Part2 (The engineering and business cases) :
In Love with
A Development Proposal to the Government Business community and investors of Canada
A Canadian Dream Come true
Snow gardenia (Gardenia de Neige)
Canada Indoor living Neighborhood plus Resort including Botanical Park , Gardens, Aquarium, Golf
courses, hotels, clinics, hotels, and
Family Centers
Plus plus
Idea and overall approach only, no design , no
architecture, no responsibility for dreams!
By:
Tel: 514 848
2424 ext(3087) work
450 466
4038 home
3Rd
Modification Dated: March 1 st, 2008
Email: ahmed@ece.concordia.ca
Caravan2005@hotmail.com
Note: No harm in good dreams
==============================
Preamble:
=========
In 2005-2006, Professor A.K. Elhakeem, Concordia
University, Montreal Canada was on a field trip in the Arabian Gulf region, he
thought that large covered botanical parks can be built in their harsh climate,
and subsequently presented his proposal( Alhadaek El Ghanna) to the senior
government officials of Kuwait, Emirates, and the US business office in Kuwait.
In February and March 2006, the proposal was modified
to fit the harsh cold climates of some regions of North America (the logical
complement of
The new proposal called Gardenia De La Neige (G.D.L.N)was
emailed, received and acknowledged by
senior officials of the ministries of tourism, economic development, and
agriculture, few premiers and other excellences in Montreal and Canada.
While the first proposal above (G.D.L.N) was purely
based on governmental spending (like any state or provincial park), part 2
herein tries to validate the business case, i.e. to show that (G.D.N.) could
lead to a sound and profitable private business, i.e. , its hundreds of
millions are not too scary.
The main ideas though remain the same as before, i.e.
to build a huge glass and
galvanized steel covered resort where a large number
of visitors enjoy healthy, happy, and entertaining leisure times.
We add to the long list of objectives, the build up of
few luxury condominium units, only 2800 (On the borders but overlooking the
park, so dwellers can enjoy winter outside and summer inside!!), thus adding
about 8000 inhabitants to the well lit (G.D.N.) resort, completely secure from
all kinds of harsh rain, snow, whistling winds, depressing and long dark days ,..etc.
and enjoining their year around blossoming and huge private gardens where many
colorful birds freely sing. This new way of living does not exist elsewhere at
this scale. The sales of such world wide unique condos should partly validate
the business case as will follow shortly.
Four luxury 5 or 6 star hotels buildings will be just
outside the huge GDN, but overlooking the huge park with full view.
The various cost estimates of GDN are modified and are
more accurately based on
Actual steel beams, glass, concrete,…etc and building material needed. It includes labor,
subcontractor profit margin, and transportation, etc.
The glass covered land area has been increased from 77
to 180 to 300 then to 361.6 acres!!! Making GDN the largest glass covered neighborhood/resort
in the world as of March 16 th 2008. The total flat land area is now 1.95
Million m2,i.e 487.5 acres, glass covered area is only 1.4464 M m2, i.e. 361.6
acres, one layer total glass area is 2.74 Million m2 while the total living area
including all floors of all buildings exceeds 2.6 Million m2.Buildings such as condominium and
villas are outside but overlooking the park, while visitors and garden
buildings are in the fresh air inside!
I should
conclude this preamble saying: my personal motivations remain the same, i.e. to
provide employment directly and indirectly to thousands of engineers, workers,
managers,..etc over the ages.
To contribute to the important tourism industry and
economic development. To contribute to botanic, birds, medical and social
sciences since GDN will host many
conferences over the ages. Above all to make people
happy in gloomy days? Why not?
GDN is not the largest shopping center in the world
(Like
miniaturized rides for children park, it may have few
food outlets, and few shopping souvenir shops, but it is basically a large
and beautiful garden for living, visiting, swimming,
relaxing, and listening to music.
One of the many gardens in GDN is a specialized
children park, it exists in few
Potential sites where GDN may find success are:
Boston, Denver, Columbus Ohio, Milwaukee Wisconsin,
Buffalo, Albany, Minneapolis, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Moscow, and many other
cities in Russia, North Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France , England to name but a few.
In GDN, the
intention is not to build the largest this or that or to contribute to record
books. Here, I am not designing, though I had to think of some possible
architectures and how to build them to improve the
initial cost estimates herein.
I am just
inviting architects, engineers, senior governmental officials, mayors, business
community, investors, and above all bankers to read, digest, criticize, and come
with similar or better proposals.
Finally, I will be very happy if I get some
consideration for the considerable times I have and will spend on GDN, or to be
ever remembered. The design and description and cost estimates are for
Objectives and benefits to
===================================
O.1
Building a world class covered indoor Resort Worth of Canada
on an area of 361.6 acres (600) acres if solar energy is employed) of stunning
beauty and comfort, with thousands of
types of flowers and plants, butterflies, and rare birds.
Could be in
O.2
Building a world class indoor resort that encloses 12
buildings for the various
specialized plant houses and activities each on a 2.5
acres area, 16 buildings for the
hotels and condos, each on a 2.5 acres area, , 200
luxury villas on the borders of the park !!! overlooking the park , and having
their own backyard inside the park, a central park
consisting of 28 gardens ( including music garden) each of 4 acres area, and
after all three beautiful Golf courses each of
20 acres, real not synthetic golf. All under the same huge glass roofs (136
connected huge glass and steel domes). Twelve acres are for small roads ,
services and trails. The remaining part of the total resort area (about 34
acres) is dedicated to many tennis courts, swimming pools, walking trails,
water falls, pergolas, a small soccer field, beautiful cut corners. Model Homes.
