Post by UKarchaeology on Oct 1, 2015 19:04:24 GMT
Three of the gas holders in the King's Cross neighborhood, known as the Siamese triplets, are interlinked in a snaking pattern of columns. Credit John Heseltine
LONDON — One of the more melancholy symbols of late 20th-century urban decay was the gas holder, its skeletal cast iron halo of rusting columns lowering over neglected wastelands of empty warehouses and industrial sites that were as lacking in function as the giant gas frameworks themselves.
Few were more evocative than the four along the railroad tracks that led to King’s Cross station in London — itself once as scruffy and rundown as the area, which in the 1970s and ’80s had added notoriety because of the prostitutes who patrolled its streets.
Now it’s all change at King’s Cross. The station has been spruced up, and 67 surrounding acres are being transformed into a shiny complex of new apartment and office blocks, shops and restaurants, a school and art college. In what is said to be one of the biggest urban regeneration plans in Europe, there are to be 50 new buildings, 2,000 new homes for 30,000 people, 20 new streets, 10 new public squares and 26 acres of open space.
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And there, right at the heart of the development, will be those natural gas holders, reworked as the eye-catching framework for a daring residential concept.
A rendering of what a complex, with 144 apartments, is expected to look like.
The holders, manufactured from 1860 to 1867, are deemed to be of special interest by Historic England, the body that monitors buildings of architectural significance. Thus they have escaped the fate of scores of others in the country that have been scheduled for demolition, though they were dismantled in 2001 to allow the construction of the Channel Tunnel rail link to France. By then the plan to use them, albeit in a slightly different location, had been formulated, and the columns, all 123 of them, were sent to be restored by Shepley Engineers in West Yorkshire, 185 miles north of King’s Cross.
There, in a huge, cacophonous warehouse, the columns, which come in three different lengths and weigh 6.5 tons to 8 tons, are maneuvered into place by a crane and made ready for the first stage of the process, in which 32 layers of paint are hammered and chiseled off by hand. Then the columns are blasted with copper slag, tiny particles of the metal, which “would cut you to the bone if you were hit by it,” said Paul Dawson, the project engineer.
Stress tests follow, cracks are filled, weak spots strengthened. Eventually primer paint is applied and then the final coat of gray. The operation takes eight weeks.
Mr. Dawson said: “We are trying to keep the history of the gas holders as they have always been. We have to re-work the iron as it comes to us and not as they were originally. If something has been damaged, we have to respect that and keep it as part of the history of the building.
“It is fantastic that we are using the heritage we have got in this way. People used to think gas holders were ugly, but they can be quite beautiful structures, if you’ve got the eye for them.”
One of the gas holders is back in place as a frame for a public garden designed by the award-winning landscape designer Dan Pearson that will open this month. A circular central lawn is ringed by a stainless steel canopy, while between the columns are trees and familiar plants such as ivy, grasses and daffodils.
When it is studied at close quarters, it is impossible not to admire the workmanship of the Victorian engineers — not just for the sheer monumentality of the columns but for the care with which the workers molded the Grecian bases and the capitals and added decorative rosettes to cover the bolts on the wrought-iron lattice supports. Even though these touches are barely visible from the ground, that kind of care symbolizes a confidence and an attention to detail characteristic of the engineering ambition of the Industrial Revolution, which transformed Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The challenge today is to match that ambitious industrial aesthetic with contemporary architecture — a challenge made more of a test because three of the gas holders — known as the Siamese triplets — are interlinked in a snaking pattern of columns.
When completed, the columns will stand alone, encompassing the three drum-like units of accommodation, which will contain a total of 144 apartments. The drums will be at differing heights to suggest the movement of the original gas holders, which used to rise up or down, depending on the pressure of the natural gas within. Each unit is built around an atrium, and the triplets circle a central courtyard where the three sets of columns join and which in turn is to be connected with walkways.
Chris Wilkinson, founder of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, whose eclectic range of work includes the 103-story Guangzhou International Finance Center in China and a small help center for cancer patients in Britain, had the example of Gasometer City in Vienna, where a neighborhood has been created around four gas holders, also known as gasometers, that are faced with brick. But he said: “You wouldn’t put a brick wall against the iron casts because it wouldn’t relate to what was there before, but by putting the heritage structure of the columns with new contemporary architecture and by keeping the distance between the inner buildings and the gas holders at a minimum of one foot six inches, we have achieved the most pleasing aesthetic solution.”
To add distinction to the apartments, the cladding is composed of silver cellular panels, or shutters, on the outside of the terraces, which when closed will reflect the light and contrast with the gray columns.
Inside, the apartments are pie-shaped, with smaller slices for studios and bigger ones for three- and four-bedroom units. The living areas will be at the front, with the bathrooms and bedrooms generally to the rear. There will be a spa and gym, a communal space for parties and an underground parking garage, as well as a sunken courtyard lined with small independent shops in what was the old coal drop, where the fuel was stored to service the holders.
Mr. Wilkinson is enthusiastic about the entire regeneration project: “It’s sophisticated and has historic links, which will appeal to people with money who are looking for something that excites them. It is right at the heart of communications, with four underground lines, trains to the north of England and the Eurostar service to France.
“This really will be a new center for London.”
A showroom and the announcement of prices are expected in February.
(pics & source at: www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/greathomesanddestinations/victorian-era-industrial-relics-become-an-urban-centerpiece.html?_r=0 )