首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Perhaps it’s the weather, which sometimes seals London with a gray ceiling for weeks on end. Or maybe it is Britons’ penchant fo
Perhaps it’s the weather, which sometimes seals London with a gray ceiling for weeks on end. Or maybe it is Britons’ penchant fo
admin
2013-08-05
38
问题
Perhaps it’s the weather, which sometimes seals London with a gray ceiling for weeks on end. Or maybe it is Britons’ penchant for understatement, their romantic association with the countryside or their love of gardens. Whatever the reason, while other cities grew upward as they developed, London spread outward, keeping its vast parks, its rows of townhouses and its horizon lines intact.
But as the city’s population and its prominence as a global business capital continue to grow, it sometimes seems ready to burst at the seams. In response, developers are turning to a type of building that used to be deeply unfashionable here, even as it flourished in other capitals of commerce: the skyscraper.
In recent years, a cluster of sizable office towers have sprouted on the periphery of London, in its redeveloped Docklands at Canary Wharf. But skyscrapers now are pushing into the heart of the City, London’s central financial district, and surrounding areas along the Thames.
The mayor, Ken Livingstone, champions tall buildings as part of his controversial plans to remake central London as a denser, more urban sort of place, with greater reliance on public transport. First he angered some drivers by charging them a toll to enter the city center on workdays, now he finds himself opposed by preservation groups, including English Heritage, that want to keep London’s character as a low-rise city.
For now, the mayor seems to be getting his way. One prominent tower, a 40-story building designed by Norman Foster for the Swiss Re insurance company was completed this year. A handful of others have received planning permission and at least a dozen more have been proposed.
By far the most prominent of these buildings—and one that finally looks like it will go ahead after a drawn-out approval process—is the London Bridge Tower, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. The developer Irvine Sellar won government approval for the building late last year and says he is completing the financing and hopes to start work by early 2005.
The 306-meter, or 1,016-foot, tower would be by far the tallest building in Britain, in all of Europe, in fact, surpassing the 264-meter Triumph Palace in Moscow, a residential building that was finished late last year.
To be sure, even the London Bridge Tower would be modest by the standards of American or Asian skyscrapers, or some of the behemoths on the drawing boards for places like Dubai and Shanghai. The tallest building in the world at the moment is the 509-meter Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. But it will surely be surpassed soon amid a boom in construction that persists.
In a city that has been reluctant to reach for the sky, perhaps it is appropriate that Piano is the architect for what probably will be London’s tallest building. He is ambivalent about skyscrapers, too, and has designed only a handful alongside such, projects as the Pompidou Center in Paris, with Richard Rogers, and parts of the reconstructed Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.
English Heritage has been far less enthusiastic, arguing that the building would obstruct views of a high-rise from a much earlier era, Christopher Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral. To overcome opposition, the building was designed with a mixed-use function. Much of the bottom half of the building will house offices, but above that there will be a "public piazza" with restaurants, exhibition spaces and other entertainment areas. Further above, the loftier, narrower floors will be taken up by a hotel and apartments. On the 65th floor there will be a viewing gallery. The upper 60 meters, exposed to the elements, will house an energy-saving cooling system in which pipes will be used to pump excess heat up from the offices below and dissipate it into the winds. "We knew we had no chance of getting it approved unless we had a high-quality design from a top international name," Sellar said.
The emphasis on quality is a reflection not only of an aversion to skyscrapers, but also of a desire not to repeat mistakes. London had one previous fling with tall—or semi-tall—buildings, in the 1960s and 70s, but their blocky, concrete shapes did little to impress.
Developers are turning to the skyscraper in London because
选项
A、the weather there covers the city with a gray ceiling.
B、British are inclined to understatement.
C、British love the countryside and gardens.
D、the city’s population and its prominence grow increasingly.
答案
D
解析
文章第2段提到了开发商转向摩天大楼的原因,即其人口和作为国际金融中心的地位,所以只能选D。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/DZ4O777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Nowadays,it’saquitecommonphenomenonthatpeoplediningoutinrestaurantstendtoordermorefoodthantheycaneattoshow
Optimismcanhelpyoutobehappier,healthierandmoresuccessful.Pessimismleads,bycontrast,tohopelessness,sicknessand
SlanginEnglishTodaywe’lldiscussacommonlinguisticphenomenoninEnglish—slang.Thefeaturesofslangarelistedasfo
GovernmentofficialsorderedaplantinJapantohaltproductionbecause______.
WhatisthemainpurposeofthehealthcarereformintheU.S.?
Crimehasitsowncycles,amagazinere-portedsomeyearsbefore.Policerecordsthat【M1】______werestudiedforfiveyearsov
Withwoundedpride,theUS,whichisleadingthewartosafeguardpeace,shouldbesupportedbytherestoftheworld.Whileno
TheCulturalRevivalintheByzantineEmpireBetweentheeighthandeleventhcenturiesA.D.,theByzantineEmpirestageda
Accordingtothenews,ChechnyahasallofthefollowinggeographicfeaturesEXCEPT______.
美国《幸福》杂志曾在征答栏中刊登过这么一个题目:假如让你重新选择,你做什么:一位军界要人的回答是去乡间开一个杂货铺;一位劳动部长是想做一家饮料公司的经理……其间也有一般百姓的回答。想做总统的,想做外交官的,想做面包师的,应有尽有。但是,很少有人想做现在的自
随机试题
按照既定的会计目标,制约会计行为和企业经济活动的是
A.门静脉高压症的主要阻塞部位在窦前B.门静脉高压症的主要阻塞部位在窦后C.门静脉高压症的主要阻塞部位在肝后D.门静脉高压症的主要阻塞部位在肝前肝炎后肝硬化所致
下列关于高褶虹膜型青光眼,不正确的是
关于法院与仲裁庭在审理案件有关权限的比较,下列哪些选项是正确的?(2012—卷三—85,多)
火灾实例表明,一、二级耐火等级的低层建筑,保持()的防火间距,在有消防队进行扑救的情况下,一般不会蔓延到相邻建筑物。
某票货物从张家港出口到欧洲费力克斯托,经上海装船,2X20FCL,上海到费力克斯托的费率是USD1850/20’,张家港经上海装船,其费率是在上海直达费力克斯托的费率基础上加USD100/20’,另有货币贬值附加费10%,燃油附加费5%。问:托运人应支付多
某操作系统支持页式虚拟存储管理,其中央处理器的周期是1μs。当不是处于同一页面时,访问另一个页面耗时1μs。一个页面含1K字。使用磁盘作为外存,其转速为3000r/min,传输率为1M字/s。还测得下列数据:磁盘平均寻道时间为19ms,1%的指令要访问不处
[A]Findoutthecompany’sdresscode[B]Learnaboutrecentprojects[C]Matchyourskills[D]Knowthehiringmanager
Onedayamangaveanad.inmostofthenewspapersinEngland,sayingthathehimselfwasayoungmanofmillionsofpoundsand
A—cashbusinessJ—modeofpaymentB—commissionreceivablesK—downpaymentC—loanextension
最新回复
(
0
)