Many classic and beautiful restaurants, are also scattered
around the 28 gardens, all under the huge glass roofs.
The 12 buildings, each at 2.5 acres include:
Children park, Youth center, Aquarium and naval
museum, water park, Africa plant house,
America plant house, Asia Plant house, Europe Plant
house, management , security, and operation center, and multimovie theatres ,
multi restaurant complex.
Two world renowned clinics for plastic surgery or
general medicine, allergies, or similar treatment each at 3 acres.
Plant houses will be double deck, with many seats for
people to sit, relax and enjoy
Provided some special plants can take people?!
O.3
Healthy Leisure
and entertainment for the millions of people of
Teaching future generations the love of flowers,
trees, colorful birds, ocean, and
butterflies and awareness of the environment all over
the world.
O.4
The luxury condominium units (16 buildings , each of 7
floors, each floor having 25
condos, each condo average area is 120m2), and each
building has its own 2.5 acres garden!! All under the huge glass
roofs. Only 2800 condos, thus adding about 8000
inhabitants to the well lit (G.D.N.) resort, completely secure from all kinds
of harsh rain, snow, whistling winds,
depressing and long dark days ,..etc. and enjoining
their year around
blossoming and huge private gardens where many
colorful birds freely sing. This new
way of living does not exist elsewhere at this scale.
The sales of such world wide unique condos and villas should partly validate
the business case as will follow shortly.
O.5
Building 4 luxury hotel buildings each of 7 stories,
and 25 suits per floor, and each building has its own 2.5 acres garden!!, all
under the huge glass roofs . These will host tourists
and attendees of the various
scientific, fine arts, and social sciences conferences,
and international art shows. Depending on the business, the investors may
decide to convert some of the 4 hotels buildings to Condos or vice versa.
O.6
Introducing the concept of mixed leisure /science in a
hybrid covered park/botanical garden where thousands of people sit and enjoy as
opposed to looking and passing by in other botanical gardens around the world.
O.7
The world class covered minipark for children has a
pool, games, plants, trees, colorful birds and butterflies ..etc, minigolf
connects to the central park. The world class aquarium and naval museum, is also
connected to the central park.
The glass roof of this dome and few others could be
partly colorful mosaic !!!
O.8
The world class youth center that takes away the
boring winters and other dark times, is equipped with a large pool, Gymnasium,
salons for reading, arcades, internet cafe,
Bing Bong , pole, etc. All beautifully connected to
the central park.
O.9
Building of a specialized 5 large double deck plant houses
(each building of dimension 50mx80mx20m).Each surrounded by 2 acres garden and
trails. One for each continent, and all equipped by many elegant and
comfortable seats in beautiful cut corners. Possibility to add colorful birds
and butterflies in selected plant houses. Beautifully connected to the central
park.
O.10
Building of a multi movie theatre/restaurants, and
restaurants complex that includes a free auditorium for documentaries, about
plants, flowers, history, biology, botany, oceanyography..etc at the center of
the park.
leasing of many
fast food, beverage outlets, plant and bird sales, and other small souvenir businesses.
To support the almost 5 thousands daily visitors to
the covered resort.
Placed at the outskirts of the resort.
Also leasing of various restaurants, hotels , and
other facilities inside.
O.11
Canadian companies will surely Gain great expertise in
large covered parks technologies. Such new innovations can be exported to other
places in
O.12
Enriching the existing building industry by adding the
concept of the covered garden to home designs and build up.
O.13
Enriching the existing agriculture, fishery, and
flower industry by introducing selected
new crops, flowers, trees …etc from all over the
world.
O.14
The projected Resort/ Botanical Gardens would be
another focal point of fishery and
agriculture and gardening research and development for
years to come. It will exchange information and products with other world class
Botanical gardens.
O.15
Enriching the existing architecture and building
industries, Steel trusses, .etc, air conditioning, tourism and entertainment
industries.
O.16
Employment of about 20000 workers, agriculture,
architecture and civil engineers while building for four years, and about 200
workers permanently afterwards.
O.17
Revenue generation through on site sales, of flowers,
plants, and covered garden designs for existing and future homes ..etc,
entrance fee for certain activities.,
renting of movie theatres, leasing of fast food shops,
restaurants, hotels, condo sales, tennis courts and Golf courses.
O.18
Possible utilization of solar panels to generate
electricity so as to reduce daily energy expenses. This will increase capital
cost but it will cut operating costs.
More land would be needed. To generate solar power for
this Botanical gardens and centers will need 100 more acres of land.
O.19
An average project as such will have its engineering
novelties. For example to control the temperature, humidity, and ventilate 361.6
acres of large enclosed space, while the temperature outside is blow -30 C° is
not a straightforward job. No one would like to sit in a humid and chocking
place or suffer strong air currents and call it paradise? Same for many plants,
they have different requirements and are more sensitive to the environment than
people. Fortunately engineers have solutions.
O.20
The 112 acres central park core should be a novelty in
design, with small water falls,
hills, brooks,
plants , birds everywhere, beautiful corners, beautiful houses, seats..etc. inside
( no BBQ). Few parts of all roofs (30 percent) are automatically retractable
for easy ventilation.
