world news
International Symposium on Quantity Surveying
A JOINT Working party of the quantity surveyors and the international affairs committee of the Royal Institu- tion of Quantity Surveyors is proposing to organise a residential symposium on quantity surveying at Churchill College, Cambridge, UK. from September 4 to 9, 1966.
The aim is to explain how quantity surveying con- tributes to efficiency in the building industry in the United Kingdom by avoidance of waste and co-ordination of building processes, and to consider how quantity surveying might be adapted to the needs of other countries.
In a letter to government, professional and contrac- tors' organisations all over the world, the RICS states that it has received a considerable number of enquiries about quantity surveying from countries overseas and it was thought that a symposium on the subject would be of considerable value in providing information.
World's Tallest Reinforced Concrete Framed Building
A NEW height record for reinforced concrete building frames will be set when Lake Point Tower, a 70-storey block at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, USA, is completed in 1967. At 645 ft., it will top the current record holder, Mon-
treal's Place Victoria, by 18 ft. The 65 floors of apartments, electrically heated and air con- ditioned, will be surmounted by a triangular structure for mech- anical equipment and a circular shaped private lounge on the 70th floor.
The tower, sheathed in glass and aluminium, will dominate a landscaped base structure which will include a lagoon and an outdoor swimming pool. Also contained in the podium will be heated parking for 700 cars. lobby, restaurant, commissary. coffee shop, health club and services department.
A triangular concrete core will extend up through the cen- tre of the building to stabilise the structure against horizontal wind forces. This core will also contain the lifts, stairs and mechanical risers.
Another feature of the design will be the movable walls be- tween apartments. By manoeu- vring the party walls the deve- lopers can adjust the space al- loted to one, two or three-bed- room apartments to meet the demands of the market. Hartnett-Shaw and Associates, Inc., and Fluor Pro- perties, Inc. are the developers. The architects are Schipporeit-Heinrich, of Chicago. Other consultants are
Lake Point Tower
Far East Architect & Builder January, 1966
This 11-storey block of 44 two-bedroom flats at Croydon, near London, took only ten weeks to build from the foundations. The contractors, Wates (London) Ltd., used an industrialised system of building involving the extensive use of precast, fac- tory-made units. They claim that the method reduced by two- thirds the time normally taken to erect a block of this size. The block is one of 13 which the firm are building for the Croy- don local authority's housing programme.
Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, Inc.. associate architects; Alfred Caldwell, landscape architect: William Schmidt and Associates, structural engineers; and William Goodman, mechanical engineer. Crane Construction Co. are the contractors.
INDUSTRIALISATION
Growth of Industrialised Building in Germany
is steadily spreading into the West German construction industry. but before it can take a firm hold there is need for a complete re-orientation of planning and building regulations.
The European correspondent of Contract Journal, reports that there are also some psychological hurdles to overcome. These have arisen chiefly from the attitude of architects, to whom considerations of aesthetic design are more important than the mere erection of buildings. They fear that prefabrication will hamper their individual style of design and leave them too little opportunity for creative work.
On the other hand, experts in prefabricated construc- tion are of the opinion that industrialised building with a suitably selected variety of structural components does indeed provide adequate scope for the exercise of architectural imagination.
The report states that at all events the advance of the new construction techniques cannot be halted, as there are compelling economic and technical reasons for it.
The overstrained condition of the labour market and the high level of wages in the West German economy (with the building industry occupying a foremost position in this respect) are forcing production towards the adoption of more rational methods, with a reduction in the wage cost per unit of output, in order to offset the rising cost of labour.
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