Concern for the street; working drawing detail of the car park entrance with notes on materials
Looking east along the route of the Underground in July 1974 after removal of sheet wall and earth above tunnel. The perimeter slurry wall is to the left and phase one of the podium is to the right – exposed reinforcing bars are for tying in to phase two when built
The main basement in June 1973, with temporary sheet wall retaining earth around the Underground tunnels visible to right rear; workers provide scale
Car park ramps, November 1972; note the complexity of levels
Construction snapshots, beginning in October 1972 with the cables beneath Burne Street after digging out. The concrete duct soon to be built around them was intended to allow the later extensions to proceed without further disturbance
Omitted from the ‘time lapse’ sequence in the book is this instructive image from March 1975, showing the structural frame of Burne House fully completed and the innovative external cladding system in the early stages of installation. On the podium, particularly the side nearest the camera, cladding panels have been attached and flexible zones fitted with their inserts, mostly various combinations and sizes of glazing. Note the exposed concrete of the podium corners, awaiting their special curved panels. On the lowest levels of the tower, too, panels are present, though many are without their inserts. Further up the structure is still bare, yielding a good view of the corner columns set back from the edge of the cantilevered floor slabs which have been curved about a tight radius to accommodate more equipment
The holes at the edge of this and other images reflect the fact that only prints of these valuable photographs survive
The gentle curve of the podium reflects the lines of the Westway lying immediately alongside