Hovering Towers . Canadian National Air Headquarter. MontrealU3 Winter 2008 A semester long team project with Emmanuelle Hoessly

Site

destination floating massesmovement

Program description:

- auditorium - rentable office space - restaurant - lounge- 500 indoor parking space

- Canadian National Airline headquarter - hotel - public winter garden

building up the city by exploding the program into different masses, leaving voids between, giving a whole floatingeffect 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!”

administrative suitemezzanine on top of CNA lobbyCNA lobby & library

glass walls permitting full view of city mechanical level

mechanical level

rentable offices

CNA offices

rentable offices

mechanical level

truss structurehanging tensile

members holding each floors

restaurant “box”held by core & columnskitchen at the bottom &

mezzanine lounge

hotelfloating effect on top

of “all” glass winter garden facade

individual corepermitting seperate

circulation within hotel & restaurant

hotel mezzanineprivat space on top of garden with view

on dorchester

peel entrance

glass facade stairsfire escape to show building movement

auditoriumaccessible by elevators

auditoriumaccessible by elevators

section

StructureBoth 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.

main core

tensile columns

trusses supporting the sloped glass roof of the garden

compression columns

main core

truss system

lateral bracing

floor beams

Public green garden

First floor - entrance lobby

1. front desk2. cafe counter3. parking ramp4. truck loading5. fire stairs6. main entrance7. service laine8. playground9. low forest10. high forest

Whitebark Pine Eastern HelmockJack Pine

Uneven Canadian landscape & rouhg-ness of winter creates an irregularscenery, which influenced the garden space design - Local tree silhouettes

View from Cypress entrance Swings - a poetic indirect connection with Dorchester Sq. View towards main entraces Overlooking from fire stairs Under the escalators

1. hotel mezzanine2. hotel & resto elevators

Mezzanine floor - hotel reception

Climbing an escalator to hotel mezzanine/lobby Ground floor garde - facade detail Corner viewOverlooking from escalator

Typical parking level

1. loading elevator2. acces ramps3. higher level4. lower level

Hotel - typical floor & Auditorium - first floor Restaurant & Auditorium mezzanine

1. storage2. servie bridge for restaurant3. view to exterior4. auditorium

1. restaurant2. lounge mezzanine3. auditorium mezzanine4. tech room5. stage

Rentable office space Administrative suite (mezz) & CNA skylobby

1. administration suite (mezzaninie)2. conference room3. CNA lobby4. kitchenette5. reception area6. WC 7. CNA library

1. fire escape2. WC

Cypress elevation

Peel elevation

Facade studies

Hotel

Restaurant

Garden - glass facade

View towards Cypress St.