O.21
Good enough to add another place to visit among the
excellent sites in
People of
Benefits to the moral of many people suffering depression
in winters, the sick,
The baby boomers like me, the elderly and benefits to
Tourism (people coming from Canadian schools and from abroad) are clear.
O.22
The core of the central park will have many small
gardens (Italian, Japanese, American, English, French, German, herbs, roses, and
hill gardens, beautiful garden homes, cut corners,
streams, pergolas, water falls,
model homes, open air concert halls…etc. The core area
will be approximately 112 acres excluding movie theatres, roads, restaurants
…etc. But the whole 361.6 acres covered acres looks like a huge covered park
anyhow.
O.23
Utilization of various electric cars as shuttle
service between different parts of the resort. Visitors leave their gasoline
and gas cars outside the resort or in the huge underground parking.
O.24
Simulation of the light of the sun in cloudy days,
with computer programmed light intensity.
O.25
Simulation of the scene of clouds to hide the detailed
glass domes, may be by using holography, and using colorful mosaic in few
selected domes.
O.26
Simulation of various types of light winds, breezes
..etc inside the resort by computer programming of the hundreds of A/C
units.
O.27
Utilization of electric energy inside resort, and
possibility of renting mobile gas or oil based generating units of 100MW
maximum capacity during emergencies
O.28
Last but not the least, Gardenia De La Neige should
boost the birth rate of
O.29:
A small stadium for tennis tournaments could be built inside “ Gardenia De Neige” resort.
The socioeconomic, moral and other implications are huge, if this resort is
built close to many Canadian cities. People may never hyphenate from now on (I
am not counting Ski zealots). However, GDN can be close to ski resorts so we
get the blessings of both worlds.
O.30 Utilization of sophisticated surveillance,
security, and sensor networks, ..etc for protection, automatic fire detection
and automatic extinguishing and for initiating automatic snow shoveling ,
cleaning, etc.
O.31
Three Golf courses, swimming pools, and tennis courts
can host a multitude of local and international tournaments year around, and
used for our teams training year around.
O.32
Since the great fifties and sixties nothing beautiful has
been built in
Only ordinary houses, condos, and flat looking
commercial rental space.
This is to be compared with what has happened in
Europe and
Bejing China,
I looked at the architecture of the
German space age rail way station, and that Italian
Meraviglioso glass As if I am an Italian on
Consideration, specifications and hazards:
=========================================
In addition to the usual precautions in standard
building practice, the designer will have more challenges in building GDN:
1. All structures must be robust against fires,
earthquakes (for example by using base isolation material on bed rock under the
load points of the steel trusses), soil movement due to irrigation ..etc, wear
and tear, hurricanes, rust, reflections of sounds, bad odors, snow and humidity
accumulations, put some joints composite strong material between truss steel
beams and Aluminum glass frames. Use 60 Hot air balloons for emergency
situations where some of the roof glass breaks , and plants should be saved
quick from the elements.
2. Multiplication of birds and insects. Creeping of
insects inside dwellings. Should be dealt with in the design processes.
3. Humidity issues, and stuffy summers should be
treated by appropriate ventilation, wind generation and retractable glass.
4. Cleaning and snow removal from the 361.6 acres
area? It is not easy for completely spherical shell structures.
5.Good site selection is crucial to success.
Should be inside or close to a large city. Must be
close to a good network of highways.
City must have a respectable snow, rain, wind, and
dark days statistics. Site must be within driving distances from few other
cities. City should not have a low average income statistics nor aging economic
problems. Cities of cultural background like
6.Earth Bed rock should not be too far down.
Top soil should be of good quality
7. Timing, interest rates, and site selection must
maximize the business case, no one would like to see more empty hotels or
unsold condos. Timing is important. Nowadays real state is appreciating, and
many baby boomers would be looking for
retirement soon .There is good chance. Good business
consultants should work on these issues.
8. Aggressive national and international promotion,
advertisement campaign and good management should spell the difference between
success and no success for mega
projects as such. Many good projects were lost to
inefficient operation managers. It is not enough to Excel in Building.
9. GDN should be a maintenance and management headache
for the non-expert and/or for the person who does not adore it.
10.GDN should not be built over terrain having earth
faults, or soft soil, or unstable rock bed …etc, very good geological
Survey is a must. Because of the thousands of tons.
Some people claim recent
earthquakes in
11.Exhaust from electric kitchens of hotels ..etc
pumped outside resort through a maze o
underground pipes that have to coexist with the
other maze of pipes of A/C, electric
cabling, communication, etc.
12. Higher safety factors must be used in all designs
starting with the concrete basis under the support points (use of base
isolation as under sky scrapers of Japan) , main beams, support beams, and
arches that carry the glass modules, the weight of snow, their own weight, and
endure the winds., and ending with selecting friendly birds to keep the social
peace!, and calculating the effects of their waste on the structures.
Proposed Architectures:
======================
Please accept my apologies in advance I did not mean
to design or draw anything, the necessity is the mother of all inventions as
they say. I had to dream of specific architectures , one at a time, to come
with even a rough estimate of project cost
I have looked
at and considered 7 possible architectures for GDN, nested domes, nested tents,
crossing pipes, etc of different dimensions. Yet all are dreams!!! No specific
suggestion to the public. If it is worse than a dream then it may be only a
hypothesis.
