The New Office and Windows

Those of you who have been following the blog know that Kimber will be moving into a new office building in a few weeks. She has also mentioned that it is close to home. In the pictures below, note the "leaning tower" on the left hand side of the pictures. That is the same leaning tower we can see from one of our balconies. That is how close Kimber will be. Very nice. The shortest commute she has ever had or probably ever will have.




So now a little about the leaning tower and the area that we live and Kimber will work. It is called Jattavagen (or Jatta Bay). It is one of the many planned areas in Stavanger. Only this one is actually moving mostly according to plan. Many of the other planned areas have stalled. The central focus of the area is the "leaning tower". The area around the tower was a construction site for concrete structures, similar to the tower. The first was Ekofisk in 1971 and followed by 14 other Condeep platforms. The last platform was Troll in 1995. Stavanger decided in 1998 to make Jattavagen an urban district with houses, industry and services through a project run by Hinna Park AS. So the area has been filled in from previous construction and is being developed with:
- modern area for high tech and international businesses (5000 to 8000 work places),
- a futuristic and attractive housing areas (1500 houses),
- a pilot project for high density and ecofriendly development, and
- a recreational area by the sea.

This all started with the building of the Viking football club and Stadion and a commercial center. The commercial canter has one of the area's best grocery stores. It continued with the building of the multiple apartment blocks, including the one we live in, and the new rail station. Finally, the work on various office buildings continues. Additionally there is a new secondary school in the area. At the end of 2007 there were 600 dwellings and 1500 work places.

A thank you to Stavanger Past, Present and Future by the Stavanger Municipality Department of Culture and Urban Development 2009 for the details in this posting.

And a last note. We have 24 windows in our apartment plus the balconies are glass. I think we might have more square feet of glass than floor. We washed all of the glass this weekend. Kirk did the outsides of many and I did inside and out of the ones that open. It took over two hours. But here is the best part. You know you have been in Norway too long if it is 45F and sunny and you think it is great weather for window washing. It was cold!!