St Botolph's House | City of London | 60m | 14 fl | T/O

[DarJoLe]

I thought it responded to the Tower excellently, marking the end of the City skyline and creating a defensive posture shielding the castle from the rest of the cluster.



The mirror effect the glass would have created would have been amazing, especially at night as shown.



I just loved the fact you could never tell what its plan actually was, I remember it took us ages on here to work out how it looked from above when it kept cropping up in other proposals renders looking completely different.



It would have also, from this angle especially, created a counter balance to 20FC on the other side of the cluster, and pretty much put to bed the argument that people say 20FC is too far out from the central cluster, believing a cluster to be something that is tightly knitted as is possible with no breathing space.

image hosted on flickr


The St Botolphs House we're getting remember is as tall as the low rise portion of Minerva, which without the tower looks like am oversized boil next to the Tower of London completely throwing off the scale of the Tower complex by the river.

[london lad]

Yes I agree. Totally missed opportunity.

The tower would have book ended the city cluster from the East and encouraged the 3/4 island sites between Heron and this to go tall and fill the gap. Instead Aldgate & the surrounding area going up towards Houndsditch will now be a sea of stumpy 15 storey blocks.

[The Sage]

I thought Minerva would have been absolutely beautiful, and still do. I loved almost everything about it, including the location. Would be second for me behind the Shard if it had gone ahead.

And this thread gets me down every time I see it 'cos of it... I wish more Londoners could appreciate the potential for beauty that can come with the contrast between onld and new.

[mulattokid]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

I

.

I loved the building. It was one of my favorites but from this angle it sits almost directly behind the Tower (and we are standing back from the river here) which is not good. I also prefer clusters that taper away and dont book end. That one of my probs with CW at the moment and especially with RS...not enough tapering away.

Its such a shame that good designs cant be picked up and translocated to another place. Put it in the cluster somehwere.

[NothingBetterToDo]

The problem with the Minerva Tower was that it looked stunning from a couple of angles (Particularly if you can see in Fish Eye vision) but from most other sides it suffered horribly from wide, fat, flat topped syndrome - (And they were very clever to not release many images showing it's unflattering sides)

[milkymilky]

Flat-topped, mirrored windows, big crown - it was the old 20 Fenchurch's big brother!!

*ducks for cover*

[The Sage]

Originally Posted by NothingBetterToDo

The problem with the Minerva Tower was that it looked stunning from a couple of angles (Particularly if you can see in Fish Eye vision) but from most other sides it suffered horribly from wide, fat, flat topped syndrome - (And they were very clever to not release many images showing it's unflattering sides)

Just wait 'til the Pinnacle goes up - I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed, mark my words.

[london lad]

Originally Posted by NothingBetterToDo

The problem with the Minerva Tower was that it looked stunning from a couple of angles (Particularly if you can see in Fish Eye vision) but from most other sides it suffered horribly from wide, fat, flat topped syndrome - (And they were very clever to not release many images showing it's unflattering sides)

Considering it was a 50fl 1msq ft tower it was hardly going to be slim.

It was hardly wide & fat. Certainly no fatter than any towers at CW.

[DarJoLe]

I thought it was a well designed tower in that it managed to hide its sheer amount of space contained within from all the right angles. It did have its slightly off ones, the first model view in that picture above which would have been the view from Whitechapel was one, but the rest makes up for that.

I like how it 'framed' the Gherkin from St Pauls, a very tasty architectural moment.

[ferge]

I can just about accept, well maybe not accept ..'forgive' the St Botolph design u/c, that is until someone shows the Minerva tower. I am over the fact we won't see it, but then people posting those models and renders.. it just ruins it all over and I have to start from the beginning with getting over it will never happen

Will we ever get over this design?

[fitz44]

Well I know the design U/C is probably the worst in terms of form and shape - but Grimshaw are a very good firm so the detailing will be high quality as these cladding samples suggest;



The overlapping panels suspended on specially designed brackets will at least help to relieve the monotony of the bulky facades;

[Loyalist.]

Minerva has a history of not using their obtained planning permissions, the same has happened with their shopping centre in Croydon. After years of doing nothing, Croydon council have lost patience and want to remove them from the project.

[london lad]

Originally Posted by Loyalist.

Minerva has a history of not using their obtained planning permissions, the same has happened with their shopping centre in Croydon. After years of doing nothing, Croydon council have lost patience and want to remove them from the project.

Not strictly true. Minerva have made some disastrous decisions in the last five years and as a result are going to the dogs. What they have built is usually of a very high quality.

They sat on this site for years and could have built the tower as the last boom started as the site was empty for a number of years. Instead they dithered and then jumped in blindly developing this & the Wallbrook just as the market was over heating & the subsequentl collapse.

[JackF]

Anyone know how long until this is finished?

I know its not the prettiest building in the world but I go past it everyday and it seems to be progressing quite abit (take a look in the webcams thread). Would like to see it finished.

[beleevme]

Originally Posted by mulattokid

I loved the building. It was one of my favorites but from this angle it sits almost directly behind the Tower (and we are standing back from the river here) which is not good. I also prefer clusters that taper away and dont book end. That one of my probs with CW at the moment and especially with RS...not enough tapering away.

Its such a shame that good designs cant be picked up and translocated to another place. Put it in the cluster somehwere.

I was thinking similarly
i posted a thread some time ago, but i cant find it

[beleevme]

this is not a minerva building thread, so please get back to fat botolphs, although there isnt much to say...
or start a minerva grieving thread because it isnt going to happen unless they can miraculously relocate it

[Bob]

I thought it was gorgeous. It's loss also came accompanied with halting of progress on predestrianising the square in front of it. Arrgh. It's that all too familiar compromise that leaves us with a non-entity building next to a terrible pedestrian environment. I always thought there were shadowy figures in the background involved in the change of plan. The argument that the floor plates weren't big enough never worked for me when Bishopsgate, Broadgate, Leadenhall and Heron have the same small floorplates. What a pity it wasn't this site that was left undeveloped for a few years.

[GazKinz]

[ill tonkso]

I actually quite like it in this Render...
Still, I wanted Minerva

[N1]

I like this render. Hopefully it will be as good as in real life.

I went pass the site the other day and I was surprised by the size of the site. The footprint of this thing is absolutely massive. It will make a huge impact on the whole aldgate area and raise the bar for architctural quality around there. The area is dire as it is tbh.