Sky Tower
Encyclopedia
The Sky Tower is an observation
and telecommunications tower
located on the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets in the Auckland CBD
, Auckland City
, New Zealand. It is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall, as measured from ground level to the top of the mast, making it the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere
. Due to its shape and height, especially when compared to the next tallest structures, it has become an iconic structure in Auckland's skyline.
The tower is part of the SKYCITY Auckland
casino complex, having been originally built for Harrah's Entertainment
. The tower attracts an average of 1,450 visitors per day (over 500,000 per year) for a variety of reasons.
The upper portion of the tower contains two restaurants and a cafe, including a revolving restaurant
which is located 190m from the ground, turning 360 degrees once every hour. There is also a brasserie style buffet located one floor above the main observatory level. It has three observation decks at different heights, each providing 360 degree views of the city. The main observation level at 186m has 38mm thick glass sections of flooring giving a view straight to the ground. The top observation deck labeled 'Skydeck' sits just below the main antenna at 220m and gives views of up to 82 km in the distance.
The tower also features the 'SkyJump', a 192-metre jump from the observation deck, during which a jumper can reach up to 85 km/h (52.8 mph). The jump is guide-cable-controlled to prevent jumpers from colliding with the tower in case of wind gusts. Climbs into the antenna mast portion (300 m (984.3 ft) heights) are also possible for tour groups, as is a walk around the exterior.
The tower is also used for telecommunications and broadcasting with the Auckland Peering Exchange
(APE) being located on Level 48. The aerial at the top of the tower hosts the largest FM
combiner in the world which combines with 58 wireless microwave
links located above the top restaurant to provide a number of services. These include television
, wireless internet, RT
, and weather measurement services
.
The tower is Auckland's primary FM radio transmitter, and its second major terrestrial television transmitter (after Waiatarua
in the Waitakere Ranges to the west). A total of twenty-three FM radio stations, two VHF analogue television channels, and three digital terrestrial television
multiplexes broadcast from the tower. The analogue television channels will switch off in the early hours of Sunday 1 December 2013 as part of New Zealand's digital television transition
.
was the contracted builder for the project while engineering firm Beca Group
provided the design management and coordination, structural, geotechnical, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting and fire engineering services. Harrison Grierson provided surveying services. It was designed by Craig Craig Moller architects and has received a New Zealand Institute of Architects
National Award as well as regional awards.
Taking two and a half years of construction time, the tower was opened on 3 March 1997, six months ahead of schedule.
. Its 12 metres (39.4 ft) diameter shaft (containing three lifts and an emergency stairwell) is supported on eight 'legs' based on 16 foundation piles drilled over 12 m (39.4 ft) deep into the local sandstone. The main shaft was built using climbing formwork
.
The upper levels were constructed from composite materials, structural steel, precast concrete
and reinforced concrete, and the observation decks clad in aluminium with blue/green reflective glass. A structural steel framework supports the upper mast structure. During construction 15000 cubic metres (19,619.3 cu yd) of concrete, 2000 tonne of reinforcing steel and 660 tonne of structural steel were used. The mast weighs over 170 tonne. It had to be lifted into place using a crane attached to the structure, as it would have been too heavy for a helicopter to lift. To then remove the crane, another crane had to be constructed attached to the upper part of the Sky Tower structure, which dismantled the big crane, and was in turn dismantled into pieces small enough to fit into the elevator.
with a 1,000 year return period. Analysis shows that an earthquake centered 40 kilometres (24.9 mi) away and reaching 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale
is expected to leave the tower practically undamaged. Even an earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.0 (31.6 times more energy released than a 7.0 quake), and located only 20 km (12.4 mi) away, is not expected to collapse the tower. As an additional safeguard against emergencies, fireproof rooms on the lower levels of the observation deck would provide refuge in the unlikely event of a conflagration, while the stairwell itself is also fire-safety rated.
