22 NSC
September 18
Sat next to its sister buildings
One and Two Snowhill see NSC
January 2008 and September
2012, Three Snowhill is a
19-storey office tower that forms a stunning
gateway to the city’s business district,
completing the final phase of Ballymore’s
Snowhill Estate development.
Offering nearly 38,000m2 of BREEAM
‘Excellent’ rated Grade A office floor space,
together with retail and leisure units at
podium and ground floor levels, the building
sits atop four levels of concrete basement and
podium substructure. Three Snowhill, like
its sister buildings, has a composite design
comprising a steel frame, with cellular beams
supporting metal decking.
As well as accommodating the office
block’s services within the structural void,
the Fabsec cellular beams have proven to be
a cost-efficient option to create 10.5m-long
internal spans.
This final plot of the Snowhill
development has a long and varied history
as initially twin residential and hotel towers,
both constructed with reinforced concrete
frames, were envisaged. In 2007 work began
on this scheme and all of the basement and
substructure work had been completed when
the job was halted a year later.
Due to market conditions, a redesign was
undertaken and the project was resurrected
as a solitary commercial block, which in
turn led the team to choose a steel framing
solution.
WSP Associate Director James Bodicoat
says: “A single tower on the site necessitated
some substantial alterations to the
substructure, most notably a much thicker
raft to accommodate the different loads. This
meant the five-storey basement became four
storeys as the lowest level was in-filled.”
Instead of two main cores, one for each
tower, the new scheme now has three
concrete cores, which provide the stability
for the single tower.
Two of the cores, situated along the north
elevation have the functionality of one core
but are structurally independent. They are
however linked together by steelwork that
forms a frame for scenic lifts and a large
glazed façade.
Working on behalf of main contractor
BAM Construction, Severfield has fabricated,
supplied and erected some 4,500t of steel for
this project. All of the steelwork has been
erected via the site’s three tower cranes, as
none of the elements exceed 13t in weight.
Although the project sits on a busy innercity
area, it is well served with two material
laydown areas, running along two main
elevations, which have allowed steelwork to
be delivered on a regular daily basis.
While the city centre location has
provided challenges with logistics, Severfield
worked very closely with the site team to co-
Commercial
The scheme was
originally envisaged
as twin residential and
hotel towers
Three up in
second city
The third of three steel-framed office blocks in
Snowhill, Birmingham, is one of the UK’s largest
speculative office developments to be constructed
outside of London. Martin Cooper reports.
/
/
/
/BREEAM
/Composite_construction
/Steel_construction_products#Decking_for_floors
/Service_integration#Composite_beams_with_web_openings
/Multi-storey_office_buildings
/Concept_design#Concrete_or_steel_cores
/Concept_design#Structural_options_for_stability
/Steel-supported_glazed_facades_and_roofs
/Construction#Tower_cranes