I looked at the architecture of the
Why did we stop building fancy things in
It is surely not a good sign for our great western
civilization of
I could not handle the structures of
I wished I was a civil engineer to come with something
better than the stupid and rugged
nested arches I came with ( in 2006). Classic, does
not look nice from outside, like old fashioned Italian arches. But It is very
beautifulinside!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and can carry well Canadian snow, Canadian winds
…etc and other perils of other cities in
The architecture that we thought is the
most cost effective, could serve as a starting point for follow up. Other
architectures will be more expensive but could be more beautiful from outside?
But one has to take a helicopter to see the beauty of GDN from outside because
it is so large. The interior beauty of
GDN which is felt by all people inside and outside the helicopter is almost the
same for all architectures !!!
If we have nice weather year around, like lucky people
of
accumulated over a ground area of 361.6 acres!! why
bother removing the snow ? accumulated over the roof?
It is a delicate trade offs, if you can take the risk
and don’t want to clean the accumulated snow and wants it to melt by itself,
you may have to spend a fortune on the
The carrying steel and glass trusses. Snow is tricky
in many countries , it can fall fast and sticky and leaving it could spell
disasters sometimes in few hours on the roofs. If you shovel the snow from the
roofs (how interesting?), your maintenance cost increases slightly. Also if you
want to snow to melt by itself, you have to spread the flow. Meaning sizable draining
and sewer problem at hand. Please always remember 361.6 acres covered with
glass!!!!!
We have looked at these problems plus many others.
This sewer problem was the reason for rejecting the nested domes solution in
2006.
The architecture that we thought is the most cost
effective, could serve as a starting point for follow up. Other architectures
will be more expensive but could be more beautiful.
On a flat land area of 361.6 acres, we build and
interconnect 136 glass and galvanized steel domes shaped half cylindrical
shaped cells (domes). Each cell has a ground coverage area of 10000 m2. Each of
the 136 half cylindrical surfaces is self supported and statically determined, and
rests on 40 load points on top of 40 large underground concretes bases ( using
base isolation)
The highest elevation of roof of any cell is only 50
meters, as high as a 15 story building. And the highest elevation of the arches
(connections between different domes) is 20 meters, and its span is 80 meters.
A distance of 20 meters is left between different domes to allow for mobility
of the snow removal equipment. The total ground area (including few streets
inside) looks like a rectangle of 1300mx1500m, giving a ground area of 1.95
Million m2 = 487.5acres (361.6 acres without the streets and other spaces).
The distance between the centers of the load positions
in the x or y direction is 100m.
Thanks God GDN does not have the larger spans of other
structures around the world i.e. the
span is just 100m (No Geneses books or records called.
The flat ground area of each cell is 100mx100m=10000m2
= 2.5 acres.
To face the snow, we have four techniques
1.
Leave it on the roofs it will not accumulate much,
because of geothermal and green house effects.
2.
Feed
electricity to the wire mesh possibly embedded in the roof glass ( like cars)
3.
When the situation gets worse , blow hot air close to the roofs inside and /or outside, possibly using the square
support beams (I don’t like that), or the spacing between the 2 layers of
glass.
4.
Situation gets
worse, start the work of the battery operated and automatic snow heavy wipers
placed on the roof , 8 of them per cell.
5.
Extreme situations, all the above techniques did not
work, call the mobile hot air balloons.
6.
If all the above God forbid will not work, the roofs
must still be still designed to carry 2 meters or more of accumulated snow.
7.
It is the good operating manager who knows what to
trigger at any time of the above 6 mechanisms, to save cost of hydro and not
subject the resort to dangers of that illusive snow sleet , ice, …etc
At this point we may recommend that the installation
goes without the roofs wipers, once enough statistics are collected in regard
to techniques 1-3 above, then decision can be made to install the guides ,
steel cords and the wipers. Of course R& should continue on these bending
the need for their installation.
Glass modules, are of 2 layers of total width of 10CM
modules, thickness of .33 CM layered glass, with hot air possibly passing in
between.
The snow wipers, mostly made of heavy and strong
plastic composite, except for the 3 electric motors of each wiper are heavy
machines, put on the roofs, 8 per cell. They operate on heavy rechargeable battery
power.
Normally they
at the end of the roof ,
hooked to electric supply to charge the batteries. Once called manually (push
of a button), or according to certain optimization program on a certain
computer
They will move horizontally between heavy plastic
guides (rails) attached to the roof steel beams, and also guided by steel cords
one meter above the roof. They also grind
the snow (by heavy plastic blenders) then blow it down
or into the air again depending on the cleaning policy and skill !!!. They
occasionally blow hot air in difficult situations. Also at the truss ends, they
are kept worm by same hot air when resting. Once their battery charge is almost
finished (in one hour or so of operation) they go back to their base at the end
of the roof truss to charge again
But their fellow wipers will be busy at work in snow
storms while few are charging.
Three motors
each 2.5 KW on each blower , large battery pack,3 KW heating and blower
equipment on each blower may do the job ? but more detailed a analysis is
needed.
For example there is danger when snow melts (because
of hot air blown??) , then freezes again, may be we should only remove the snow
in certain places of accumulation ? or blow
it or push it down …and so on, a computer operation
would be efficient!!!
But, we cannot trust the snow too much and leave it on
the street or glass to melt in one of those days ??? , we may end then with a
side walk of 3 meters of hard ice !!! ( nowadays in
Expected weight of each blower could reach one ton,
not bad !!! more stable in winds!!
Me I can never
trust the snow, Ill always keep the glass clean, I will never leave it with few
centimeters because the forecast told temperature will rise soon !!!
