Page 282 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 263

and sustainable and viable new developments. It promotes the installation of water-
front open spaces and shoreline access areas, and a network of buildings, pedestrian
streets, and courtyards that reflect and maintain Pier 70’s historic identity. The Plan
consists of the following goals:
1. Rehabilitate the historic structures.
2. Sustain the viability of the ship repair industry.
3. Install a major new shoreline open space through Pier 70.
4. Promote mixed-use infill development and economic sustainability that includes climate
adaptations suitable to a waterfront location.
5. Provide spaces for offices, research, innovative technologies, light industry, commercial,
cultural, and recreational uses to stimulate the city’s economics, and generate revenues.
6. Promote development that is either pedestrian-oriented or based on sustainable
transportation modes.
7. Enhance public access to/from the Pier 70 area and integrate new developments with other
parts of the city.
8. Remediate environmental contamination to fully enable public use of Pier 70 and its
waterfront.

6.7.4 Cranes and crane ways
In Copenhagen’s Nordhavn harbor, Denmark a former coal crane has been turned into
a retreat, meeting space, and spa. The project actually includes four sections, each
rentable separately. At the base of the crane is a container reception area. Moving
up, the second floor has a glass-walled meeting room; the third floor features a spa
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and terrace with a sea view. On top a 50-m “Krane Room” for two is loaded with
custom furniture (all in black to remind the coal originally handled here)
(Dezeen, 2017b).
Another case to be mentioned here is the Amsterdam crane way (Kranspoor in
Dutch). A glass (see the spectacular view when lit by night), three-story office build-
ing was built on top of a gigantic concrete crane way on the grounds of a former ship-
yard, a relic of Amsterdam’s harbor industry. The 1952 crane way has a length of 270
m, a height of 13.5 m and a width of 8.7 m. The office building on top, the same 270 m
long, with a width of 13.8 m, accentuates the length of Kraanspoor and the fantastic
view of the river the structure sits on. The building is lifted by steel columns 3 m above
the crane way, appearing to float above the concrete giant, which is fully visible.
The challenge of the design was to utilize the maximum allowable load of the exis-
ting crane way, which works as a foundation for the building on top; the building has
also an eccentric protrusion toward the waterside, due to the heavier load-bearing
function for the former revolving cranes that cantilevered to this side. The lightweight
building of steel construction was then a real necessity. The piping and wiring are
embedded in the floor allowing for a maximum clear height.
The existing structures have been utilized to the maximum extent in other ways.
The former four old stairwells still remain as entrance to the building. The two gang-
ways/walkways alongside the concrete craneway are now used as fire-escape routes
(Arch Daily, 2008).