Copenhagen Hotel/Office Project Will Feature Pedestrian Bridge 200 Feet Above Harbor

• November 23, 2015
• 3 Comments

by UrbanTurf Staff

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It seems as though all the new residential and commercial projects that push the envelope from a design perspective are constructed outside the United States.

Last week came news that the world’s tallest building has been proposed for the Basra province in Iraq. Today comes news of a very ambitious project in Copenhagen.

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Copenhagen Gate, a hotel/office project designed by Steven Holl Architects in the Denmark city, will break ground in 2016, eight years after being proposed. Perhaps one of the reasons it took so long is that the two towers will be connected by a pedestrian bridge/bike lane suspended 200 feet above the water.

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“Each tower carries its own cable-stay bridge between the two piers,” the architect describes on his site. “Due to the site geometry, these bridges meet at an angle, joining like a handshake over the harbor. The soffits below the bridges and under the cantilevers pick up the bright colors of the harbor; container orange on the undersides of the Langelinie tower, bright yellow on the undersides of the Marmormolen tower.”

While the bridge/bike lane may seem a little on the impractical side, it came about as the result of city policy. As Copenhagenize.com points out, buildings in Copenhagen must be within 500 meters of some sort of public transportation, and without the bridge, the Langelinie tower would not meet this requirement.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/copenhagen_hotel_office_project_will_feature_pedestrian_bridge_200_feet_abo/10617

3 Comments

1. skidrowedc@gmail.com said at 3:22 am on Tuesday November 24, 2015:
   It's perhaps worth noting that the average new construction building in northern European countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, etc, has a budget almost 3 times that of the average American equivalent. Yes, almost THREE TIMES! So you can stop wondering why the adventurous architecture (and/or highly sustainable, socially conscious, stunningly tasteful, etc. architecture) is in those countries. Start wondering how their economies support this expenditure, and what could be done to shift the US economy in that direction...

1. BuyHousesDC said at 3:03 am on Wednesday November 25, 2015:
   Reminds me of that crazy all glass pedestrian bridge in London. Very cool stuff. Pushing the envelope of design.

1. Brett said at 10:22 pm on Monday December 7, 2015:
   @skidrowdc What are you talking about? The US economy is actually doing a lot better than the Danish economy, which was in recession in 2013 and is barely on track for 1.7% growth this year. Unemployment's also more than a whole percentage point higher in Denmark. This pedestrian bridge was less out of adventurism and more out of necessity, as discussed in the article.