As demolition nears completion, London’s Square Mile anticipates the first tower “designed for the business realities of a post-2008 landscape”.
100 Bishopsgate has been designed in joint collaboration between Woods Bagot and Allies and Morrison; working as AMWB, and will be the first tower in London to proceed with designs developed since the economic crisis three years ago. The completed project will provide just under a million sq. ft. (circa 950,000 sq.ft. / 90,000m²) of Net Internal space in two new buildings, including a forty-storey tower and podium with five contiguous 44,000 sq.ft. (4,000m²) office floors.
A new half-acre public square will also be created at the heart of the site, with new routes drawn across it together with specialist retail and restaurants. The form of the tower component resolves the complex geometries of the site and context by transitioning from a parallelogram at its base, to a rectangle floorplate at its top. In combination with contrasting facade textures and articulated junctions that are repeated rotationally around the building, this transition in form lends the tower a distinctive twisting dynamic.
To deliver the project AMWB assembled a global design team to capitalise on tall tower expertise from the UK, North America, Middle East and Australia.
Speaking of the project, Earle Arney of AMWB, said: "Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, tenants have rightly demanded floorplates that are designed from the inside-out and configured to positively enhance their culture and business efficiency. The current global financial landscape will only serve to reinforce this focus on the workplace being a strategic resource to create value for business.”
“The uniqueness of the 100 Bishopsgate project is that the two acre corner site in the heart of the City has enabled AMWB to deliver such a ‘tenant driven’, work environment with a significant new public realm around which the two buildings front. The resulting design is extraordinary in the context of the Square Mile as it not only provides ‘clean-skin’ cores within large, regular floor plates, but also creates a new public place that serves to lift the spirit and enhance the urban fabric of the City of London.”
Earle Arney also reflected on the AMWB partnership saying “the Woods Bagot collaboration with Allies and Morrison has been a delight and one of the most fruitful collaborative ventures that we have undertaken globally. Our joint studio is comprised of some of the most brilliant minds in London and the research and knowledge we have captured on this project has informed what we do around the world.”
Demolition at the site is nearing an end with the tower due for completion in late 2015. AMWB’s client is The 100 Bishopsgate Partnership; a joint venture between Great Portland Estates and Brookfield Office Properties.
Earlier last year Woods Bagot also won a design competition for another 40 storey tower in the Square Mile of the City of London but details remain confidential.