GDN can have 2 modes of operation hot or cold. The hot
mode will cost more, and guarantees the survival of Gardenia, and other
sensitive plants in the central park. Needless to say all plants can be
accommodated in the specially conditioned plant houses, but here we talk about
the central park.
The cold mode means less heating, but guarantee a
pleasant temperatures inside GDN even in winters. The glass structure alone,
conduction from buildings, green house, and geothermal effects… all will
help, providing some degree of isolation
e.g., if the temperature outside is -5C, inside it
will be around 12C with minimum heating costs. In hot
summers, 30 of the total covered glass area would be opened, also some air
blowers will work to guarantee more of fresh air. Also the arcs connecting the
main 136 cells have doors to outside open air areas between domes. We have
plenty of
these, which make an additional outdoor summer
gardens. Their total areas are =
20m wide x 120m length x 54 number of arcs
= an additional
32 acres outdoor park for summer !!! in addition to houses , condos , and
hotels ..etc front yards. These may be the only places where safe BBQ may be
allowed. I don’t know yet.
GDN has 4 main streets leading to its heart and many
of its places. Many areas are also connected by tunnels for more accessibility
in crowded/ emergency situations
Projected Capital Cost:
=====================
All costs below are based on the specific architecture
outlined above. All cost estimates are based on actual calculations
But no programming done, so far, except occasional use
of Autocad tools.
The calculations are based on actual numbers of
galvanized steel beams, actual amounts of concrete, actual areas of Glass
modules, etc. necessary to carry the structure and take the snow, and wind
loads…etc.
Current steel and glass prices in Monreal are used.
For example price of a ton of steel beams, designed, manufactured,
delivered,
assembled in site, and including contractor profit margin is 2000-3000$/ton.
We have taken the price lower end (not quality lower
end), i.e 2000$/ton. Since we are ordering tens of thousands of tons of best
quality galvanized steel. Even very experienced civil engineers and architects
will never estimate exactly the final cost value of Mega projects when they
start.
The following costs (again a dream)are not without
basis , they are based on actual calculations of costs of actual material, cost
of labor , subcontractor profit margins, even when we estimate costs of
buildings we don’t reinvent the wheel we take the recent statistics of cost of
medium high rise in down town Montreal as a bench mark. We don’t redesign these
buildings. They don’t have to carry any of the loads of the interconnected
domes , which are self supported. The buildings are independent of the glass
and steel domes which are self supported, however they over look the park. They
just have a glass side on the park. Their blue prints are every where. What
does not exist is costs of building of huge domes of glass and steel over 361.6
acres, elevation of 50 meters, and span 0f 100m between load points, and huge
136 connected geodesic domes This does not exist anywhere in the world, so we
had to go into its detailed structures and costs. But we dont take any
responsibility or to seal or to claim this is a valid approach or design nor
architectures. Again we are merely proposing ideas.
1.1: Committee costs: Five years
10 Million
$CD
1.2: 10 design firms first two years
10 Million $CD
1.3: Contractors: 4 Luxury hotels and 16 condo
buildings, 7 stories, 25 units per floor each, ground area 3000 m2
800 Million. $CD
1.4: 20 micro power stations including
UPS
40 Million $CD
1.5: Electric wiring, lights, panels, switches
16 Million
$CD
1.6: GDN occasional Heating and ventilation equipment(
Buildings AC costs are included in Buildings costs).Like 900 average, 150KW units,
or their Equivalent in larger units plus underground ducts and installations
80 Million $CD
1.7: tunnels and Underground parking
70 Million
$CD
1.8: Communications, wireless,
Command center equipment(not including building),
Surveillance and Security Systems
Fire Automatic detection and extinguishers,
Sensor networks for snow removal …etc.
30 Million $CD
1.9:
About 530000
tons of all domes
1100 Million. $CD
1.10: Double Glass, about 2.74x2 Million m2
220 Million. $CD
1.11:
34 Million. $CD
1.12: Plastics, material inside glass modules
20 Million. $CD
1.13: Composite material belts between
50 Million $ CD
1.14: Concrete for 14X14 main load points ground
bases, concrete support for all GDN outside glass walls, concrete slaps
connecting the steel beams etc. Bases of Only 4 corners of cell are deep to
bedrock, remainder of 40 points per cell are not that deep
60 Million
$CD
1.15:Extra glass cost due to 30% retractable
Automatic
modules, motors, remote control..
30 Million. $CD
1.16: Auto cleaning and ice shoveling roof wipers, 80000$
per cell
(These beautiful small wipers can be also used to
install the glass modules on the roof !!!!) 15 Million. $CD
1.17: Bolts, nuts, plates, and angles for beams and
other structures
21 Million. $CD
1.18: 16 entrances to GDN 4 Million. $CD
1.19: Land purchase, 1000 acres, again depends on the
location, has to be nearby large cities
5 Million. $CD
1.20: Surface and
1.21: Underground tunnels to heat incoming cold fresh
air by the outgoing air from
underground
parking( to reduce heating costs in winter only)?leakage touchy issue?
