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High Rise Building
Sky is the Limit
The desire to rise higher and higher to set a record is a fashion for U.S, Europe
and Middle East. Not to be left behind, India too has joined in the trend. But we
must keep our ears to the ground to insulate these highrise buildings from
remblings below. Highrise buildings must meet earthquake requirement, says Maria
Rasheeda, surveying Highrise buildings in India.
R
ising alone above the crowd has
always held a special thrill. So
every country and city intents on
asserting its presence on the globe by
building skyline instantly recognizable
around the world. But the case is different
with India. If on the one hand it designs
the high-rise building to reflect its identity
on the world map, on the other hand it
has also the responsibility to provide
accommodation to its growing population.
All this has led to an alarming increase
in high-rise buildings in India especially
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in the metropolitan cities.
With income growing and large
number of people moving to metropolitan
cities, the demand for housing is on the
upswing. Due to high construction cost
and non-availability of land at preferred
locations, people opt for buildings or
apartments. These buildings offer many
advantages such as round-the-clock
security, back-up power supply,
maintenance car-parking facilities and
kid’s play areas. And above all these multi-
storied buildings have their downside too.
Constructing high could be due to
two reasons, either for the ‘Tower Battling’
i.e the desire to rise high or for the ‘Need
for Housing’ i.e to fulfill the demand of
accommodation. In this article, some of
the highrise buildings coming up in India
with the involvement of the foreign
companies in the form of contractors,
consultants or architects in these projects
has been discussed.
Diamond Tower, Gujarat
Designed by ECADI Architects the master
planners of many of Shanghai’s newest
projects, Diamond Tower was designed
as the centerpiece signature tower that
will cap the new GIFT CBD Skyline. The
tower is called ‘Diamong Tower’ to mark
Gujarat state’s eminence as the diamond
capital of the world.
Diamond Tower is a skyscraper
proposed for Gujarat International Finance
Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar. It is
India’s first major supertall Central
Business District project that is designed
to be the focal point of both the world’s
and India’s booming financial service.GIFT
will have 312 tall buildings and the tallest
being the Signature Diamond Tower.
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The tower will be constructed in
phases. The phase 1 of the project, began
in March 2008 and to be completed by
2010, will consist of the 400m Diamond
Tower and core CBD of GIFT, comprising
a total of 25.8 million sq. ft. Already 15
million sq ft of the floor space of this first
phase has been secured by a host of
national and international companies, with
MoU for the other 10 million in the works.
Two more phases will then be rolled out
for an eventual 2017 completion date.
Eighty Seven floors tower takes its
design cues from the cut facets of a
traditional Indian-cut diamond and is a tip
of the hat to the state’s diamond industry,
which remains a huge economic stimulus
to the state.
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The tower is designed to convey both
the brightness and shape of the diamond.
The various cuts and facets in the tower’s
shape are designed to reflect and refract
the light on the tower similar to a cut
diamond, helping to achieve its goal of
being one of the world’s brightest and
most eye-catching towers when it catches
the light of the sun.
The tower actually went through a
major design change from its initial
proposal. After sifting through tens of
proposals by ECADI, the private-public
development consortium finally chose the
new design of the diamond tower. The
new tower is of 400 meter height and
gives an impression of a rock-solid jewel
rising over a much more aggressive and
massive skyline, rather than the
delicate crystal shard
complementing an equally visually
delicate skyline of the older design
plan.
Waves Worli, Mumbai
Architect Sanjay Puri designed a
beautiful residential skyscraper
crowning one side of Mumbai’s
Worli sea front. The building form
is derived from the outline of the
crests of the waves of the sea.
Linear undulating balconies traverse
the length of this residential
apartment building offering
unrestricted views of the sea to
each of the apartments.
Four blocks with apartments
varying from 2000 sq.ft. to 6000 sq.
ft are connected together rising from
40 storeys towards the land end
up to 80 storeys towards the sea
front. The fluid balcony decks that
undulate along the length extend
further out at upper levels to create
sky gardens overlooking the sea.
The tower is significant not only
due to its size, but its location. It
will be built in Worli, one of
Mumbai’s most expensive
neighborhoods, on a piece of land
jutting out into the Indian Ocean
that will soon be spanned with
Mumbai’s massive Bandra-Worli
Sealink project.
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Jupiter & Elphinstone
Mills Tower, Mumbai
Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon
Gill Architects has released the rendering
for both Jupiter & Elphinstone towers for
the redevelopment of Jupiter Mill.
Developer IndiaBull is the owner of both
the towers.
According to the architects, “Jupiter
Mills is a 75-story luxury residential tower
in the heart of downtown Mumbai. To
maximize views, the tower includes 50
stories of residential condominiums from
floors 25-75. The building was designed
to a LEED Platinum standard.”
This tower will come literally right
beside Indiabulls’s Elphinstone Mills (The
tower is one of the first projects to get
underway in a series of redevelopments
of former textile mill lands in South
Mumbai).
While still in the final stages of
design, the Jupiter Mills Tower is the
latest project reflecting the new trend in
Mumbai for organic-looking towers, based
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on ancient Indian Vaastu Shastra
design.The size of the tower is significant,
likely pushing it to supertall heights.
While on the other hand Elphinstone
tower rises from a square podium
extending upwards to a flat roof which is
devoid of any height adding spires, peaks
or aerials. The facades are glass and
feature cut outs and recessed balconied
green areas which contribute to the towers
platinum standard LEED rating. Each of
the atria are connected to a central atrium
located in the core of the tower, air from
the exterior of the building flows down the
core and as it accelerates down the shaft
hits wind turbines which will create energy
for the building.
Comparing to the 60-storey
Elphinstone Mills Tower right next beside
Jupiter tower, this 75-storey tower will likely
be significantly taller, owing to its
unconventional design and tall ’stalk’-like
central core. If the rendering is anything to
go by, this tower will likely be at least 300
meters tall.
The Imperial, Mumbai
Designed by Mumbai based architect
Hafeez Contractor the Imperial is a pair of
residential towers under construction in
Mumbai that are set to jointly be one of
the tallest skyscrapers in India upon
completion. This building(s) is about 240
meters high
The towers each of 63 storeys are
built on earlier slum land where the
current re-development model of builders
providing free land and rehabilitation to
slum dwellers in exchange for rights for
property development, was first put into
practice on a big scale. This model
became the standard for slum
redevelopment across the city, and across
India as a whole.
The towers are ultra-high end
residential towers that sold out even before
the first brick was laid. The Imperial offers
sea-views by virtue of its height, and a
resort-like gardens and fountains on top
of the parking-structure podium, with
hanging gardens that mask the structure
itself.
The facade is swathed in aluminium
composite panels with green and blue
glazing. The building tapers as it moves
up owing to the terraces at the higher
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the DB Tower, like the erstwhile India

