The New Norway Office

Kimber has been to Norway twice this year and she thought it might be fun to show the progress of the new building Marathon will be moving into in less than a year. When we moved to Norway, the office was in the center of Stavanger. However, a new office building was being completed basically next door to our apartment in Hinna. Below are two pictures of the first Hinna building. We have posted other pictures but these two are unique. They are taken from our back patio and from the terrace above the shared area of our apartment in Norway. These are views we will never have again!



In October 2009, Marathon announced they would be moving to the building being completed near our apartment. This meant Kimber’s commute was 2 minutes, even underground if needed due to bad weather starting in January 2010. The working environment required some adjustment as we all went from offices to open floor plan, and nearly quadrupled in number over the next 5 months as we took over operation of Alvheim from Maersk. Below is the aerial view of the area where our apartment was located. Take note of the pier on the lower left of the photograph. It becomes the subject of the rest of the story.



This new building is temporary however. Right after this building was finished, construction began on a building that would be located on the pier close to our apartment and near the Condeep. The picture below shows the pier as it was used prior to construction. These are ferrys offloading for a soccer game.



The next picture shows the pier as construction began. The entire interior of the pier was jack-hammered or dug out.

A structure of concrete walls was built on the interior, then clean fill placed inside the vaults created by the walls. Then the combination of walls and fill was overlayed with concrete. Finally the basement (garage) and first floor went down. All of the buildings floors are poured concrete much like the building we are in now.

Next building construction began. The next series of pictures shows progress of the building by floors and overall completion. You are only seeing a small part of the building in these pictures. It is the part that is over the pier. But always in the background is the Condeep to provide perspective. The building actually extends over the pier as well as the length of the three apartment blocks it is beside. But I can't capture all of that in one shot. The pictures below are from October and December 2010.


The building is on the other side of our former apartment from the current office building. Still a nice commute if we were still living there. It will have a great view as well from some sides, overlooking the Fjord. The last two pictures are from this year. They are March and June of 2011. So here is the comprehensive history of the Marathon Hinna Offices.