10 Million. $CD
1.22: Emergency escape tunnels, and shelters
10 Million. $CD
1.23: Glass wires (screen) 5
Million. $CD
1.24: Sewers
systems 20 Milion. $CD
1.25: Hard synthetics,
rubber and springs for binding roofs and support structures,(seismic
resistance)
20 Million. $CD
1.26: Underground material for base isolation to tie
to the concrete pillars for more seismic resistance More civil engineering
analysis and simulations needed here to check its necessity. Life of people is
more precious than GDN
20 Million. $CD
1.27: Roof and interior Automatic fire detection and
extinguishing systems
10 Million. $CD
1.28: Irrigation systems, piping, pumping,
Drainage, valves, filtering, fertilizing, and control
for all tens of thousands of plants over the 361.6 acres of GDN
20 Million. $CD
1.29: first 6 years promotion and advertisement (commence
2 years before opening the huge gates of GDN)
12 Million. $CD
1.30: Occasional Equipment rental, huge cranes,
bulldozers, Forks, lifters, etc. and labor. Mostly related to installing the
2.74 Million m2 glass modules, and the support beams. While Labor and equipment
for various arches, main support beams, support, ice roads, all building and
other structures are already included in other costs above
100 Million. $CD
1.31: Building
5 large double deck plant houses including plants, AC, piping irrigation
…etc
20 Million. $CD
1.32: The 14 buildings, each at 2.5 acres include:
Children park, Youth center, Aquarium and naval
museum, water park, Africa plant house,
America plant house, Asia Plant house, Europe Plant
house, management , security, and operation center, and multimovie theatres ,
multi restaurant complex.
Two world renowned clinics for plastic surgery or
general medicine, allergies, or similar treatment each at 3 acres.
Plant houses will be double deck, with many seats for
people to sit, relax and enjoy
Provided some special plants can take people?!
70 Million. $CD
1.33: Cost of thousands of trees, shrubs, flowers,
birds, butterflies, rare plants, bots, ceramics, shades.
8 Million. $CD
1.34: Interior roads, tennis courts, basketball,
soccer field, music park, many large pools, many corners, shades, pergolas, model
homes, statues, water falls, and 20 parks preparations, and chairs
80 Million. $CD
1.35: Cost of 30 restaurants 30 Million. $CD
(excluding
hotels restaurants)
1.36: Estimated Electric utilities
Extensions to GDN site 8 Million. $CD
1.37 Estimated water supply 12 Million. $CD
1.38: Estimated sewer systems Extension to site 10 Million. $CD
1.39:Cost of 200 luxury villas
140 Million$CD
1.40: Sixty mobile hot air balloons to be used in emergencies 30 Million$ CD
1.41 Inner and surrounding Streets
and outside gardens 40 Million$ CD
1.40: Maintenance fund to support first 10 years of
GDN operation (at least)
220 Million. $CD
1.40 Total GDN capital cost
===========================================
C1= 3580 Million $CD
1.41 adding 5% incidentals,
miscellaneous
Total GDN capital cost
==========================
C2= 3759 Million $CD
Projected annual operating Cost:
===============================
Salaries and benefits for 400 resort, security, and
maintenance workers for cleaning the
snow outside, cutting the grass inside out …etc
Including hotels, golf, condos buildings, plant houses
and all activities. Almost all workers in the district except restaurants,
hotels, movie theaters, and water park
Note: investor should make money from maintenance contracts
for at least the first 5 years contract and he must not leave it to others.
28 Million $ CD
Maintenance, renovations, plants,(equipment)
4
Million. $CD
Insurance 4 Million $ CD
Hydro cost, heating, ventilation, lights
15 Million. $CD
Incidental 3 Million. $CD
Total Projected annual operating
costs======================================
54 Million. $CD
Projected Capital campaign:
==========================
R.1:Investors and Shareholders contributions
2100 Million. $CD
Investors Don’t grieve. Condos and villas will sell
fast.
R.2: Contributions from federal and state governments,
this is not an exactly private business, millions of citizens and tourists will
visit and enjoy annually. Plus benefits to industry tourism, education ,
science, health, and employment, directly and indirectly as per the objective
section. This is basically a public park with a business twist for economic
survival purposes. Governments will collect lots of income taxes and sales tax
directly and indirectly over the ages from GDN. They must chip in now to
collect for generations later, they usually do, they have done it many times
before, it makes business sense.
600 Million. $CD
R.3 Banks loans, mortgaged, and amortized over 35
years 1100 Million. $CD
Total capital C3 = 3.8 billion $ CD
Projected annual Revenues:
Maintenance contracts for the 2800 Condos each at a very modest 250 $ monthly
8.4 Million $ CD
Maintenance contracts for the 200 Villas each at a very modest 500 $ monthly
1.2 Million $ CD
Entrance fees (Park) from casual visitors
Estimated 2000 per day 14.6
Million.$CD
Plant houses entrance fee 7.3 Million.$CD
Leasing of 4 quality hotels 8 Million.$CD
Leasing of 30 restaurants 2 Million.$CD
Leasing of 20 fast food shops 2 Million.$CD
Leasing of movie theatres 2 Million.$CD
Leasing of flowers and other
Shops 1 Million.$CD
Lease of underground Parking 2 Million.$CD
Leasing of Youth center 0.5 Million.$CD
Aquarium 2.2 Million.$CD
Water Slides 0.5 Million.$CD
Tennis rental, International tennis
Tournaments (in freezing winter)
1 Million.$CD
Golf playing and tournaments
(in freezing winter)
1 Million.$CD
=========================================
Total revenues 75.7 Million.$CD
Notes:
A. Hotel tenants enjoy free central park, free
parking, tennis, basketball, pools, children park, and planthouses.
B. Sole Plant houses visitors (pay less) can also
visit Children park.
C.