tower, is still going to be LEED Platinum
certified, and is designed by the same
architects, Fox and Fowle (FXFOWLE) and
being developed by Neelkamal Realtors,
a subsidiary of the low-profile Dynamix
Balwa Group.
Located on Maharshi Karve Road, the
75-storey building, will cost Rs1,100-crore,
and will be managed by Park Hyatt. With
a built-up space of 9 lakh sq ft, the tower,
coming up on the plot where Ruby Garage
once stood, will offer a panoramic view of
the Arabian Sea. DB Tower’s beautiful

levels. A conical triangular canopy covering

the roof is crowned with a 50-m high
spire. It is expected to be finished by
2009.

Dynamix-Balwas Tower
(DB Tower), Mumbai
One of India and the World’s greenest
towers has changed in name and design!
Rotating-Blocky India tower is officially
redesigned and rebadged as DB Tower,
the flagship project of DB Realty.
The finalized design will be huge —
at 75 stories of residential and untold
more in lobbies, sky lobbies and utility
floors, and boasting a height and crown
that will push this supertall to over 400
meters! Like its India Tower precursor, it
will be of mixed (residential + hotel) use.
Construction will soon commence with
an aim for completion by 2011. Indeed

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design and amazing location will make it
one of Mumbai’s and mordern India’s
most visible landmarks.
Shreepati Heights —
Tardeo, Mumbai
Slated to be one of the prestigious
projects in pipeline, Shreepati Heights
will offer a Ground + 76 storeys Tower
with total built-up area of about 5,00,000
sq.ft and 300 Sq. ft Car park. Commenced
in December 2007, the completion date
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of the skyscraper is expected to be
December 2012.
The tower was designed by architect
Reza Kabul, who had also previously
designed Shreepati Arcade, for Shreepati
Group, which, for a brief time, was
Mumbai’s tallest building.
Shreepati heights seems to take its
cue from traditional architecture, with the
shape evoking the shikhara of Nagara
temple style, even to the point of having
an amalaka crowning the building. The
tower seems to have a remarkably small
footprint for a building of this height, as
Mumbai’s other major skyscrapers require
a larger plot and more green area in
order to get the floor space approval. This
could be an indication of increased FSI
allowances in the area.
Kochi Tower, Kerala
On the same line of designing high,
Mumbai based Zoom Developers has
planned to build a 100-storey office
complex in Kochi, Kerala. At Rs 1 crore
per acre, the 40-acre tract has been
purchased by the Zoom Developers from
the Kerala Industrial Infrastructure
development (Kinfra) to build an
international trade and convention centre
at Kochi.
The 100-storey building developed as
a part of the project will be around 1,640
ft (500 metres) in height. As per the
mandate from the state government of
Kerala the project should have convention
halls and exhibition halls on an area of
2.5 lakh sq ft.
The mandatory requirements need to
be completed by the end of this year. “The
work is on full swing and we are confident
of meeting the mandatory requirements
by December 2008,” says Rumneek Bawa,
managing director Zoom Infraestates. The
total cost outlay of the project would be
Rs 1,000 crore, which the company plans
to fund through a mix of internal accruals
and bank loans.
Zoom Developers has also roped in
the Singapore-based CPG consultants for
the architectural design of the project. The
project will also include a five-star hotel
comprising 31 floors and a total of 400
rooms. The unique 100-storey tower apart
from offices would also have a shopping
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The project will be completed in three

