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The Hologloss Towers are three skyscrapers situated in West City, City Centre, Avenir, England.
At completion, Tower 1 (I Hologloss) was the tallest building in Europe, to be overtaken by Tower 2 (II Hologloss) in 1977, during its construction, where it (along with Tower 3) would remain the joint-tallest buildings in Europe until 2010. The buildings were designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the same man behind the World Trade Center in New York City, and construction was carried out by the Alfred Blithebeth Foundation and the Civic Council. One of the most influential and iconic structures in Avenir, it became a symbol for urban renewal in Europe and post-war triumph.
The towers were built over a series of urban towns, which dated back to the 1800s. With increasing interest in the City Centre area, which began to outstrip the expensive Blithebeth, and the construction of the nearby Inner-city Ringway, the towers were quickly sold out upon opening. I Hologloss would be occupied in its near entirety by the Civic Council, replacing their old headquarters in Blossom Hill. II and III Hologloss were both auctioned to private companies for competing amounts of floor space.
Design & Structure[]
The towers all follow an asymmetrical design of concrete-reinforced steel hatched over a glass body. I and II Hologloss are both built as oblongs with the same 90-degree isosceles triangle cut out of their peaks, creating a fluid and triangular look. Neighbouring III Hologloss is an inversion of II Hologloss. II and III Hologloss both reach a peak of 297m, significantly higher than 212m I Hologloss.
The exterior columns of steel are galvanized as to obviate possible rusting with chromium. A vertical grill is ridged out of each column, which extends up to the respective peak of the structure. The western portion of each tower is totally rectangular and stands up to each building's peak, with the eastern side standing up to bottom of the roof ridge. All of the external columns are reinforced by layers of concrete to prevent the building from fires and other external damage. Glass panels are fitted in oblong grids, separated by each new floor and small aluminium wires, which were replaced in 2018. The ground floor lobby is slightly taller than each other floor, with marble-padded walls.
The building's elevators - of which there are 16 on each floor - operate at 42mph. They are built into the concrete core of the building - of area 100m2 - which functions as its backbone.
Beneath the main tower is five underground floors - the latter two are both maintenance-based, operating the building's sprinkler system, valves, elevators, water, equipping the structure with power, and other basic needs. A recent addition was a new Wi-Fi supermodem, for the complementary use of the building's occupants, although taller floors on II and III Hologloss are fitted with their own modems. B3 links with the Inner-city Ringway, providing workers with quick links from the City Centre subway, with car parking on B3 and B2. B1 features a series of shops for the convenience of workers. B1-B5 are shared by all three buildings.
Security[]
Since the September 11 Attacks, the security on the Hologloss estate was tightened dramatically. All commuters are forced to bring identification cards, where security is legally obliged to perform stop-and-searches and can refuse access without one. Ticket machines also print tickets with randomly-generated 16-bit values, featuring a series of letters and numbers which can only be recognised on the day of creation. Some businesses which operate on specific storeys of the Hologloss Towers can opt for manual shutdown at closing hours, whereby all elevator access to that floor is shut off. The Security staff for the Hologloss is 200 or so people, with 150 or so janitors.
Window cleaning system[]
A new window cleaning system was fit in 1993-1994 on each structure, replacing the unpopular job beheld by eponymous workers. This operates once every 6 months.
2018 refurbishment[]
In 2018, the upper floors of each structure, which featured 90-degree hatching in accordance to the triangular "slice" from the roof of each structure, was given a mirrored layer of hatching, as to create a cross-hatching effect. All aluminium used on the exterior of the structure was removed and replaced with lead. The entire underground section of the inner-city ringway was re-padded from 2016, which affected the subway's intersection with the buildings. Certain apparatus used in the operation of the structure was replaced.
Traces of asbestos on the building's roof was removed using machinery. It was replaced by lead and silver padding.