D. Net annual income from GDN =
75.7 Million – 54 Million =21.7 Million $CD
These will be used to pay the banks mortgage. After 35
years the mortgage is paid and GDN will be the golden hen for the investor.
Like most houses, GDN will appreciate(with good management), and the investor
can sell it for a respectful capital gain. summarizing, after 35 years, the
investor was able to acquire a golden hen
that can live for ages. Imagine if were are the owner
of
owner of something that may live longer, and bring more money, i.e GDN!!!!!!!!!!.
oops !forgot something!, prices never stay the same ?
in 15 years time, entrance fee will be 20 $ for the plant houses (not 10) and
entrance fee for the central park will be 40 $, this means doubling all income
from GDN in 15 years. Yes there is also the inflation in operating costs, but
the mortgage rate is locked and I am sure income increases will offset inflation, they always do if the
manager is right , and if the investor does not like white elephants.
Even if the investor sells al villas and condos, he is
still the owner of the rest of GDN , it is a lot of a lot.
Very Pleasant Surprise:
=================
Sorry again I forgot one very important thing. The
investor will sell 16x175=2800 luxury condos in 16 buildings, after at most 2
years of operation
The proceeds of the sale are roughly
2800x 1
Million= 2800 Million $CD
Remember these are fancy condos in GDN!!!!!
Not for every one to live in.
Many small Flat flat condos in
Another pleasant surprise:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
GDN has 200 Luxury villas, 60 of them have an area
outside of half an acre and another 500 m2 inside the park. This will sell at 2
M$ CD at least. Another 60 villas, with 0.67 acres outside and 500 m2 inside.
Such a piece of beauty will sell at least for 3 million CD$. Another 80 villas
has each one acre outside and half acre inside the park. Such beauty will sell
for at least 5 million $CD
The total proceeds of sale of the villas would be
(60x2+ 60x3+80x5)= 700 M $CD
The proceeds of sale of condos and villas would be
2800M+700M= 3500 Billion $CD
What a joy, this means he can immediately pay back the
banks and end with a handsome 3500-1100= 2400M$CD. Now if he subtracts his paid
capital of 2100 Million $, he ends with
a 300 Million capital gain in few years. Yet the park is still his!!! He
still owns all hotels clinics, plant houses, tennis courts, international golf
!!!, movies restaurants all except the sold condos and villas. If he
still misses the condos he sold , no problem he can
erect another 2800 condo units and another 200 villas in few years , once the
first patch is sold and have
another 3500 Million $ CD ??!! in his pocket.
Yes, we have left enough undeveloped areas and streets in the resort for such expansion !!!
Needless to say some investors don’t like to pay the
bank immediately, fine , such greedy or unwise or risky investor may then scoop
all of the 3500M$CD gain he made from first patch of condo
and villas sales , invest them on another GDN may be in
Or he may
select to pay some of the mortgage debts and invest the rest somewhere else!!! and leave the banks to enjoy
the park mortgage for another 35 years, but he is still the owner!!!! Like me
and my large and beautiful and heavily mortgaged house. May be till he decides
to erect the second patch of condos and villas when the price is right !!!
In any case if I were the investor, I will never sell
all of the condos and villas fast God forbid. I will take my time and watch the
people visiting GDN !!! before selling any condo!!
Another small surprise for the investor:
=========================================
Oops forgot we have allocated 220.M$CD as a separate
investment operating fund, this means a return of about 30MSCD which is a good
portion of the operating costs of GDN!!!
Also, all Contractors will be paid 30% of their Total
subcontract value via acquisitions of
some of the built condos and villas(To encourage early sales of these units).
They should not cry, Much. These units will appreciate and they will make a
handsome gain after all.
Conclusion:
============
GDN could be no longer a dream
It is a set of numbers, architecture, structures,
actual costs, and a whole new business case.
We have
displayed what could be the business case of GDN.
We may have proved it may live for ages and the
investor is a big winner.
We may have proved it may live for ages and the
investor is a big winner. But it is not easy to ask complex governmental bodies
and big investors to get their act together at least to think about it.!
The governments will have to chip in, like any mega
project.
The governments will collect taxes via GDN for ages.
At one point I thought that GDN would be built in near future bending the
maturity of carbon fiber (to reduce the weight of the reinforcement parts) and geothermal
climate conditioning technologies. However, I also realized that natural
inflation accumulated till then would reduce any such advantages.
Future studies will include the choice of the steel
and Aluminum truss and belt parts, choice of glass, design and choices of the
complex heating systems, etc., choice of the plants, birds, butterflies!
analysis of trusses stability under different vertical and horizontal seismic
forces, thermal modeling and heating bill reduction due to utilization of
geothermal techniques…etc.
Effects of condensation on wear and tear of trusses
parts.
Choice of the detailed architecture for the Aquarium
building, it is not a small aquarium!! , for the children huge park, for
the huge youth center components, Etc. the water
park!!
The thousand miles job needs more than thousands of
workers. I may not be a good designer ( not a designer at all), but Its my
honor to be part of the glue or welding that holds it together or to represent
the point of view of the visitor. In this project, we need architecture, civil,
public works, electric, wireless, agriculture, mechanical, hydro,
thermodynamics, composite materials, Botanical, interior design, etc engineers
and more.
Pushed by my spice (spouse) I borrowed from the banks
to renovate my kitchen. What is wrong with that?. If businessmen, bankers,
mayors, and government officials don’t renovate their home (the state or
province is their home for sure)? shall we outsource even our homes, culture,
and souls???
