World’s tallest residential building at Lower Parel

The city’s skyline is all set to play host to the world’s tallest residential building with Lodha Developers announcing the construction of a 117-storey tower in Lower Parel on Tuesday. Once ready in 2014, the 450-mt (1450 ft) highrise will dwarf the existing tallest residential building Q1, which is 323 mt (1058 ft) high, in Gold Coast, Australia. The 80-storey Q1 was built in 2005.

The half-a-kilometre tall structure will come up on the defunct 17-acre Shrinivas Mill plot in Lower Parel. Titled World One, the building will be part of the Rs 2000-crore Lodha Place project which comprises two other residential towers— a mall and a commercial building.

The skyscraper will have a total of 300 apartments and will have three and four bedroom flats, private villas with individual pools as well as duplexes measuring 10,000 sq ft. The flats come with exorbitant price tags of Rs 7.5 crore to Rs 50 crore.

Ads by Google

Abhisheck Lodha, managing director of Lodha Group, said the project would cater to the Mumbaiites’ aspirations to a global lifestyle. Drawing a parallel with the Empire State Building as a symbol of America’s rise in the 1930s and more recently the Petronas Twin Towers and Shanghai World Financial Center representing the rise of Asia, the developer said World One would emerge as a landmark for Mumbai .

“Every global city is made memorable by its architectural landmarks. Be it the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Opera House in Sydney or the Empire State Building in New York, these vibrant forms reflect the passion and culture of the city they are located in. We are confident that World One will come to represent India’s quest for excellence in the economic and cultural arenas,” said Lodha.

The project is being designed by the New York-based architects Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, who have earlier worked on projects like the Grand Louvre Expansion and Modernization (Paris), the Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong) and the John Hancock Tower (Boston).

The luxury tower will have a three level 20,000 sq ft clubhouse and spa, 80,000 sq ft sports club and five acres of landscaping. It will also house an open-to-air observatory at a height of 1000 ft above the city providing an unhindered view of the Arabian Sea and the cityscape. The developers claim that the view from this height will extend as far as 60 km. This is the distance at which are located the city’s far flung suburbs like Badlapur on eastern side and Virar on the Western side.

The building has been registered for a Gold LEED certification with the Green Building Council. The highrise will have green features like rainwater harvesting and water recycling facilities, provisions to use solar energy for common area lighting and water heating, and facility to recycle garbage.