Skyscraper Boom Reaches End as City of London Goes 'From Vanity to Sanity'

[M II A II R II K]

Skyscraper Boom Reaches End as City of London Goes 'From Vanity to Sanity'


Apr 20, 2011

By Tom Bill

Read More: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...o-sanity-.html

London property developers are sacrificing height and glitz for better returns as the craze for building iconic skyscrapers comes to an end, said Ken Shuttleworth, the architect of the landmark Gherkin building. “The age of bling is over,” said Shuttleworth, who led the team at Norman Foster’s firm that designed the seven-year- old tower in the City of London financial district. He said it would never get off the ground today. “Money now drives everything, so if you can build something for half the price, you will,” he said.

While skyscrapers with nicknames such as the Shard, the Cheesegrater and the Walkie Talkie are joining the 40-story Gherkin as part of the British capital’s skyline, those buildings reflect past rather than present considerations. All of the office towers that are due to open in London by 2014 were conceived before the financial crisis and developers are increasingly adopting cheaper, less ambitious plans.

Commercial Estates Group Ltd., a privately held developer, last month said it will review a plan to build a 63-story property adjacent to Canary Wharf. Hammerson Plc (HMSO), a real estate investment trust that owns seven London office buildings, in January abandoned its design for a 32-story tower and block in the City in favor of a 15-floor office complex. “A tall building was proving very expensive, so we went back to the drawing board,” Martin Jepson, Hammerson’s managing director for London, said by telephone.

Developers in New York are reviving projects to capture rising rents and office construction is set to rebound after the credit crisis curbed building. One World Trade Center, which will be the western hemisphere’s tallest tower when it opens in 2013, is one of several skyscrapers that may be built by the end of the decade, according to New York-based property broker Cassidy Turley.

In London, high-rise buildings cost 50 pounds to 150 pounds more per square foot than shorter ones because of their stronger frames and typically more irregular shapes, said Steve Watts, the partner responsible for tall structures at real-estate adviser Davis Langdon, part of Aecom Technology Corp. That means the money needed to construct a skyscraper with 500,000 square feet (46,000 square meters) of space can be 150 million pounds, twice as much as a lower-rise structure with the same space.

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[Bedhead]

These things go in cycles, I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if it all starts up again around in the last few years of this decade, when Crossrail will vastly increase the amount of people that can be pumped into the City and the Isle of Dogs on a daily basis, and demand for floor space will go up.

[scalziand]

I note that the author neglected to mention how the recently expanded sitelines are also making it more difficult if not impossible for developers to receive approval for tall towers.

[JDRCRASH]

Did London overbuild like so many cities? Or did it's growth steadily slow down?

[omp835]

The economy is so bad that one of the worlds richest cities cant afford any new gilded towers.

[Dale]

*yawns* Same old fashionable doomsaying. We'll have another raft of announcements next year in London, and other cities, and 'gilded skyscapers' will continue unabated over the years, with modulating frequency.

[Bedhead]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

Did London overbuild like so many cities? Or did it's growth steadily slow down?

Good question - you don't hear about large numbers of empty, unlet buildings in London in the same way that you did in the early 90s. Some projects were put on hold at the beginning of the recession and have now been resumed, so overall I'd say it's a slowdown, rather than overbuilding.

However, the UK economy has slowed again in the last couple of quarters, so it might be an extended slowdown - we'll see.

[Greavsie]

thye should start building more tall resis...they could start by demolishing most of tower hamlets..