviromentaly friendly and pc rather than inspiring.

[Astounded]

Originally Posted by potto

I know, it is a complete waste of land use. There was one originally planned but it was dropped due to the infrastructure not being able to hold the extra million people! The fact that people can actually walk to one of the most connected places in London in about 5 minutes didnt seem to register. Im guessing that this is just another one of the many excuses used to appease our inherent phobia of tall buildings.

Such decisions are really complicated, but it does seem a no brainer to use the primary rail stations as cluster hubs like London Bridge and Victoria. The tube provides the main transport between them, if necessary expanding the number of trains and tracks. Fast express tubes between the clusters would help. It's probably too late, but surely there's space enough on such a big site for all the housing, medical labs, colleges etc etc if it just goes UP HIGHER - this would take the pressure off the rest of the centre and city and make London a city of the 21st century.

[Astounded]

Originally Posted by Jaeger

I think the BL's new building is meant to be enviromentaly friendly and pc rather than inspiring.

The main building is inspirational INTERNALLY, externally it has all the inspiration of a large Tesco. It's that pathetic extension upstairs at the back that's a mistake, it's a cheapo clone of the main building.

[Jaeger]

Originally Posted by Astounded

The main building is inspirational INTERNALLY, externally it has all the inspiration of a large Tesco. It's that pathetic extension upstairs at the back that's a mistake, it's a cheapo clone of the main building.

I have no intention of visiting the centre for conservation, the BL is quite pleasant and fuctional inside, however externally we are all aware that it looks like across between a Tesco and a sports centre.

It is still better than what the French built, at least the BL is functional and fit for purpose.

[fitz44]

Just down the road on Pentonville Road, Nido is virtually complete. Except for some retail at ground level this conversion of an old office block into student accomodation is up and running.

You can just see the old brown-clad block sticking up in the background here;



It's had a brightly coloured re-clad;











Won't be going into my top ten favourite buildings (or even top 10,000).

Next door at 210 Pentonville Road Darling Associates are doing a similar overhaul of an old block.



http://www.darlingassociates.net/wor...nville_rd.html

Looks like it might be a bit more successful.

[DarJoLe]

I have an awful feeling the Nido cladding is more or less how the Beetham tower's will look.

[Black Cat]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

I have an awful feeling the Nido cladding is more or less how the Beetham tower's will look.

I preferred the old cladding.

[Brightonboi]

I like the new cladding, But im just weird :P

[mulattokid]

Originally Posted by fitz44

.

This may have been mentioned earlier in the thread, but those black strips look to be ventilation for the rooms individually...is that correct?

[fitz44]

Originally Posted by mulattokid

This may have been mentioned earlier in the thread, but those black strips look to be ventilation for the rooms individually...is that correct?

Yes, I think they're some sort of ventilation grill.