Hovering Towers . Canadian National Air Headquarter. Montreal U3 Winter 2008 A semester long team project with Emmanuelle Hoessly
Program description: - Canadian National Airline headquarter - auditorium - rentable office space - 500 indoor parking space
- hotel - restaurant
- public winter garden - lounge
Site
destination
movement
floating masses
building up the city by exploding the program into different masses, leaving voids between, giving a whole floating effect to the tower and then articulate the tower by bringing the movement of the tower inside out...movement of people from a specific mass to another, while all of the masses are hovering above the site-size ground floor public green garden. The floating masses and the movement between them was originaly inspired by characteristics of the business, a headquarter for an airline company, flights to different destination... movement to different masses.
It was also tried in the design to avoid the hugeness of a skyscraper of this size and its negative effects on the open space (Dorchester Sq.) by keeping the qualities of the Square. Not only is its greenery abstracted in the ground floor indoor public garden but also its open quality within Montreal’s dense urban fabric is translated in the composition of the program into different masses, leaving voids in-between. Or one could say: “shifting the good-quality urban fabric of the Square with its surrounding buildings, vertically!�
mechanical level
truss structure hanging tensile members holding each floors
CNA offices
administrative suite mezzanine on top of CNA lobby
CNA lobby & library glass walls permitting mechanical level full view of city
rentable offices
auditorium accessible by elevators auditorium accessible by elevators
mechanical level
rentable offices
restaurant “box” held by core & columns kitchen at the bottom & mezzanine lounge
individual core permitting seperate circulation within hotel & restaurant
hotel floating effect on top of “all” glass winter garden facade glass facade stairs fire escape to show building movement
hotel mezzanine privat space on top of garden with view on dorchester peel entrance
section
Structure Both towers are supported by a suspension structural system with trusses on top of each tower which hold the tensile columns on each facade. This structural system is employed in order to liberate the base of the towers, the auditorium mass and the restaurant above the hotel mass, from any structural column that would meet the ground except the main cores, facilitate the hovering effect of the masses above the base level mass (indoor garden). The typical post and beam structural system is used for the smaller volumes such as the hotel and the mezzanine above the garden level where the columns go all the way through the underground parking and then to the foundation.
floor beams
truss system
tensile columns
main core main core
trusses supporting the sloped glass roof of the garden
compression columns
lateral bracing
View from Cypress entrance
Swings - a poetic indirect connection with Dorchester Sq.
View towards main entraces
Overlooking from fire stairs
1. front desk 2. cafe counter 3. parking ramp 4. truck loading 5. fire stairs 6. main entrance 7. service laine 8. playground 9. low forest 10. high forest
Public green garden Uneven Canadian landscape & rouhgness of winter creates an irregular scenery, which influenced the garden space design - Local tree silhouettes Jack Pine
Whitebark Pine Eastern Helmock
First floor - entrance lobby
Under the escalators
Climbing an escalator to hotel mezzanine/lobby
Overlooking from escalator
Ground floor garde - facade detail
1. loading elevator 2. acces ramps 3. higher level 4. lower level
1. hotel mezzanine 2. hotel & resto elevators
Mezzanine floor - hotel reception
Typical parking level
Corner view
1. restaurant 2. lounge mezzanine 3. auditorium mezzanine 4. tech room 5. stage
1. storage 2. servie bridge for restaurant 3. view to exterior 4. auditorium
Hotel - typical floor & Auditorium - first floor
Restaurant & Auditorium mezzanine
1. administration suite (mezzaninie) 2. conference room 3. CNA lobby 4. kitchenette 5. reception area 6. WC 7. CNA library
1. fire escape 2. WC
Rentable office space
Administrative suite (mezz) & CNA skylobby
Cypress elevation
Facade studies
Hotel
Restaurant
Garden - glass facade
Peel elevation
View towards Cypress St.