The Sky Tower has so far been closed at least once for weather-related reasons, during a storm in November 2006, when the structure started to sway noticeably in winds of up to 150 km/h (93.2 mph). The closure was noted as not having been strictly necessary except for visitor comfort, as the tower has been designed to sway up to one metre (39 in) in high winds of up to 210 km/h (130.5 mph), which are expected to occur only once in 1,000 years on average.
The Sky Tower features prominently on the Auckland skyline at night due to its extensive illumination and SkyCity uses this lighting of the tower to promote various causes using a number of colours or mix of colours. A few examples are:
Observation tower
An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision. They are usually at least tall and made from stone, iron, and wood. Many modern towers are also used as TV towers, restaurants, or churches...
and telecommunications tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
located on the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets in the Auckland CBD
Auckland CBD
The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...
, Auckland City
Auckland City
Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...
, New Zealand. It is 328 metres (1,076 ft) tall, as measured from ground level to the top of the mast, making it the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
. Due to its shape and height, especially when compared to the next tallest structures, it has become an iconic structure in Auckland's skyline.
Uses
SKYCITY Auckland
SKYCITY Auckland is a casino and event centre in the Central Business District of Auckland, New Zealand. Located at the base of the Sky Tower, it was the second casino in New Zealand, and still is the only one in Auckland....
casino complex, having been originally built for Harrah's Entertainment
Harrah's Entertainment
Caesars Entertainment Corporation is a private gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion...
. The tower attracts an average of 1,450 visitors per day (over 500,000 per year) for a variety of reasons.
The upper portion of the tower contains two restaurants and a cafe, including a revolving restaurant
Revolving restaurant
A revolving restaurant is a usually tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on the revolving floor. The revolving rate varies between one and three times...
which is located 190m from the ground, turning 360 degrees once every hour. There is also a brasserie style buffet located one floor above the main observatory level. It has three observation decks at different heights, each providing 360 degree views of the city. The main observation level at 186m has 38mm thick glass sections of flooring giving a view straight to the ground. The top observation deck labeled 'Skydeck' sits just below the main antenna at 220m and gives views of up to 82 km in the distance.
The tower also features the 'SkyJump', a 192-metre jump from the observation deck, during which a jumper can reach up to 85 km/h (52.8 mph). The jump is guide-cable-controlled to prevent jumpers from colliding with the tower in case of wind gusts. Climbs into the antenna mast portion (300 m (984.3 ft) heights) are also possible for tour groups, as is a walk around the exterior.
The tower is also used for telecommunications and broadcasting with the Auckland Peering Exchange
Auckland Peering Exchange
The Auckland Peering Exchange is an Ethernet-based neutral peering point running over the CityLink metropolitan network in Auckland, New Zealand...
(APE) being located on Level 48. The aerial at the top of the tower hosts the largest FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
combiner in the world which combines with 58 wireless microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
links located above the top restaurant to provide a number of services. These include television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, wireless internet, RT
Transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications a transmitter or radio transmitter is an electronic device which, with the aid of an antenna, produces radio waves. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating...
, and weather measurement services
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
.
The tower is Auckland's primary FM radio transmitter, and its second major terrestrial television transmitter (after Waiatarua
Waiatarua
Waiatarua is a small settlement near the top of the Waitakere Ranges, which border New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, close to the junction of Scenic Drive, West Coast Road and Piha Road to Piha and runs east until the junction of Scenic Drive and Mountain Road...
in the Waitakere Ranges to the west). A total of twenty-three FM radio stations, two VHF analogue television channels, and three digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television
Digital terrestrial television is the technological evolution of broadcast television and advance from analog television, which broadcasts land-based signals...
multiplexes broadcast from the tower. The analogue television channels will switch off in the early hours of Sunday 1 December 2013 as part of New Zealand's digital television transition
Digital television transition
The digital television transition is the process in which analog television broadcasting is converted to and replaced by digital television. This primarily involves both TV stations and over-the-air viewers; however it also involves content providers like TV networks, and cable television...
