Modiji at Madison Square
The World Trade Center famously known as twin towers, openedin 1973
and stood till that terror attacks in Sept. 11, 2001. At the time of their completion, the
"Twin Towers" — the North Tower
at 1,368 feet (417 m); and the South tower — were the tallest buildings
in the world. There are many other twin
towers at other countries and many other skyscrapers too, just as this one at
Benidorm, which shot in to news for wrong reasons.
Benidorm
is a coastal town in the province of Alicante, Valencia, Spain. Prior to the
1960s, Benidorm was a small village. Today it stands out for its hotel
industry, beaches and skyscrapers, built as a result of its tourist-oriented
economy. The unique skyline formed by its numerous tall hotels and apartment
buildings, which is unlike any other on the Costa Blanca (White Coast) Urban
Age project, bears witness to the fact that Benidorm has the most high-rise
buildings per capita in the world.
Edificio Intempo Benidorm is a 47 floor,
200 meter high skyscraper building in Benidorm, Spain. The design of the
building was officially presented in Jan 2006 and work began a year later.
Originally scheduled for completion in 2009, work was significantly hampered by
the economic crisis of 2008 which seriously affected the real estate sector in
Spain. Construction finally completed in
March 2014. It is reported to be the tallest building in the city of Benidorm
(surpassing the Gran Hotel Bali). The
building consists of two parallel towers separated by a gap of 20 metres and
connected by a cone-shaped structure between floors 38 and 44.
It
is not about its height nor about its design – the building was in news as
during Aug 2013 many newspapers carried out a report that its architects missed
out to have the elevator in its plans !.
An article in Daily mail titled ‘Uno problemo’ stated that the
architects behind Benidorm's InTempo towers had resigned after a series of
embarrassing setbacks. It stated that a
lift exists for the first 20 floors, but beyond that there is only the
stairs. The report quoting Spain's El
Pais newspaper suggested that there is
no more space for another lift or motor equipment. The newspaper reports that
not only did construction workers go for four months without pay in 2010, but
they were also forced to walk up and down the half-constructed towers for
months as a service lift was not built until the first 23 storeys had been
completed. It was stated that the lift
that was eventually installed collapsed in July 2011, injuring 13 workers.
Ambulances reportedly struggled to reach them, because the area surrounding the
construction site had not been cleared for vehicle access in an alleged bid to
save money. The news on the skyscraper
reported to have been built without elevators went viral.
Subsequently,
another report in www.dezeen.com quoted an official of Edificio Intempo
residential towers, describing the media storm as "ridiculous" questing how is it possible to conbstruct
such high residential skyscraper without elevator. Incidentally, Dezeen was one of several
publications to feature the story, which was originally reported by Spanish
newspaper El Pais. It was stated a journalist from El Pais issued some fake
news and everyone else just copy-and-pasted it. A Twitter account dedicated to
the Edificio Intempo building responded to some of the publications who
reported the news by tweeting that it is false and its elevators are working.
Another tweet linked to a document published by its engineers showing section views of the building,
including elevator shafts. A Spanish journalist who visited the building posted
on her website that she had ascended as far as the building's 45th floor using
its elevators and included a photo that claims to show the elevator's
unfinished operating panel. The project's website also featured photos of lift
doors within the building.
All
that made an interesting read !!
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
29th
Sept.2014
