Finland Gov't Says No Go on Guggenheim Helsinki

I first saw the plans for Guggenheim Helsinki about a year ago and I was excited to follow the project.  The dark façades and sweeping pitched roofs looked like a perfect compliment to the sea, a stones throw away.  The government anticipated the cost to be  €40 million (£34 million) of public money.  While not wholly opposed to the project, the government is closing the matter and saying no to funding the project by French architecture firm, Moreau Kusunoki.  MK had a rough budget of  €130,000,000 for the entire project.  The completed project was expected to bring in a lot of revenue for Helsinki, but publicly funding this is no longer a question.  You can check out more pictures of what would have been, here.  Who knows, maybe a private funder will save the day?

Rundetaarn: The Round Tower in Copenhagen, Denmark



Rundetaarn



As you may have noticed I am currently obsessed with Denmark and surrounding Scandinavian countries.  The Rundetaarn is a really cool structure built in the 17th-century in Copenhagen, Denmark.  This was an architectural project by Charles IV built to be used as an astronomical observartory. Іt іs mоst noted fоr іts 7.5-turn helical corridor leading tо the top, аnd fоr the expansive views іt affords оver Copenhagen. 

The inside is void of steps and has a spiraling ramp all the top.  This allowed for the transport of heavy equipment to the top of the observatory to be rolled to the top rather than carried up steps. This design was also  chosen to allow a horse and carriage to reach the library, moving books in and out of the library.

The Rundetaarn is still in use as a major tourist attraction and concert venue.  Danish cyclist Henrik Djernis won a bike race against Jens Veggerby inside of the tower in 50.02 seconds!  Boom!

   




View from Rundetaarn: Oresund Bridge

I posted about this bridge here.



Have you every visited the Rundetaarn?  Would you suggest this as a must-see when visiting Copenhagen?



Øresund Bridge

The  Øresund Bridge is an amazing structure spanning from Denmark to Sweden.  It runs 8km or 5 miles in length and is both a bridge and tunnel combination.  The tunnel portion was created so that the bridge would not interfere with air traffic from Copenhagen's airport.  It also allows for ships to have a clear channel and prevents ice floes from blocking the strait.

The bridge runs nearly 8 km (5 miles) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island of Peberholm in the middle of the strait, then a 4 km (2.5 mile) tunnel to the Danish island of Amager. The Øresund Bridge is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe, and connects two major metropolitan areas: Copenhagen, the Danish capital city, and the major Swedish city of Malmö. It connects the road and rail networks of Scandinavia with those of Central and Western Europe. -Wikipedia

The architecture firm Dissing + Weitling completed the project in 1999 costing a total of $5.7 Billion dollars.  It is forecasted that the bridge will pay for itself by 2035.  Being a toll bridge and demanding a hefty fee ~$55 (~45 euro)  [one way!!] the Øresund  Bridge is definitely cheaper by train.  You can buy a pass if you plan to use the bridge more frequently.

Due to high longitudinal and transverse loads acting over the bridge and to accommodate movements between the superstructure and substructure, it has bearings weighing up to 20t each, capable of bearing vertical loads up to 96,000 kN in a longitudinal direction and up to 40,000 kN in transverse direction. The design, manufacturing and installation of the bearings was carried out by the Swiss civil engineering firm Mageba.