Helsinki plans to build skyscrapers in Pasila district

Architect envisions 40-storey block reaching up over 150 metres

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According to new plans, ten high skyscrapers are to be built in Helsinki’s district of Pasila, on the southern side of the Pasila railway station.
     
The tall buildings would be Finland’s first real skyscrapers and the plan is to build them at the end of next decade. The tallest structure would be about 170 metres above sea level.
      The tallest building itself would be more than 150 metres high, with a panorama café open for all on the top of the building.
     
The lowest structures would have 20 storeys, and most of them would be located on the western edge of the railway yards in Länsi-Pasila, but three of the high-rises would be situated in Itä-Pasila, on the eastern side of the railway yard.
      The sculptural structures have been designed by an Italian architecture firm - Cino Zucci Architetti, based in Milan.
      ”The dense Central Pasila will become very eco-efficient, as it is located at an important traffic junction”, says Cino Zucci.
     
According to Zucci, substantial energy savings are possible when offices and homes are centered in the same buildings. The first floors of the planned scyscrapers would accommodate offices, while the upper floors would be reserved for apartments.
      In the future, the planned towers would provide 3,000 to 4,000 workplaces and homes for 1,200 residents.
      The uppermost floors are terraced, with magnificent views over the city. Inside the tall buildings Zucci has designed parks of the height of several storeys to be shared by all residents.
     
Zucci plans that the facades of all skyscrapers would be made of the same materials, namely of greyish stone, metal, and glass. Thus they would look both similar and different at the same time.
      The skyscrapers would be built on the ground surface - not on platforms as was planned previously.
      According to architect Timo Lepistö, the Head of the Pasila Project, the construction of the tall Pasila buildings would begin in 2015.
      The area now under consideration is 18.4 hectares, of which the state owns 84 per cent and the City of Helsinki 16 per cent.
     
Senate Properties, an enterprise under the Ministry of Finance, manages a major part of the state-owned real estate assets. As soon as the city plan has been completed, Senate Properties intends to sell the plots of land.
      In 2004, the state and the capital city signed a letter of intent on the planning of the area, which has been freed up by the move of Helsinki's harbour activities from the downtown area to a new site in Vuosaari.
      A draft city plan is to be completed in 2011, and a city planning proposal is to be submitted in the following year.
     
Also included in the plans is the building of a huge shopping mall and entertainment complex on the site immediately west of the Pasila station.
      The idea would be to draw synergy from the flow of visitors to the Hartwall Arena and the Fair Centre, both close at hand.
      Architects Cino Zucci and Leonardo Cavalli will present their ideas to the public in English at the information and exhibition centre Laituri (the old bus station building) at the Narinkkatori Square on Thursday November 19th at 6.00 p.m.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  100-metre skyscraper hotel planned in Helsinki´s Pasila (14.11.2008)

See also:
  Excuse me, could you direct me to the absolute centre of Helsinki? (25.4.2006)

Links:
  Senate Properties
  Cino Zucci Architetti
  Helsinki City Planning Department

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