Commercial
The reconfigured power station building includes more than 100 shops, restaurants and cafes, a 2,000-person capacity events venue, a multi-screen cinema, six floors (46,000m2) of new office space which is home to Apple’s new London campus, and 253 apartments arranged around the uppermost levels.
Steelwork for the retail and residential parts has different column grid patterns, as the former requires larger column-free areas. This means there are a number of transfer structures located at level two, to support the increased number of columns in the residential levels.
62 Tonnes plate girder
At the northern end of the boiler house, framing the entrance to the main retail zone and events space is a large 27m-long x 2.6m-deep plated girder weighing a massive 62 Tonnes, which is positioned at the underside of the fifth floor. As well as helping to create the large open-space below, it also transfers a load in excess of 2,000 Tonnes down the building, while supporting eight floors above. The beam, which is one of the largest single pieces of steel to be manufactured in the UK in recent times was brought to site in one section.
Tree Columns
Working in conjunction with the large beam, and also helping to create the events space’s column-free interior are two feature 12m-high steel trees, that each support a 30m x 30m floor area.
William Hare delivered each of the two trees in three main elements, with a fully-welded base node weighing 48 Tonnes being the first part. Four Y-shaped arms, each weighing 43 Tonnes were then bolted to the node to form the main tree element, along with a further four infill arms, connecting up the main elements. Each tree has an overall steel tonnage of approximately 300 Tonnes.
The trees are working incredibly hard as they each pick-up six column lines from the commercial zone above and transfer them into a single column, allowing the main entrance below to be column-free.