Enclosed Photos:
===============
Just Examples from beautiful gardens from all over the
world, needless to say
Architecture wise, selection wise ..etc
We should not follow a single model, we should have
own character that melts many
Other models around the world. Attaching these does
not mean we will mimic these architectures, this is just a sample.
Next Step:
=========
Please show me the way to obtain like a 2000000 $CD
governmental grant to further develop this project. This is needed for my small
incorporation to hire few civil engineers, architects, mechanical engineers,
botanists, marine experts, electric switching and power engineers, business and
marketing experts, some ( university professors) on part time, some on full
time basis over a period of 2 years.
The outcome will be detailed engineering architectural
designs, and specifications feasibility study, and business case
investigations.
All should be in a professional format convenient for
contractors to start the blue prints and ground breaking.
Appendix A:
Suggested Plan of Action:
========================
P.1
January 2009
Kind Approval of the ideas herein by Federal and state
bodies, and commitment to allocate and spend financial and other governmental
resources such as lands and employees.
P.2
March 2009
Establishment of the Botanical gardens consultancy
committee with the following Mandate:
P.2.1
Spearhead all R&D, designs, contract management
activities, quality control, and
Supervise Operational management once all buildings
are erected and equipped
P.2.2
Selection and survey of the allocated lands, about 361.6
acres (600with Solar energy).
P.2.3
Investigates the proposal herein, add or delete.
P.2.4
Enlarges and add more details to the buildings
architecture, plant selections, artistic plans, and structures and operational
requirements.
P.2.5
Set the detailed specifications for each building and
garden to be given to deign
Firms (structural, agriculture, entertainment, and
fishery)
P.2.6
Allocates jobs to various design firms and contractors
by tenders, or competition or direct assignment to well established design
houses.
P.2.7
Review and provide feedback to all detailed designs
received from design firms.
Approving all designs by August 2010
P.2.8
Allocates building jobs to various contracting firms
and contractors by tenders, or competition or direct assignment to well established
contractors (January 2011)
P.2.9
Periodically Checks that all buildings are built as
per specifications as the build up continues
P.2.10
Selects and supervises the Formation of the operating
committee, and structuring the mandate of this new committee
P.2.11
Give a copy of all designs and details to the
operating committee once the project is completed (around December 2010)
P.2.12
Hand in all finished and equipped buildings and marvel
covered Botanical Resort of
P.2.13
Move to plan and execute similar future projects on
other sites
P.2.14
All gardens and activities open to the public early
2014
Appendix B:
Membership of the Botanical/Park gardens
===================================
Committee (a suggestion, more can be added)
===========================================
M.1.
His Excellency, a high ranking official to head the
committee, to be named by higher authorities
M.2
Professor, Ahmed Elhakeem, my honor to be just one of
the members of the committee, or consultant, or even a welding joint on one of
the steel beams.
M.3
Three engineers from department of fisheries and
agriculture, each of experience not less than 15 years, specialized in parks,
and fishery (on advisory basis)
M.4
Three engineers from housing ministry, each of
experience not less than 15 years, specialized in construction, roads, drainage
systems (on advisory basis)
M.5
One civil engineering professor on part time basis,
with hands on experience in the trusses, steel, and project management areas
for at least 15 years (on advisory basis)
M.6
One civil engineering professor on part time basis,
with hands on experience in the general construction, roads, and project
management areas for at least 15 years (on advisory basis)
M.7
One architecture engineering professor on part time
basis, with hands on experience in the construction area for at least 15 years
(on advisory basis)
M.8
One mechanical engineering professor on part time
basis, with hands on experience in the air conditioning area for at least 15
years
(on advisory basis)
M.9
One agriculture engineering professor on part time
basis, with hands on experience in the covered parks and flowers area for at
least 15 years (on advisory basis)
M.10
One Electrical power engineering professor on part
time basis, with hands on experience in the solar power, UPS, generators,
switching and distribution areas for at least 15 years (on advisory basis)
M.11
One fishery and biology professor on part time basis,
with hands on experience in the fishery and oceans area for at least 15 years
(on advisory basis)
Executive engineers:
===================
M.12
2 steel construction engineers of field, each of
experience not less than 10 years in hangers, domes, and large trusses, and
knowledge of computer software and CAD tools.
M.13
2 architecture engineers, each of field experience not
less than 10 years in general construction and drainage, and knowledge of
computer software and CAD tools.
M.14
2 civil engineers, each of field experience not less
than 10 years in general construction and drainage, and knowledge of computer
software and CAD tools.
M.15
3 agriculture engineers, each of field experience not
less than 10 years each in parks, fishery and flowers, and knowledge of
computer software and CAD tools.
M.16
3 Air conditioning, and solar energy engineers, each
of field experience not less than 10 years, in large buildings, ventilation and
knowledge of computer software and CAD tools.
M.17
3 Electrical power engineers, with hands on experience
in the solar power, UPS, generation, switching and distribution areas for at
least 10 years.
M.18
2 fishery and biology experts, with hands on
experience in the aquariums design and maintenance, and fishery areas for at
least 10 years.
M.19
2 architecture(artistic) experts, with hands on
experience in the décor design, and parks areas for at least 10 years.
M.20
2 accountants, each with experience not less than 10
years in general accounting and business administration
M.21
8 secretaries with knowledge of computer drafting, CAD
tools, word processing ..etc