In the flickr photo, the buildings at the back of Alexandra House to the left facing Chater Road and right facing Des Voeux Road Central were respectively called the Royal Building and Chung Tin Building.
Your photo shows that the old buidlings have been knocked down for the expansion of Alexandra House into one mega building at the time which can be seen after completion: http://gwulo.com/node/5439
This is the substructure/ foundation stage of a large building project. But I am not sure of the location.
The site hoarding entrance sign reads 'Vibro'. This company is still active in HK as far as I know, and still doing major foundation contracts.
Its always a messy stage of the project, and we can see some parts of the basement have already been cast to the top left, while other parts of the site remain inexcavated.
Raking struts are visible in the bottom right excavation, supporting the road, while the dig is in progress.
Its a lot more mechanized these days, with large plant and equipment used, and less labour - though usually just as messy!
The dig here seems to be undertaken by hand.
Finally HK went on to pioneer the 'top down' foundation approach through the 1980's, owing to the urgency of construction and the high value of the land.
This involves casting the piles/ ground beams from ground level, then building up the superstructure and digging down to form the basements at the same time, thereby shortening the construction programme!
Hi it's definitely the back end (or eastern end) of Alexandra House - if you zoom in on the harbourside you can make out the name of St George's Building
The high-res version of that 1954 photo on Flickr shows it must have been taken just a bit later than the photo above. It has the bamboo scaffolding for the second phase up to the second storey.
My thanks to everyone for comments on the work in progress on Alexandra House. I very much enjoy seeing other views of the area in 1954 and learning how the work was carried out.
Comments
Ice House Street and the last
Ice House Street and the last bit of Alexandra House being built ?
1953 Alexandra House
Alexandra House full on during the Coronation in 1953: http://gwulo.com/node/8910
In the flickr photo, the buildings at the back of Alexandra House to the left facing Chater Road and right facing Des Voeux Road Central were respectively called the Royal Building and Chung Tin Building.
Your photo shows that the old buidlings have been knocked down for the expansion of Alexandra House into one mega building at the time which can be seen after completion: http://gwulo.com/node/5439
substructure works
This is the substructure/ foundation stage of a large building project. But I am not sure of the location.
The site hoarding entrance sign reads 'Vibro'. This company is still active in HK as far as I know, and still doing major foundation contracts.
Its always a messy stage of the project, and we can see some parts of the basement have already been cast to the top left, while other parts of the site remain inexcavated.
Raking struts are visible in the bottom right excavation, supporting the road, while the dig is in progress.
Its a lot more mechanized these days, with large plant and equipment used, and less labour - though usually just as messy!
The dig here seems to be undertaken by hand.
Finally HK went on to pioneer the 'top down' foundation approach through the 1980's, owing to the urgency of construction and the high value of the land.
This involves casting the piles/ ground beams from ground level, then building up the superstructure and digging down to form the basements at the same time, thereby shortening the construction programme!
Time is money as they say...
regards
Julian
Re: Alexandra House
Hi it's definitely the back end (or eastern end) of Alexandra House - if you zoom in on the harbourside you can make out the name of St George's Building
1954 Des Voeux Road Central
Same year as the rooftop photos. Alexandra House is on the left.
See: http://gwulo.com/node/8587
The high-res version of that
The high-res version of that 1954 photo on Flickr shows it must have been taken just a bit later than the photo above. It has the bamboo scaffolding for the second phase up to the second storey.
Work in progress Alexandra House 1954
My thanks to everyone for comments on the work in progress on Alexandra House. I very much enjoy seeing other views of the area in 1954 and learning how the work was carried out.
Regards, Pauline.