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EUREKA TOWER
EUREKA TOWER
297 metres/975 feet
91 stories
Completed: 2006
34th tallest building in the world
Tallest building of Melbourne
Some facts about Eureka Tower:
- designed by Fender Katsalidis Architects;
- the story behind the name of the tower:
the name has a special significance in Australia due to the discovery of gold,
which has played a significant role in Melbourne's history.
Eureka means 'I've Found It' in Greek
and the expression 'Eureka, Eureka' was shouted
by Greek mathematician Archimedes (287-221 BC)
after he had just discovered the theory of displacement of liquids.
Legend has it that Archimedes used his theory to measure the purity
of the gold in the King's crown.
These golden connections have been incorporated in both the name of the building
and the 'golden' pinnacle of the tower which cover the top 11 floors.
This summit is clad in glass that has a surface of real gold.
- building costs were approximately US$ 415 million;
- 2nd tallest residential building in the world;
in 2006, only Q1 was taller, but that was because of its spire on top.
Floor wise, or height from ground level to roof top wise,
Eureka Tower is the tallest residential Tower in the world;
- at the beginning of 2006, the developer of Eureka Tower proposed adding an almost 54m/180f tall
communication mast/observation tower on top of the 297m/975f building;
- in April of 2006, a new proposal was announced:
a skywalk of over 50 m/164f that would lift the height to over 350m/1150f;
- the building will have an observatory on the 88th floor, 288m/945f above the ground.
The observatory is due to open at the end of 2006.
It will be the highest observatory in the Southern Hempishere;
- the tower has 13 elevators; two of which will service the observation deck.
They will be among the fastest in Australia, reaching the observatory,
traveling at 9 metres per second; 540 metres per minute.
- the buildings has 556 apartments.
The top ones will be the second highest in the world,
with the penthouse at level 84 (278,5m/913f) as the highest.
Only the John Hancock Center in Chicago has higher apartments;
- between ground level and floor 11 there are offices, restaurants, retail,
a health and fitness centre, a swimming pool, and a residents' car park (800 cars).
Floors 11 tot 80 will contain the 556 apartments.
The apartment levels are divided in three sections:
floors 11 to 24 will be 'River rise'; floors 25 to 52 will be 'Premier rise';
while Floors 53 to 80 will be 'Sky rise';
The top nine floors of the complex, known as 'Summit complex', will have the observatory,
the 84th floor penthouse, restaurants, a function centre, and a nightclub on level 87.
Two floors are in use as service and plant floors.
Some more facts:
- construction began in August of 2001;
- the building weighs 200,000 tonnes;
5,000 tonnes of reinforced steel and 110,000 tonnes of concrete
were used in the construction of Eureka Tower;
- the façade of the tower consists of 40,000 square metres of glass and aluminum panels;
- the glass is specially designed to reflect heat in the Summer, but to retain heat in the Winter
The pictures you find on this page were taken in April 2006;
just a few days before the building was completed (on the outside).
You can still see a crane on top doing the last (gold) decoration work on the summit of Eureka Tower.
Click here to go (back) to the city page of Melbourne
Or click here to go (back) to the Top 50 of tallest buildings in the world
All pictures copyright (c) 2006 Patrick Beckers. All Rights Reserved.
Download of any pictures from this site without written consent is strictly prohibited, unless for personal use!
This personal use does NOT include using the pictures on other web sites.
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