5 Broadgate (New 700,000 sq ft UBS London HQ) | 69m | City of London U/C

[JackM]

I quite like it to be honest. Of course a skyscraper would have been preferable but as far as groundscrapers go, it's pretty good. It looks modern, it's not ugly and it's definitely an improvement on what is there at the moment.

[Langur]

Ugly

[ferge]

I think the existing building is far better than this, it'd be a shame to see it go for such a brute of a design.

[leytonstonia]

http://www.leytonstonia.com/2010/12/...vealed-as.html

What with all the rumour around JPM and Riverside South, for me the most important issue is keeping banks like UBS in the City and strengthening London's position as a global financial hub. There's a few figures in the article above, which show the position of supremacy that JPM has in the investment banking sector relative to UBS, which for me ends any notion that they were ever realistically going to abandon the City.

[dom]

It is an amazing design but I quite like Broadgate the way it is... probably the best bit of 1980s planning in the UK.

[delores]

It's been badly received on the BD online website, then again pretty much anything MAKE do these days is ridiculed.

[Turbosnail]

Originally Posted by woodgnome

Ken Shuttleworth’s Silver Billet is the City’s golden opportunity

-- Link to London Evening Standard article --



Skyscrapers attract indelible nicknames; groundscrapers don't. Even so, it's hard to resist dubbing the new UBS headquarters in Broadgate the Silver Billet, even though the name won't stick.


Shuttleworth brought along to One Broadgate a small chunk of aluminium in the shape of the 13-storey offices to emphasise the point. “We believe this is the way architecture will go over the next decade.” That won't come as good news to Prince Charles, who was visiting Icap at One Broadgate that very morning But Shuttleworth's point was that increasingly tough energy regulations are shaping design. The 700,000-square-foot office for 6000 UBS staff will consume less than half the energy of its Eighties neighbours

Michael Spencer at ICAP is the ultimate capitalist in this country - gets Cherie Blair, now Prince Charles in to visit the office, have a feel for the money fuelled trading atmos - then gives away lots of profits to charity, ICAP look great so it to comes back full circle into their back pockets when people see the kudos and generosity attached to the firm, like getting the red arrows to fly over New York. Self perpetuating business..

[gothicform]

Originally Posted by dom

It is an amazing design but I quite like Broadgate the way it is... probably the best bit of 1980s planning in the UK.

exactly. in fact i'd like to see the buildings around the circle listed, they are a pretty unique collection. this building is actually a great example of WHY they should be listed. there's nothing wrong with the building per se, but it doesn't fit here and the whole area is much the worse for it. i bet british land will be thrilled though english heritage has a 30 year rule (one not mentioned in legislation).

[CheekySlut]

I actually quite like it. That aluminum mass with glass slits is refreshing. I'm not a fan of the diagonal slits (at the stairwell? or lift shafts?) though, they seem to be arbitrary to me. Like some shit painter has added a few brush strokes without much thought. I would prefer them as double helixes, gradually getting thinner and unravelling as they climb (that might be expensive?).

[leytonstonia]

Walking around Broadgate, the buildings in question are now looking extremely tired and in need of work. I suppose the question is whether that should have been achieved by means of refurbishment rather than redevelopment. On a different scale perhaps, but Broadgate is similar to the Barbican Estate in many ways given that it only works as a collective and not as a series of individual buildings, which in isolation look to be nothing worth keeping. I wouldn't say list them in this case but it'll be interesting to see what happens to the remaining original elements when UBS move out as I eluded to earlier.

[N1]

Please stop talking about what rogers could have done with 100m. Shuttleworth got a brief - and failed misserably. This probably one of the ugliest renderings I have ever seen. It looks like a model from the starwars lego kit on acid. Shame on the Shuttleworth, shame on the UBS. Someone please stop them.

[lasdun]

This is awful.

It'll dominate the area in a bad way. It fills the entire possible envelope with bland featureless cladding. It looks like someone has parked a roll on roll off ferry by liverpool street.

If its was a tech campus, or a university, with some space around and room to breath it could work - maybe - in a future-stalinist sort of way, but this should be sent back by the city.

It needs to respect the layout of the Broadgate - which is very good - and step up to full height.

If it gets built, and I very much hope it doesn't, it will be a lasting monument to the horror that are sight lines.

[Loyalist.]

It's futuristic looking, it's allright.

A tall, slender building would have been much better. People will complain whatever is proposed!

[Langur]

Originally Posted by lasdun

If its was a tech campus, or a university, with some space around and room to breath it could work - maybe - in a future-stalinist sort of way

Yes that's what it reminds me of too, a monstrous totalitarian engineering faculty building from the 1970s.

[CheekySlut]

I take everyone's points. It's not subtle at all; but where have you ever seen a totalitarian, stalinist, 1970s, or 1980s building clad entirely in brushed steel?

I do also agree that Shuttleworth's designs, and almost everything that MAKE designs, is fairly substandard. He seems to have very little appreciation of harmony or balance, which is quite appalling for an architect.

[yajohnsmith]

I like the Tokyoesque feel to it. May not be the best location for it though. After reading that UBS is moving to a brand new 600ft skyscraper in Frankfurt I thought UBS would go for a skyscraper in London too.

[stevensp]

I agree with you
the volume and the urban planning is interesting...

but not a huge fan of the current result...

[mukkjoy]

very, very interested in this one

[Supertall Robbo]

Dont like

[pricemazda]

Not a fan either, it has no elegance, it looks like it's a massive lego brick plonked on the landscape. It actually reminds me in some way of the shopping centre in Cumbernauld.