North Quay | Canary Wharf | 221m/209m/120m | 44/38/18 fl | App

[jef]

The press release:

18 January 2007

PLANNING PERMISSION GRANTED FOR OVER 370,000 SQ M DEVELOPMENT ON LAND ADJOINING CANARY WHARF

On 12 January 2007 the London Borough of Tower Hamlets granted planning permission to Norquil Limited* for the development of 372,660 square metres (gross) of commercial office space on the North Quay site immediately north of One Canada Square, Canary Wharf. The development will adjoin the proposed Isle of Dogs Crossrail station which is part of the transport project currently before Parliament.

Cesar Pelli, the architect of the original Canary Wharf tower, designed the scheme, in association with SMC Alsop as the architects for the public realm areas, which comprises three linked buildings, two of which are towers, 43 storeys (221metres) and 37 storeys (209metres) tall respectively. The scheme will also include a major new performance and public exhibition space and a south facing dockside promenade with an additional 5,324 square metres (gross) of shops, restaurants and bars and pedestrian links to Poplar DLR station and Canary Wharf itself.

The development, which is expected to be completed once the Crossrail station is built, will provide space for approximately 17,000 jobs, more than 4,000 of which are projected to be filled by residents of the East End. As part of the planning process Norquil Limited has entered into an agreement with Tower Hamlets to provide a range of local benefits and improvements including community support, transport improvements and open space with an estimated value of about £20 million.

*Norquil Limited is the freeholder of the site and is wholly owned by Canary Wharf Group plc.

[wjfox]

Cool. Is that the AGL height? I thought the tallest was 216m.

[eXSBass]

Brilliant. Good stuff. About time. By far the best design proposed in the Estate bar One Canada Square and the HSBC building.

When does the Crossrail Station begin enabling works?

Edit: It would have been nice for the tower in the foreground to have a sloping roof like it's neighbour tower.

Edit 2: To give you an image of the sheer magnitude of this development, the shortest middle building is about the size of 51 Lime Street, The Limey!

[mulattokid]

Weee hay! another impressive erection for the list...I cant wait!

[wjfox]

Looking at that Google Earth model - I wonder how the residents of Poplar will react, having a pair of 700ft towers virtually in their front gardens...

[Xtremegamer]

I'd be thankful if I was them!

[Eastender]

yeah they should be thankful for the shade. who needs the sun anyway...

[Zedferret]

But what about the view from the tower of london? It'll be destroyed! Stop this abomanation...I'm calling EH and UNESCO, can't be 'aving with tall building in London.

[chest]

...they look like something from 1980's Houston and they wont be built for at least another 10 yrs - a complete disgrace, does Canary Wharf PLC have no interest whatsoever in reflecting contemporary architecture...bland, old fashioned, bleak monstrosities. Just because corporate clients like these glass shoe boxes the rest of London has to live with them - disappointing at best.

[potto]

frustrating when comparing the sort of architecture being tried out in other cities and then think about the money floating about in office developments you would expect it would make it a prime target for flair and innovation rather than lumping all the burden on the small publicly funded cultural projects. Still it is better than most of the Canary Wharf architecture... but then this is a result of a 25 year evolution?!

[Monkey]

Hmm... I'm disappointed by the middle section. This section needs to be removed or redesigned.

[Gherkin]

I'd like a U shaped building to connect the two towers better. If the middle building was proposed on it's own it would look dreadful - so hiding it between two taller towers and Canary Wharf might get away with it

[chest]

North Quay is slightly better than most of the other towers at Canary Wharf - but that is meaningless considering the 80% of the buildings in the estate I would consider to be eye-sores - if the Bank Street Towers were in the City they would be ripe for redevelopment - they look like the Barbican offices from a few years back.

[Pagwilliams]

I thought most planning applications have a life-span of 2 years though - so if they don't build until after crossrail, surely there's ample opportunity for Tower Hamlets to reject and ask for a re-design? their planning department will have completely different staff in 10 years I'm sure...maybe some visionaries like some of you! I think this approval is basically an approval of height and density - not design...

[jef]

They will be built in the medium term. Of course, the precise timing always depends on the property cycle.

The average long-run quarterly take-up at Canary Wharf is around 25,000 sqm per quarter, that is 100,000 sqm per year.

There are still around 70,000 sqm available for construction at Churchill Place and 30,000 sqm available at 40 Bank Street (floors 2-19). Riverside South is 165,000 net office space. Overall, it makes 265,000 sqm, that means less than 3 years to let this space "on average". Existing supply is limited and tenants may be forced to relocate elsewhere in the Docklands or even move back to the City because of this lack of supply: Barclays for example has been forced to let space at Exchange Tower.

This is why Canary Wharf has negociated to obtain planning permission for this scheme. It is crucial for them to increase their office supply to match demand. They already started construction on the substation that will be part of the North Quay scheme. Construction of the substation will take 3 years. Canary Wharf plans to deliver Riverside South in 2010, North Quay around 2012 and Heron Quays West by 2016 at the latest. This is in line with average quarterly take-up as I said.

Re. architecture, I agree with Potto: it is neutral. But better than existing towers, except One Canada Square. Cesar Pelli has designed these towers to be more in line with One Canada Square than Bank Street towers. I am confident.

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

Yes, the middle section does look a bit haphazard, but then the renders arn't the most realistic I've ever seen, so it's hard to tell what it's really gonna look like.

I'm a bit confused here. The first picture Jef posted (the rendering) shows a different version of the taller tower then on the second picture (the Google Earth image)...what's up with that? The rendering shows the tower just going staright up to the top, but the GE pic shows a slight incline similar to the smaller tower...which one is it?

Obviously this isn't a short-term proposal, it probably won't get off the ground untill about 2010/2012 at the earliest, depending on how fast they build the CR station and the demand for office space. The designs arn't anything spectacular obviously, but I don't think they're bad either, and the sheer scale of the project is just too impressive too ignore!

[jef]

Originally Posted by Jack Rabbit Slim

The first picture Jef posted (the rendering) shows a different version of the taller tower then on the second picture (the Google Earth image)...what's up with that? The rendering shows the tower just going staright up to the top, but the GE pic shows a slight incline similar to the smaller tower...which one is it?:

The Google Earth image shows the 3D model I made for Google. I used the plans released by Cesar Pelli. Google got in touch with me to make a "Virtual London" collection that would be available to all forumers. We will see.

The two renderings are the same. The angle is just different. Hence you cant see the top of the official rendering and the curve.

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

k

[DarJoLe]

Never really liked these, but I'm happy to see Canary Wharf ploughing ahead with them.

[Dan1987]

Originally Posted by jef

The Google Earth image shows the 3D model I made for Google. I used the plans released by Cesar Pelli. Google got in touch with me to make a "Virtual London" collection that would be available to all forumers. We will see.

The two renderings are the same. The angle is just different. Hence you cant see the top of the official rendering and the curve.

Your models are already showing up in the new beta of Google Earth! I find that quite neat that they allowed you to put in future skyscrapers when they're not actually there yet!