Contract let for
Asian Development Bank
IT is understood that William Gollan- co and Company Inc. have put in the lowest competitive bid to build the US$7.5 million Asian Development Bank and United Nations Centre in Manila.
While the firm's tender was the lowest submitted, it was still in excess of the budgeted amount for the pro- ject and the architects are now revising
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How the centre will look from the north-west
their designs for the United Nations building which will be reduced in height in order to save costs.
Castro and Associates, whose plans were selected by the Philippine Co-ordinat- ing Committee on the project from schemes submitted by 12 firms in a local architectural competition. The feature of their bold concept for the 12,200 sq. metre site is a 15-metre cantilever of the floors on each side of the central core of the ADB block.
Foundation work for the centre is now under way and tenders have been invited for construction of the core of the multi-storey ADB building which is likely to be built by the slipform method.
Architects for the complex are C.C. Above the open ground floor, the 13
This view shows the lobby connections between the two blocks
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upper floors of the building will be supported solely by the core and four massive columns, so that the whole structure will appear to float in space.
The overall scheme provides for separate 14-storey and seven-storey blocks for the ADB and the UN Cen- tre, set on a podium-like structure and sharing a general lobby which directs circulation to the lobbies of each build- ing. Allowance is made for possible future expansion of the ADB building which has a convex curve to its long curtain-walled frontages.
Generally the cladding will be mar- ble slabs, with a building-height bas relief covering both sides of the ADB central core area.
Two floors of basement parking beneath the site will hold about 135 cars. Lifts in the central cores of both buildings will serve all floors as well as the basements; these cores will also carry all the services.
Structure
The unconventional design for the ADB building was the result of many considerations. First a mimimum num- ber of columns was aimed at in order to achieve freedom and flexibility in the allocation of space.
Secondly the site is within the air corridor for Manila Airport and a height restriction of 160 ft. above mean sea level is imposed. A slab block, rather than a tower block, was therefore necessary to satisfy the prescribed space allocations.
For aesthetic reasons the block is kept as slim as possible, with its can- tilevered floors floating over reflecting
Far East BUILDER, February 1969