.
Construction
Project history
Fletcher ConstructionFletcher Construction
Fletcher Construction Limited is a leading New Zealand construction company. It is owned by Fletcher Building Limited and has three main divisions:*Building and interiors *South Pacific...
was the contracted builder for the project while engineering firm Beca Group
Beca Group
' is one of the largest employee-owned engineering and related consultancy services companies in the Asia-Pacific. While it is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, Beca operates from three main hubs: Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Beca has over 2,400 employees in total, many of them...
provided the design management and coordination, structural, geotechnical, civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, lighting and fire engineering services. Harrison Grierson provided surveying services. It was designed by Craig Craig Moller architects and has received a New Zealand Institute of Architects
New Zealand Institute of Architects
The New Zealand Institute of Architects is a membership based professional organisation. This body represents 90% of all registered architects in New Zealand and promotes architecture that enhances the New Zealand living environment....
National Award as well as regional awards.
Taking two and a half years of construction time, the tower was opened on 3 March 1997, six months ahead of schedule.
Facts and figures
The tower is constructed of reinforced, high-performance concreteReinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
. Its 12 metres (39.4 ft) diameter shaft (containing three lifts and an emergency stairwell) is supported on eight 'legs' based on 16 foundation piles drilled over 12 m (39.4 ft) deep into the local sandstone. The main shaft was built using climbing formwork
Climbing formwork
Climbing formwork is a special type of formwork for vertical concrete structures that rises with the building process. While relatively complicated and costly, it can be an effective solution for buildings that are either very repetitive in form or that require a seamless wall structure Climbing...
.
The upper levels were constructed from composite materials, structural steel, precast concrete
Precast concrete
By producing precast concrete in a controlled environment , the precast concrete is afforded the opportunity to properly cure and be closely monitored by plant employees. Utilizing a Precast Concrete system offers many potential advantages over site casting of concrete...
and reinforced concrete, and the observation decks clad in aluminium with blue/green reflective glass. A structural steel framework supports the upper mast structure. During construction 15000 cubic metres (19,619.3 cu yd) of concrete, 2000 tonne of reinforcing steel and 660 tonne of structural steel were used. The mast weighs over 170 tonne. It had to be lifted into place using a crane attached to the structure, as it would have been too heavy for a helicopter to lift. To then remove the crane, another crane had to be constructed attached to the upper part of the Sky Tower structure, which dismantled the big crane, and was in turn dismantled into pieces small enough to fit into the elevator.
Emergencies
The tower is designed to withstand wind in excess of 200 km/h (124.3 mph) and resist earthquakesEarthquake engineering
Earthquake engineering is the scientific field concerned with protecting society, the natural and the man-made environment from earthquakes by limiting the seismic risk to socio-economically acceptable levels...
with a 1,000 year return period. Analysis shows that an earthquake centered 40 kilometres (24.9 mi) away and reaching 7.0 on the Richter magnitude scale
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
is expected to leave the tower practically undamaged. Even an earthquake measured at a magnitude of 8.0 (31.6 times more energy released than a 7.0 quake), and located only 20 km (12.4 mi) away, is not expected to collapse the tower. As an additional safeguard against emergencies, fireproof rooms on the lower levels of the observation deck would provide refuge in the unlikely event of a conflagration, while the stairwell itself is also fire-safety rated.
The Sky Tower has so far been closed at least once for weather-related reasons, during a storm in November 2006, when the structure started to sway noticeably in winds of up to 150 km/h (93.2 mph). The closure was noted as not having been strictly necessary except for visitor comfort, as the tower has been designed to sway up to one metre (39 in) in high winds of up to 210 km/h (130.5 mph), which are expected to occur only once in 1,000 years on average.
Lighting
- Blue = Auckland Blues Rugby franchise
- Pink = Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Red & Green = 'Kidz First' Childrens Hospital/ChristmasChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
- Red & Gold = Chinese New YearChinese New YearChinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
- Blue & Green = Starship Children's FoundationStarship Children's HealthStarship Children's Health, opened in 1991, is one of the first purpose-built children's hospitals in New Zealand, and the largest such facility in the country...
