GROUND PREP BIDS SOUGHT FOR PALM JUMEIRAH'S TALLEST
GROUND PREP BIDS SOUGHT FOR PALM JUMEIRAH'S TALLEST
The Arab News reports Dubai property developer Nakheel is seeking ground preparation proposals for PALM360, a two-tower luxury hotel and residential project that will be the tallest building on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah. The 260-m-tall development will include Raffles The Palm Dubai Hotel and Raffles Residences PALM360, according to the developer. Among the amenities will be a sky pool — said to be the world’s largest — that will connect the two towers. The hotel will have 125 rooms, and there will be 331 residences, including 16 penthouses that will each have an infinity pool, gym, home theater and 360-degree view of Dubai. Completion is targeted for 2021.
DESIGN UNVEILED FOR TOWER IN GREATER MANCHESTER
Simpson Haugh Architects has submitted a proposal for Clippers Quay, a 34-story tower on the waterfront in the Salford area of Manchester, U.K., the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) reports. The plan, created for Forshaw Land & Property Group, would replace a low-rise 1980s office development and would be taller than Salford Quays’ current tallest building, the Blue Tower. It would also be taller than a 94-m-tall office block designed by Sheppard Robson that won approval in 2016 but is not yet under construction. Clippers Quay, a glass tower earmarked for a 0.17-ha triangular site, would deliver 216 new homes plus ground-floor commercial space and a rooftop terrace.
IUEC LOCAL 5 IN PHILADELPHIA GIVES VETERANS A “LIFT”
Several members of the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 5 in Philadelphia spent their Saturday, March 24, installing a chairlift at the American Legion in Newtown, Pennsylvania, from the first floor to the basement meeting area, Bucks Local News reports. Part of an effort that sees up to four such projects a week, “A Lift for a Vet” relies on union members donating their time and businesses and individuals donating equipment they no longer use. IUEC Local 5 also holds a golf tournament and boxing match each year to raise funds. Sharing that many of its members have physical ailments that impair their mobility, Newtown Legionnaire Jim Casey said the donation “means a hell of a lot,” especially to the members who need it.
THREE TRAPPED IN CARLSBAD CAVERNS ELEVATOR
Three visitors at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park were rescued unharmed after being stranded in an elevator about 740 ft. underground on March 26, the Carlsbad Current Argus reports. The tourists were using one of the park's secondary lifts, which have been the primary access to the caverns since the November 2015 breakdown of the park’s main elevators. Officials said in a news release that rescuers went down the elevator shaft in the second elevator car, then lowered themselves to the stranded car, which was near the bottom of the shaft. Each visitor was harnessed and lifted into the working elevator. The breakdown was blamed on a worn traveling cable. The park’s main elevators are undergoing a US$4-million renovation and modernization after being shut down by a broken motor shaft, officials have said, and are expected to return to operation in May. Until the elevators are operational, the only access to the caverns is by a steep 1.25-mi.-long path.
THREE-TOWER COMPLEX TO LINK MELBOURNE’S DOCKLANDS, CBD
Partners China Property Group and Exhibition and Travel Group have joined forces as Century Group Aus to build three towers of up to 33 stories housing residences and a hotel on the old location of the demolished Melbourne convention center, The Urban Developer reports. Linking the Docklands and central business district (CBD), Flinders Bank will have 500 apartments, 167 hotel rooms and 2,100 m2 of retail, as well as a pedestrian precinct and plaza featuring public art. Karl Fender, founder of project architect Fender Katsilidis, said Flinders Bank will be part of an emerging “DNA” in Melbourne that centers on populating areas with people. Construction is set to start in stages in early 2019, with delivery in mid 2021.
