Crystal Ship, Portomaso
The Crystal Ship is the name given to the second Portomaso Tower. Perfect project management was needed for this high-rise steel building. A high-rise in steel is a challenge – New Challenge, Great Satisfaction!
The second Portomaso tower consists of 11 floors with a total office area of over 5,000 m2 and 1,500 m2 of terraces.
Portomaso has replaced a single floor restaurant/cafeteria, which sat on five floors below road level, three of which are parking levels.
All the preliminary work, which served as the foundations of the new tower, was carried out by Elbros Construction, who worked methodically during the night not to affect the operation of the supermarket and the shopping mall. Due to these restrictions, this phase took almost a year to complete – from May 2017 to April 2018.
The main structure above road level, including the glass façade, were entrusted to a renowned Italian company, Pichler, which has constructed landmark projects all over Europe and recently also in New York. The architectural design was by Architect Ray DeMicoli of Demicoli+Ass. Pichler were also entrusted to do the building’s structural design, apart from the construction. This started in June 2018 and was completed within 10 months, in April 2019.
The final phase, which took another two months to finish, consisted of all the stainless-steel railings around the terraces and the huge pipework structure that enclosed the entire façade. The architects, together with Pichler, created this awesome structure as an aesthetic feature, but also wisely used it to drain the surrounding terraces from rainwater, which is collected for re-use.
In respect of the tower’s environment-friendly attributes, the engineers have specified various features, including:
• perimeter curtain wall glass with excellent thermal conductivity, light transmittance and solar energy values;
• insulation of all exposed structural walls;
• an AC system that has an elevated coefficient of performance; and
• collection and re-use of rainwater
