London City skyscraper era comes to an end

[M II A II R II K]

City skyscraper era comes to an end


30 October 2011

By Laura Chesters



Read More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...d-2377665.html

The man behind a quarter of a century of City skyscrapers has declared that the next wave of tall towers will be the last in the Square Mile. Twenty-five years on from the Big Bang, Peter Rees, the City of London's chief planning officer, said: "It will be an end of an era. The development is moving toward refurbishments of older buildings and, after the current cluster of skyscrapers, we will not see new ones planned. "Since the Big Bang, London, like many other world cities, has wanted to replicate Manhattan with tall buildings. Here, in the City of London, we felt it better to cluster the tall buildings in one area and that is what has happened. But we are now entering a new phase, a new era."

The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear, agrees and points to a new age of City offices. He said: "The new phase is refurbishment. But it is refurbishment with attitude – the stripping of an old building to its core and creating a brand new, economically relevant building. "From 1986 onwards, the buildings have perfectly good floor plates and allow for complete redevelopment into modern, sustainable offices." The current group of skyscrapers planned for the City over the next five years is expected to be the last for decades to come. The list comprises the recently completed Heron Tower, British Land's "Cheesegrater" (122 Leadenhall Street), Land Securities' "Walkie Talkie" tower at 20 Fenchurch Street, to be completed by 2014, Arab Investments' Pinnacle, to follow shortly after, and Great Portland Estates and Brookfield Properties' 100 Bishopsgate, to be built by 2016.

After this cluster, the City will see a series of large-scale refurbishments. One example is the planned redevelopment by giant US pension fund TIAA-CREF at One Angel Court – which will increase the available floor space by more than 50 per cent, to 300,000 sq ft. Mr Rees, who has worked in the City of London's planning team for more than 26 years, added: "We have had 25 years of rapid redevelopment in the City – development that was necessary to replace the quickly built 1960s post-war buildings. Since Big Bang, we have seen a huge change from cellular offices to open plan. But we are now in a much better position, in that the buildings from the 1980s and 1990s are much more adaptable to today's office requirements than those from the 1950s, Sixties and Seventies."

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[yankeesfan1000]

Thanks for posting, that was an interesting little article. I guess only time will tell, but if there's a silver lining for London, it's that the Shard and Pinacle are two of the best buildings U/C in the world in my opinion and will propel London to, or near, the top of European skylines.

[scalziand]

Lack of finance and available new land are two of the reasons behind the reduction in large-scale construction.

Um, isn't the lack of land what drives real estate prices and ultimately what makes skyscrapers feasible?

Also, the writer left out the Three Spires proposal.

[Codex]

The City represents one square mile of London's 612 square miles. The City may be one of London's two main financial hubs but it should not be confused with London as a whole.

The City of London's Planning Chief Peter Rees is talking about his area of responsiblilty, which is the square mile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

In terms of elsewhere in London new Skyscrapers are planned and massive redevelopments are taking place in area such as Nine Elms/Vauxhall, Southwark, Paddington Basin, Docklands, Croydon etc etc

The Shard, Beetham, Three Spires and numerous other schemes are not within the square mile which constitutes the 'City' of London

Finally it should be noted that on top of the numerous skyscrapers built in recent years within the City of London boundaries (the latest being the Heron), three further massive towers are currently under construction (pinnacle, cheese grater, walkie talkie).