Greenland Group, Shanghai’s biggest property developer, is moving forward on an £800 million (US$1.066 billion) project in London that could be the tallest residential building in western Europe.
Spire London, as it’s being called, will rise 235 meters, or 771 feet, near the City’s Canary Wharf. Ninety-six of the building’s 861 apartments will be priced affordability and have access to third-floor communal amenities such as meeting rooms, games room, and a music/learning/cultural space.
However, so-called “social” tenants housed on the lower floors will enter the 67-story building through a separate door. Affluent private buyers will be ferried to their ritzier apartments, ranging in size from 50 to 150 sm (538 to 1,614 sf) and in price from £595,000 to £3 million, on the upper floors and penthouse via nine dedicated elevators. Their amenities include a 35th-floor club, infinity pool, and cinema.
(To put these prices into some context, the average price of a home in London in August, unadjusted for seasonality, was £206,145, according to the Nationwide House Price Index.)
HOK is the architect for Spire London, and Greenland Group released renderings of the building yesterday. Its design is said to be based on the nautical history of the dock site, and by the orchid, which China first cultivated more than 3,000 years ago.
The building’s angled roof creates terraces for upper-level apartments, and louvers will provide natural ventilation.
Spire London is one of 400 towers 20 stories or more that are either under construction or in the planning stages in London. Image: Greenland Group
Construction work on Spire London is scheduled to begin in January and be completed by 2020. This is one of 400 high rises over 20 stories tall that are in construction or planning stages in London, 270 of which would be in the inner boroughs. Last month, an Ipsos Mori survey of more than 500 Londoners, commissioned by the anti-skyscraper Skyline Campaign, revealed that nearly half (49%) think that’s too many skyscrapers, versus 34% in outer boroughs who feel the same way.
Nearly three-fifths of all Londoners support restrictions on the number of skyscrapers that can be built, partly because they remain unconvinced that these tall buildings are meeting the City’s housing needs. Nearly three-quarters of respondents also want their communities to have more say in the design of these high rises.
However, foreign investment in UK real estate is not likely to be discouraged at a time when the country is trying to sort out where it stands, post-Brexit, in terms of international trade and commerce.
Where Spire London would stand compared to other tall buildings in London. Chart: The Guardian
Related Stories
| Sep 17, 2014
Arquitectonica's hairpin-shaped tower breaks ground in Miami
Rising above Biscayne Bay, the 305-meter tower will include three viewing decks, a restaurant, nightclub, and exhibition space.
| Sep 16, 2014
Ranked: Top hotel sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Tutor Perini, Gensler, and AECOM top BD+C's rankings of design and construction firms with the most revenue from hospitality sector projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Sep 15, 2014
Argentina reveals plans for Latin America’s tallest structure
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announces the winning design by MRA+A Álvarez | Bernabó | Sabatini for the capital's new miexed use tower.
| Sep 5, 2014
First Look: Zaha Hadid's Grace on Coronation towers in Australia
Zaha Hadid's latest project in Australia is a complex of three, tapered residential high-rises that have expansive grounds to provide the surrounding community unobstructed views and access to the town's waterfront.
| Sep 2, 2014
Extreme conversion: 17-story industrial silo to be converted to high-rise housing
As part of Copenhagen's effort to turn an industrial seaport into a bustling neighborhood, Danish architecture firm COBE was invited to convert a grain silo into a residential tower.
| Sep 2, 2014
Melbourne's tallest residential tower will have 'optically transformative façade'
Plans for Melbourne's tallest residential tower have been released by Elenberg Fraser Architects. Using an optically transformative façade and botanical aesthetic, the project seeks to change the landscape of Australia's Victoria state.
| Aug 28, 2014
Stantec releases design for Edmonton's tallest tower
At 227 meters, Stantec Tower will be the tallest building in the city, dwarfing the two next-tallest: Epcor Tower and Manulife Tower.
| Aug 25, 2014
Tall wood buildings: Surveying the early innovators
Timber has been largely abandoned as a structural solution in taller buildings during the last century, in favor of concrete and steel. Perkins+Will's Rebecca Holt writes about the firm's work in surveying the burgeoning tall wood buildings sector.
| Aug 25, 2014
'Vanity space' makes up large percentage of world's tallest buildings [infographic]
Large portions of some skyscrapers are useless space used to artificially enhance their height, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
| Aug 25, 2014
Photographer creates time-lapse video of 1 WTC using 30,000 photos
Choosing from 30,000 photos he took from the day construction began in 2006 to the day when construction was finished in 2012, Brooklyn-based photographer Benjamin Rosamund compressed 1,100 photos to create the two-minute video.