phases. The first phase would involve the
building of convention and exhibition halls,
which will be completed by the end of this
year. The second phase would involve the
construction of a five-star hotel and
shopping mall, while the third would
involve completion of the office tower.
Poised to be one of the tallest towers in
South Asia, the international trade and
exhibition centre whose construction
began in early 2009, is expected to be
complete in 3 years.

Kolkata's Tower
Kolkata will get its tallest building at 250
metres when a commercial property
comes up on Chowringhee, next to Tata
Centre. The tower, to rise to a height
equivalent to 83 storeys, will be the city’s
first run in the construction Olympics that
is dominated by Burj Dubai at 636m.
“We will actually construct 54 floors,
but at 250m, it will easily be the tallest
commercial structure in the country, its
mall spread over six floors. The other
height corresponding to an 83-storey
structures in the convention centre would
tower,” says A.N. Shroff, the leader of the
include a trade centre, service
consortium Diamond Group that is
apartments, restaurants, a post office, and
developing the building.
a multilevel car parking.
To come up on the vacant land that
was once the proposed site for a Grand
Magnolias Tower, Hyatt, the 54-storey structure will tower
over the Chowringhee skyline, housing 10
Gurgaon levels of car parking at the base and a
helipad on top.
The capital city of India is also
“The Chowringhee building will have
not away from the highrise
many firsts, like a 4.2m floor-to-ceiling
trend. A prestigious
condominium-The Magnolias,
part of many dlf properties, is
under construction in the hottest
real estate market Gurgaon,
close to Delhi.
All the five blocks in the
development will have 19
towers which will form a high-
end residential complex
overlooking the new Golf
Course and consists of
apartments, penthouses and
duplex spread over 15 area of
land. This landmark property
consists of G+19 with total 300
members of apartments. The
development is supposed to be
completed by the end of 2009.

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height, a grand entrance lobby 42ft high,

a sky garden on the 29th level, restaurants
on the 50th and 51st floors and three
levels of viewing galleries above that,”
says Vinoo Chadha, principal architect for
the project.
A city-based Design Cell has
designed the tower, which tapers off at
the top, and will have a programmed
illumination system to project varied
façade views at different times during the
night, showing just a brilliant blue streak
along the spine at 2am. “All necessary
structural precautions are being taken,
including the seismic load factor,” said
Chaddha.
Structural expert Joseph P. Colaco
from Ottawa is doing the structural design
along with local structural engineer
Sanjeev Parekh. Construction, outsourced
from a Singapore firm, is expected to
take 24 to 30 months from the date of
sanction.
With the land cost at Rs 432 crore,
construction is estimated to cross Rs
200 crore. “We want this building to be
the calling card of contemporary Calcutta,
and will bring in services to match the
grandeur of the structure, like the rooftop
helipad,” said Shroff. The tower will yield
35-36 floors of office space, with a food BBMP sources said that global
court and convention centre spanning construction majors like DAE WOO,
three levels. Gammon India, NBCC India and Larsen &
Toubro have already evinced interest in
Bangalore Tower taking up the project on build, own, operate
Looking over the country’s tallest building, and transfer (BOOT) basis.
the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike The tower will be a concrete shaft till
(BBMP) is also planning to construct what an altitude of 460 metres and the next
it claims to be the world’s tallest tower. 100 m will be a steel mast. At 550m it
The proposed 560-metre tower will be would house a four storey sky pods.
constructed on the premises of Freedom The floor diameter at 350m altitude
Park. will be 30 metres. At this level a microwave
Freedom Park is being developed on disc platform with a range (cell radius) of
the land where the old central prison 100km will be installed. A revolving
stood. The tower will house a microwave restaurant at 360m altitude will seat 150
disc platform, an air-conditioned guests.
restaurant, a wedding hall and an At 355m altitude an observation gallery
observatory. with a radius of 30 metres will be built. It
The government expressed concern will have a capacity to hold 250 people. A
that such a tower would attract tourists. wedding hall is proposed at 360m.
And road connectivity, parking space and Between 390 metres and 410 metres the
electrification would be difficult to provide transmission equipment of police, post
at that site. Prof Vishwanath suggested and overseas communication department
that the tower be built at Freedom Park. will be housed. Finally, at 460 metres, TV
and FM radio transmitters will be installed.

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