TECHNICAL
constructionmanagermagazine.com
Technical
ENGINEERING ROGERS’ LATEST EXOSKELETON THE SIGNATURE DESIGN OF ROGERS STIRK HARBOUR’S BOUTIQUE HOTEL IN MAYFAIR IS BEING BROUGHT TO LIFE BY MAIN CONTRACTOR ISG AND STRUCTURAL ENGINEER RAMBOLL. WILL MANN EXPLAINS
“This project is unique in the UK,” says Gary Le Carpentier, technical director with Ramboll and the consulting engineer’s lead on Rogers Stirk Harbour’s latest extraordinary structure. He is referring to The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, a luxury hotel development featuring the architect’s trademark external
expression of structure, which ISG is currently constructing. The design is in the best traditions of the practice’s co-founder Richard Rogers, responsible for the Pompidou Centre in Paris and London’s Lloyd’s Building, who announced his retirement last month. The Mandarin Oriental project features a steel exoskeleton, which
Above: The facade under construction Opposite top: CGI showing the finished building Opposite right: Detail of the cruciform Vierendeel column
wraps around the development, and is designed as a Vierendeel structure. “That was the only way we could do it, but it’s pretty unusual in modern engineering,” says Le Carpentier. “The engineering is among the most critical elements of the build,” adds Oliver O’Shea, ISG’s project director on the £50m shell-and-core scheme.
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