Construction[]
Being the most groundbreaking project for any single estate in British history, the Hologloss Towers were built by some 9,000 men. On the site of the buildings was a small downtown area, most of which was demolished in the 1960s-80s to make room for highrises. The foundations of all three buildings extended some 150m underground; controlled dynamiting was used to clear rocks from the soils beneath the sight. Massive concrete blocks, some 15m tall, were placed for the structure to essentially "sit" on. Steel rods were placed in columns between concrete columns. These steel rods were bolted together with the galvanised steel used on the exterior of the structure.
In order to feed the buildings' sprinkler system and water supply, the nearby River Jackie was mostly drained and reduced to an underground ravine. Elongated tubes were connected to the small river, with another low-facing used to feed the river back. Each week, some 100 gallons of freshwater are pumped back into the supply. A filtration and sterilisation system is fitted into the tube that drains the water, and then several other ultra-velocity lines, powered by turbines which the ravine itself spins, push water up to the users. The ultra-velocity line was one of the last permanent fixtures added to the three towers, due to its scale warranting the building's architectural completion before fitting.
Other masses of rock, in some cases bedrock, depending on the topography of the area, were dynamited in order to make space for the inner-city subway, which connected to the pre-built inner-city ringway. New underground roads were built in order to connect the structure with the rest of the city without compromising on-the-surface space. A car park was built in the immediate vicinity, and above that the Hologloss Shopping Arena was built, using frontages from old downtown buildings that were demolished to allocate space. All of the walls of the underground areas were lined with the same concrete and steel for the external frame to rest on.
Above the building's basement floors, a new mass of concrete was fitted in the centre of each building, of area 100m2, although I Hologloss had a slightly smaller block of 88m2 fitted. Oblong-shaped holes were fitted on the exterior for elevator access, which itself was padded with metal and plasterboard. The concrete was covered in internal pores, for gas from the elevator to travel through where it would eventually be released through the roof of the structure in a small vent, which would then filter the air to obviate air pollution. Carbon-fibre soundproofing was padded on the internal layers of the concrete and each elevator. Steel lines for the elevators to ascend and descend from were wired with copper, to conduct electricity and power the whole system, provided by a massive battery from floors B4-B5.
Without regarding the building's central concrete core and rigid concrete and steel in the basement floors, the rest of the structure was essentially layers of concrete and metal forming each storey and galvanised steel columns fitted on the exterior. Some 400 tonnes of glass were used in the project. Each floor had a pair of glass windows set in columns, separated by aluminium lines (which were later removed). After each building was "completed" up to the roof, external lines of steel were hatched in each building corresponding to the triangular "slice" of the roof, creating a fluid effect continued in each building. Lower floors were, in lieu, coated with triple-glazed glass. Upper floors used single- or double-glazed glass. The roof of each structure was covered in a layer of asbestos and then covered with concrete. The top five floors of each building were exclusively maintenance-based, inaccessible for public use, as they featured massive cables, telephone lines, or satellites, which travelled up to the roof but were not exposed, as to not compromise the appearance of each building.
I Hologloss was the first building to be completed in 1974. II and III Hologloss were only around one quarter completed by the time the building was opened to the public.
Tenants[]
I Hologloss[]
- Floors 3-19: Deutsche Bank
- Floors 20-24: South And City Law
- Floors 25-56: Alfred Blithebeth Foundation
II Hologloss[]
- Floors 3-6: Hologloss Maintenance
- Floors 7-30: Travelodge
- Floors 31-32: Morgan Stanley
- Floors 33-40: Zaha Hadid Architects
- Floors 41-60: Quinn-Barker-Bates Law
- Floors 61-63: Bank of Zurich
- Floors 64-70: Barclays Offices
- Floors 71-75: Eye in the Sky Ballroom
- Floors 76-78: sky lobby
III Hologloss[]
- Floors 3-22: Avenir Schools Foundation
- Floors 23-30: Nintendo Europe
- Floors 31-48: Deloitte
- Floors 49-51: Childline
- Floors 52-61: Nike
- Floors 62-66: BBC
- Floors 67-75: Avenir Stock Exchange
- Floors 76-78: sky lobby