Courtesy of Building.co.uk

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3064804

Architect Allies and Morrison is planning a £200m development including a tower that could go next to Foster and Partners' Swiss Re building in the City of London.

The architect has worked with consultant Gardiner & Theobald to draw up plans for a 43-storey tower on a site that includes 61 St Mary Axe. Foster's 41-storey tower is located at 30 St Mary Axe.

The developer, Great Portland Estates, has combined a number of its land holdings in the City to produce a two-acre site on which it aims to create an office and retail development.

As well as 61 St Mary Axe, Great Portland also has holdings on nearby sites at Bishopsgate and Camomile Street.

Robert Noel, property director for Great Portland Estates, said the firm had yet to decide on the form that the development would take.

He said: "We are in the early stages of masterplanning. At the moment it is unclear how tall or short or wide we'll go. We're considering options, one of which is a tall building."

Noel added that the decision on whether to develop a tall building would depend on commercial considerations.

Sources close to the scheme believe that the site can easily accommodate a tall building.

The site is ringed by several large schemes planned for the City that are currently on hold. However, one source close to the scheme said he remained confident that the project would move forward despite the slow progress of comparable city tower designs such as the Minerva Tower and the Heron Tower.

He said: "It's an issue of commercial sense and where the demand for this is coming from. But if I were a betting man, I'd say it was very likely to happen."

Great Portland Estates is understood to be deciding on its options in the next couple of months. It intends to submit a planning application in late summer.

Wow, that's exciting news. I got that "feeling" immediately when I saw the header :D

haha, ronson wont like the idea of his heron tower being called "on hold".

so many proposals, the mind boggles

Blimey :)

thats nice but proposed, proposed and prospoed is lovely. Consturction is a nothing thing.

Another proposal...wonderful! I might whip one up myself for April Fools, probably have as much chance of getting built.

thats nice but proposed, proposed and prospoed is lovely. Consturction is a nothing thing.


Been drinking the turpentine lately?? :nuts:

That said, London sure is getting a whole lot of proposals recently, isn't this the 5th or 6th one this year??

Would be a big mistake to propose yet another tower the same height as Tower 42, Heron Tower and 30 SMA.
The area needs some smaller 20-30 floor buildings to balance out the skyline.

Very good. I'm looking forward to the first render already. It's not possible to have too many proposals.

Would be a big mistake to propose yet another tower the same height as Tower 42, Heron Tower and 30 SMA.
The area needs some smaller 20-30 floor buildings to balance out the skyline.

I agree, however i dont agree that the new buildings should be shorter because the cluster is already in danger of becoming this large inpenetrable solid mass, springing up in the middle of London, with things like plantation place, lloyds, willis building and the various old mid-rises. The City should ideally be sorting something out with the air traffic control to allow taller and therefore more elegent structures to be built

Anyone think EH will object because it would spoil views of Swiss Re? :crazy:

Things would be changing if that happend.

How is the Willis Building making the city more inpenetrable. The base will open out that whole area. You only had 4ft of pavemet space before, and now you'll have about 10m.

Something like Willis with a bit more colour than the current proposals would be good.
Please no more blue glass and grey metal towers.

no im meant from a visual perspective when viewing from outside of the City, especially from the South bank, its starting to look all a bit squat and bulky

so i think that 45 storey should almost be a bare minimum!

61 St Mary Axe is a very dinghy 80s brown glass clad building on the corner with Cammomile Street. If it's high enough it will be visible between Tower 42 and Bishopsgate Tower (although more obscured by Tower 42) on the skyline from Waterloo Bridge.

The site is tiny though - probably about a quarter the footprint of Heron. Something tall and thin. And yes - 43 storeys? About the same height as Swiss Re - if anything it should be around the 30/35 range, or above 50+ to really make the skyline as varied as possible.

doesnt this take in 80-88 bishopsgate?

Well the next building attached on Cammomile Street is Ellerman House, so yes, probably. Which will be interesting.

This sounds promosing, but, I'm not to keen on the height, its just too similair to T42 and Swiss Re.

---

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/city_development_map.jpg

J is Swiss Re
9 is 80-88 Bishopsgate
15 is Ellerman House & 61 St Mary Axe
D is Tower 42
5 is Heron
13 (and the plot to the north) is Bishopsgate Tower.

If you use the angle from Waterloo Bridge that Heron appears to the left of Tower 42, the viewing angle will slice directly through 61 St Mary Axe, equi-distant between Tower 42 and Bishopsgate Tower.

I'm sure I've posted this before. I guess they are upping the tempo to compete with Heron.

http://i1.tinypic.com/s4cap4.jpg

^^ That looks ike a great position for a tall tower. Any idea on when we will have more info or see some renders?

aah I was looking at the building the other day, and thought, if they built something here, we'd have a canyon of skyscrapers down bishopsgate

looking at the above picture I don't see anything too wrong if the height is similar to that of Swiss Re and Tower 42 as we will hopefull have Ledenhall, Minerva and Bishopsgate to rise above them :)

Great news on any tall development for the City. Looks like, if it is tall it should fit in nicely with the cluster.

Not sure if it should be taller than Swiss RE though, IMO height should be between Swiss RE and Willis - say 140 - 160m tall.

yeah it is the 80-88 site. yuo know guys... that means we could have a tower on each corner of that road!

I'm still waiting for something to stretch the cluster down to Minerva - a nice 60 storey a little bit further down Camomile Street will do the trick just nicely.

yeah it is the 80-88 site. yuo know guys... that means we could have a tower on each corner of that road!

GPE have that whole strip of Land running along Camomile St & part of that also includes 80-88 Bishopsgate. We knew already that they were working up a scheme with Allies & Morrision, this article is abit confusing as it mention 61 st marys axe, which is quite a small site & as an after thought that GPE also own most of the buildings next door. I would suspect the 43 storey would be on the site of 80-88 bishopsgate. I hope to god they dont decide to go for a massive groundscraper develepment as the sites they own are ideal for it. Remember the Bevis Marks skyscraper proposal on a nearby site was also one of 3 options- a 40, 20 storey building or groundscraper & they didn't choose the taller option in the end otherwise it would have planning permisson by now. I think the corp of London should masterplan/designate this area for highrise & really push developers to build tall here.

They have one of the prime spots for a tall buildinging the city as this would be surrounded by towers & they should use it with that in mind.

Groundscrapers should be Banned ;)

^ no, your dead right! well at least banned in the square mile. :yes:

They have one of the prime spots for a tall buildinging the city as this would be surrounded by towers & they should use it with that in mind.
Absolutely right - this is, undoubtedly, one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Central London. They'd have to be crazy to build a groundscraper here. They should maximize the value of this site and go for the tallest possible option.

Would be a big mistake to propose yet another tower the same height as Tower 42, Heron Tower and 30 SMA.
The area needs some smaller 20-30 floor buildings to balance out the skyline.


Exactly, but this is why I am not keen on losing the midrises (Drapers etc). We need to keep/gain some demarkation.

re 25 Fenchurch - I would keep the exsisting building reclad it and add five more floors, the new proposal can go somewhere else.... the moon maybe :)

oops wrong thread