- Orange = Auckland FestivalAuckland FestivalThe Auckland Festival is a biennial arts and cultural festival held in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. The Festival features works from New Zealand, the Pacific, Asia and beyond, including world premieres of new works and international performing arts events.-History:Auckland was the first...
- Green & Purple = The Auckland CupAuckland CupThe Stella Artois Auckland Cup is an annual race held by the Auckland Racing Club . It is an Open Handicap for thoroughbred racehorses competed on the flat turf over 3200 metres at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. The race is graded as a Group One and was first contested in 1874...
- Green = St. Patrick's Day
- Red = The America's CupAmerica's CupThe America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
- Green, Red and White = Rally New ZealandRally New ZealandThe Rally New Zealand was first held in Taupo in 1969, and was subsequently staged in Canterbury, before moving back to the North Island in 1971.The rally was included as a round of the World Championship in 1977...
- Gold = New Zealand OlympiansNew Zealand at the 2008 Summer OlympicsNew Zealand took part in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The country sent 182 competitors, making this its largest ever delegation to the Olympic Games. It was also one of the most successful, equalling New Zealand's combined medal tally from the previous two games...
at the XXIX Olympiad - Blue & Red space = MatarikiMatarikiIn the Māori language Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June - taken as the beginning of the new year...
- Blue, White & Red = Bastille DayBastille DayBastille Day is the name given in English-speaking countries to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July of each year. In France, it is formally called La Fête Nationale and commonly le quatorze juillet...
- No lighting = Earth HourEarth HourEarth Hour is a global event organized by WWF and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change...
Energy efficient lighting
Over the week ending 29 May 2009 the previous metal halide floodlights, which had been used since the Sky Tower's construction in 1997, were replaced with LED lights to reduce energy usage. The project had began in October 2007. The previous lights were difficult to modify, repair or change colours due to the building's height. The new lighting system produces more light per watt and uses 66% less energy compared to the previous floodlights, with a longer working life. They also produce less heat, remaining cooler. The LEDs can produce millions of different colours and be controlled from a laptop, compared to the previous method of manually installing filters to change light colours. On this day a rainbow display was shown to the public at night, after the LED lights were successfully trialled the night before.Energy conservation initiatives
During the winter months, electricity consumption in New Zealand increases dramatically. As much of the power reserve in the country depends on the water level of the hydro-lakes, various power-saving schemes are introduced to prevent blackouts. In an effort to promote power saving, SkyCity turned off the tower lighting in Winter 2008, retaining only the flashing red aviation lights. SkyCity is also minimising façade flood lighting across its complex. Simon Jamieson, General Manager SKYCITY Auckland Hotels Group, said: "Like every New Zealander, we are concerned about the country's electricity supply, and we believe it is our responsibility to make this move to assist with the power saving request." The tower was reilluminated on 4 August in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics.See also
- SKYCITY AucklandSKYCITY AucklandSKYCITY Auckland is a casino and event centre in the Central Business District of Auckland, New Zealand. Located at the base of the Sky Tower, it was the second casino in New Zealand, and still is the only one in Auckland....
(entertainment complex and base building of the Sky Tower) - Sydney TowerSydney TowerSydney Tower Eye is Sydney's tallest free-standing structure, and the second tallest in Australia...
(The second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere) - Macau TowerMacau TowerMacau Tower Convention & Entertainment Centre , also known as Macau Tower, is a tower located in the former Portuguese colony of Macau, now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. The tower measures 338 m in height from ground level to the highest point...
(inspired by the Sky Tower, designed by the same company)
External links
- Sky Tower (official website)
- Explore the Sky Tower (interactive Sky Tower, requires Macromedia Flash)
- 360° view from tower (from Skycity website, requires QuicktimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
) - Orbit revolving restaurant (official website)