British Land's massive tower for the City of London, 122 Leadenhall Street, has been approved by the Corporation of London's planning department following warm support from all sides. Welcomed by the Mayor, the Commission for Architecture and Built Envirnonment, and even English Heritage the building marks the approval marks the latest saga in tall buildings for the square mile, and perhaps more significantly a potential new peak to the skyline. The application has now been passed on to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister who is not expected to quibble with the decision to approve it.
At 225m tall with 48 floors, the British Land development takes architect Richard Rogers structural expressionist style to the max literally opposite his opus Lloyds of London.
The tower which contains only 1,000 sq meters more than Citypoint and about half the floorspace of the Minerva Tower making it small for its height but it is understood that a substantial pre-let will be required before it can begin construction. However, its known there are a good half a dozen companies out there looking for office space right now and capable of filling this building so construction may not be as far off as it seems although, as has become cliche, the current occupied site will have to be vacated first.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/122_leadenhall9.jpg
that means by the way london now has 5 buildings over 200m tall approved :)

This also means that, from what I see from the picture above, the City cluster will gain a new icon as far as its view from the river Thames is concerned. Also I wouldn't puzzle myself that much about the vacating of the existing site, as well as the pre-letting. From what you told us this will be a vintage tower aiming for elegance offered to exclusive status-seeking tenants rather than an elephantine office complex used to house
them by the dozens. Let's hope construction starts soon, I like this one.

the two white outlines on that pic are buildings already approved. the one directly infront is pretty much u/c right now and the one behind swiss re starts next year along with a 90m tall neighbour :)

gothic, the one behind the gherkin is the Minerva, right? If I remember correctly this is another 600+footer coming up...

no, the one behind the gherkin is 110 bishopsgate which is the 600ft one youre referring to. minerva is slightly off the picture to the right.

I like the X braces on it and the shape is good.Sometimes I think this tower has some resemblance with Pompidou,maybe because it's transparency and it's colors.What do you think?

It's because Richard Rogers designed the Pompidou Centre, he also designed Lloyds of London.

Maybe this will help:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/neostorm/Darren/HayesDavidsonCityRendering.jpg

pity it misses out most of the midrises though.
no heron plaza, no middlesex street, and both of those are approved. it makes minerva look like its all by itself as a result when itll be surrounded by towers between 70 and 120m.

And then opposite all of these, of course, will be a certain 310m building ... ;)

Not exactly surrounded gothic... there are a few. It would be nice to see a composite featuring everything though. Still, at least this way reality will surprise us!

been working on one for a while actually :)

Nice adition to London's skyline.

5 X 200 meter tall buildings approved...not bad! Go London! :cheers: