120 Fenchurch Street | City of London | 69m | 14 fl | Pro

[london lad]

A large scheme has been submitted for an island site along Fenchurch St.
Architects - Eric Parry

Bit depressing really especially if you read the design & Access statements showing the evolution of the building with the worst option- A huge Plantation place MKII submitted. They did propose some interesting towers that would have been around the Willis height & would have partly filled the gap between 20FC & 51 Lime St when viewed from Waterloo.

These options were turned down because the CoL planners deemed that although it would contribute to the city cluster it would be right on the edge of this cluster & also "a modernist definition of space & buildings was not appropriate to this part of Fenchurch St."

Yet they have encouraged a huge block that takes up all the site & can only be considered a huge lump of a building.

http://www.planning.cityoflondon.gov...e=&pageCount=1

http://www.planning.cityoflondon.gov...e=&pageCount=1






I like the roof garden but thats about it & I dont know if that will have public access.

[london lad]

Sketches of earlier proposal

[Newcastle Guy]

Oh for f*ck sakes!

[DarJoLe]

Should of been the Walbrook Darth Vadar proposal here.

[Newcastle Guy]

Should have been anything but that sh*te!

To think, we could have had a reasonably elegant 130m tower there to close the gap between the Walkie Talkie and the cluster... Instead we get Plantation Place's ugly, obese child!

[Manchester Planner]

Oh great another lump instead of a tower... really what idiots work at the Corporation's planning department?!

[DarJoLe]

So 20FC won't be part of the cluster afterall. Hmmm.

Notice there haven't been any tower proposals in this area since 20FC was approved. All this talk of not being appropriate by the CoL is just hiding the fact they know any tower proposed here will have to go through a PI, and most likely lose thanks to UNESCO's buffer zone around the Tower (which includes this area of Fenchurch Street).

[Manchester Planner]

Originally Posted by london lad

I like the roof garden but thats about it & I dont know if that will have public access.

I refer you to page 9 of the first PDF you linked to, or pages 4 & 8 of the second PDF... the answer's yes btw!

Guess where SCC forumers will be in 5 years time!

[NothingBetterToDo]

- Not only is it a fat vile lump of crap - its cladding is straight out of the 1960's......disgraceful.

What an embarrassment for London.

[london lad]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

So 20FC won't be part of the cluster afterall. Hmmm.

Notice there haven't been any tower proposals in this area since 20FC was approved. All this talk of not being appropriate by the CoL is just hiding the fact they know any tower proposed here will have to go through a PI, and most likely lose thanks to UNESCO's buffer zone around the Tower (which includes this area of Fenchurch Street).

Actually if you read the planning documents it explicitly tells you this is nowhere near the Tol viewing corridor & has various approved maps showing this to be the case.

[london lad]

Originally Posted by Manchester Planner

I refer you to page 9 of the first PDF you linked to, or pages 4 & 8 of the second PDF... the answer's yes btw!

Guess where SCC forumers will be in 5 years time!

Lol - I didn't have time to read through every page as they took an age to load- Nice to see someone else actually looks at the planning documents.

[Manchester Planner]

Well I am a planner... you'd hope at least we would! (Or maybe the City planners didn't??)

[DarJoLe]

Originally Posted by london lad

Actually if you read the planning documents it explicitly tells you this is nowhere near the Tol viewing corridor & has various approved maps showing this to be the case.

It still shows a complete lack of confidence in submitting anything taller, considering that this site is between 20FC and what was Minerva. I don't see how they can suddenly say this plot isn't suitable- it seems something has changed since Minerva was approved.

[potto]

to be honest when looking at the cluster in those drawings, they represent a height limit that has already been reached. Anything taller here would just end up looking like an ugly wall and completely ruining the very compromised pinnancle that we have managed to scrape through

[gothicform]

yes, its an election year and they are being more sensitive about the political climate.

[Manchester Planner]

Originally Posted by gothicform

yes, its an election year and they are being more sensitive about the political climate.

But this is the City of London - surely normal politics doesn't affect the Corporation (thankfully).. what do you mean?

[Manchester Planner]

btw - bit of a side note, but as the City planners have been mentioned - found their football team on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2245687917

Brilliant!

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

I am....well...I try really hard to convince myself that because of the huge influx of modern glass crap I have become pretty much immune to it, and such proposals don't bother me anymore because I have accepted it....

...but the truth, unfortunately, is i DO still care! My rants on other threads about the desire to see the old styles of architecture rebuilt (and done well) because of the frankly appaling state of modern low-rise architecture in general these days is totally justifyed by proposals like this!!

Typical bland, oppressive slab of glass'n'steel with cheap-looking cladding, no sense of shape or form, no street-level harmony or nicely designed entrance; too big to get away with being just another one of such buildings that you won't have to look at, too small to have any kind of soar.........

I honstly don't know how they get away with designing something like this, it makes me so fucking mad i feel like punching someone. GONE are the days when buildings had to fit in with human scale, making street-scapes lovely to walk down, instead we have oppressive dark walls of glass leering down at us every where we look, a testament to the corporate whores we are slowly turning ourselves into.

EH, UNESCO...etc etc...will they do a dam thing.....will they fuck! This is just as damaging to London as putting bulky crap near the ToL.

[sam-whit-kid]

Originally Posted by Newcastle Guy

To think, we could have had a reasonably elegant 130m tower there to close the gap between the Walkie Talkie and the cluster... Instead we get Plantation Place's ugly, obese child!

haha that actually made me laugh out loud, a hard thing to do in words

[RugBurn]

god - what is it?. maybe it willl get lost in shuffle