Swinger - Flat Glass - Going Up?

Swinger

It took me forever to figure out how to compress my 1.45GB camera video to a 345MB film clip 

and then change the AVI format to MP4 

and then figure out how to upload it onto a new YouTube account 

and then connect my YouTube account to my blogsite  

just so that I could present this really boring 8½ minute sleeper to you.

I call this clip, "Swinger" but it came out as something else in my files (but never mind about that).  

It was Culture Weekend here at Islands Brygge earlier this month.  The day before this clip it was cloudy and rainy but one of the ships that sailed by had Samba dancing on deck with music.  I didn't record it cuz the weather was so drab.  But on this day, the weather was top notch so I whipped out my camera and recorded the event from our balcony.   For Jens and I, this rather fun and impressive to watch.  It's our cheap entertainment and we get it every now and then for free.

The excitement starts at the 35 sec. mark. 

Keep your eye on the bridge on the right hand side of the screen.

Flat Glass

When I give our flea-bucket the long walk around the harbor, I always enjoy viewing this building because it appears to be just a one-sided flat wall.

Standing at the water's edge, I snap the building which is just a flat glass wall. 

The photo below shows the "swinger" bridge on the left and the "bike snake" on the left.

 Above is a close up view of the flat glass wall.  It's just a wall with windows.

 If you look closely, you can easily look right through the building as your eyes follows the "swinger" bridge.

In case you can't see it, just follow the dotted line below.

Here you are looking right through the glass facade. Though it may appear as a reflection (because the red & white lifeguard box is reflecting in the glass), the building you can see is actually our apartment complex and not a reflection.

Now I am standing on the other side of the glass wall looking back.  Here you can look right through the glass facade again and see the left hand side of the lifeguard box and the right hand side of the box is just past the building.  The stripes going up and down are the windows of the Copenhagen Island Hotel just beyond.  It's all a very fun trick for the eyes.

So what is this glass building you ask?  It is the Aller building.  It's an advertising agency and they are the company that puts out what is known as "slader blader" which roughly translate into "gossip rags" .  Aller has been heavily in the news earlier this summer because it turns out that someone in the company is quite chummy with someone in the bank who has all the info and access to private credit card info and has been leaking it to Aller.  Aller has exposed who is buying what and where.  And when I say who, I mean Danish celebrities and even members of the royal family.  It really is a scummy dirt magazine and they have exposed the dirt on everyone - except the queen - but only because she doesn't have any credit cards.  Smart woman.

Going Up ?

Just 2 doors down from the Aller building is this 1st of 3 buildings going up to complete the Fisher Square area.  There are to be 3 look-a-like buildings in a row along the carved out canal.

 New construction ground along the dug out canal.

 The hole in the ground is being prepped with stabilizers; concrete post pounded into the ground.

 Smooth out the ground and lay out a bit of concrete.

 Smooth it out a little bit more and add a bit more concrete.

 Once it's all smoothed out, lay down some rebar.

 And make it a double layer.

Then fill it all up with concrete.

 The guys are standing in the cement but on the top layer of rebar so that means it is really thick.

Once it is dry you have yourself a nice basement floor which is good for parking. Now you can start to put up some wall liners to keep out the rain and canal water.  The black wall in the back on the right hand side is the start of what will be put up all the way around the floor of the basement.

 With exception of this corner which is the entrance to the parking garage.

 Then put on a ceiling to the parking garage which will also be the floor to the ground-floor offices.

 Here are the walls for the ground-floor offices and the drive-way to the underground parking.

 Now the ground-floor is all set.

 Now the ground-floor and 1st floor is complete.

 Now the ground-floor, 1st floor and 2nd floor are complete.

 Now the ground-floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor and 3rd floor are complete.

 Ground-floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor and 4th floor are complete

 The 5th floor is just about finished.

Then you put in a million windows.

One by one the crane lifts the heavy glass windows to be put into place.  This is the back side of the building along the canal.    Can you see the men in the basket on the orange crane?  It was quite odd to see the cranes on one side of the canal reaching over to put the windows in place on the other side of the canal but this is the only way it could be done here.

The building will be covered  with thick, faded yellow, Rockwool insulation (you can see a bit of it under the window).  Then the insulation gets covered with brick.  Look at the size of this man compared to this huge building and imagine having to cover all of it with brick - one by one.

The entire building will be covered with the insulation and brick.

This is just the beginning of the brick work.

 Once the brick has been put on and the mortar is dry, 

you then have to smear on a layer of plaster over the brick.

Work in sections and add more brick, starting at the bottom.

 Work your way up to the top.

 And then smear on plaster on your way down.

 All the way to the bottom.

 Remove the scaffolding as you go down.

 Then add in a few touches.  Here is a tiny flower bed with fresh dirt.

 Can you see brand new baby trees and some small vines have been put in?

 A nice warm spring has given the plants a good start.

The offices are complete both inside and out.  A nice summer has secured good growth to the plants and the next two building are waiting to be built.