London already has an Eye, a Gherkin, and a Cheese Grater. Now, the City of London has approved plans for The Tulip.
Designed by Foster + Partners (designers of the Gherkin), the Tulip will rise 1,001 feet in the air and be a new cultural and tourist attraction meant to build public engagement within the City and enhance The Gherkin’s public offering.
Viewing galleries at the top of the Tulip will include sky bridges, internal glass slides, and gondola pod rides (think the gyrospheres from the Jurassic World movies) on the building’s façade. Interactive materials and expert guides will enhance the experience for visitors and provide information about the history of London.
See Also: SOM-designed 100 Leadenhall Street will be one of the tallest buildings in the U.K.
A sky bar and restaurants with 360-degree views will give visitors a place to eat and drink high above the city. Another key feature at the top of the Tulip will be an education facility that offers 20,000 free places per year for London’s state school children.
At the ground level, there will be a pocket park alongside a two-story pavilion with a publicly accessible rooftop garden. Half of the perimeter walls around the already completed Gherkin will be removed to improve public access to the revamped site.
Construction is expected to begin in 2020 with completion in 2025.
Update
It seems as though the tulip will not bloom after all. According to the BBC.com, London's Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has rejected plans for the new tower. According to the BBC, the reasons behind the rejection were as follows:
– The design did not constitute the very highest quality of design required for a building in the location
– The proximity, height and material would have a negative impact on the Tower of London World Heritage site
– The space around the proposed building was insufficient to be safe and to prevent overcrowding
– A lack of new cycle parking spaces failed to comply with the London Plan for transport
The Foster + Partners team described themselves as "disappointed" by the Mayor's decision and will "take time to consider potential next steps for The Tulip Project."
DBOX for Foster + Partners
DBOX for Foster + Partners
DBOX for Foster + Partners
DBOX for Foster + Partners
DBOX for Foster + Partners
Related Stories
| Sep 6, 2011
Construction on Beijing's tallest building starts next week
The 108 floor mixed-use skyscraper consists of offices, apartments, hotels and shopping malls on the lower floors.
| May 25, 2011
World’s tallest building now available in smaller size
Emaar Properties teamed up with LEGO to create a miniature version of the Burj Khalifa as part of the LEGO Architecture series. Currently, the LEGO Burj Khalifa is available only in Dubai, but come June 1, 2011, it will be available worldwide.
| May 17, 2011
Should Washington, D.C., allow taller buildings?
Suggestions are being made that Washington revise its restrictions on building heights. Architect Roger Lewis, who raised the topic in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, argues for a modest relaxation of the height limits, and thinks that concerns about ruining the city’s aesthetics are unfounded.
| Apr 19, 2011
15 mind-blowing skyscrapers
Our friends at Inhabitat have rounded up 15 incredible buildings—from underground cities to vertical farms to bio-fuel power plants and skyscrapers.
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.
| Mar 11, 2011
Chicago office building will serve tenants and historic church
The Alter Group is partnering with White Oak Realty Partners to develop a 490,000-sf high-performance office building in Chicago’s West Loop. The tower will be located on land owned by Old St. Patrick’s Church (a neighborhood landmark that survived the Chicago Fire of 1871) that’s currently being used as a parking lot.
| Mar 9, 2011
Winners of the 2011 eVolo Skyscraper Competition
Winners of the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition include a high-rise recycling center in New Delhi, India, a dome-like horizontal skyscraper in France that harvests solar energy and collects rainwater, and the Hoover Dam reimagined as an inhabitable skyscraper.
| Mar 2, 2011
How skyscrapers can save the city
Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity. Yet some urban planners and preservationists seem to have a misplaced fear of heights that yields damaging restrictions on how tall a building can be. From New York to Paris to Mumbai, there’s a powerful case for building up, not out.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago high-rise mixes condos with classrooms for Art Institute students
The Legacy at Millennium Park is a 72-story, mixed-use complex that rises high above Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The glass tower, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is mostly residential, but also includes 41,000 sf of classroom space for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and another 7,400 sf of retail space. The building’s 355 one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom condominiums range from 875 sf to 9,300 sf, and there are seven levels of parking. Sky patios on the 15th, 42nd, and 60th floors give owners outdoor access and views of Lake Michigan.
| Feb 11, 2011
Chicago architecture firm planning one of China’s tallest towers
Chicago-based Goettsch Partners was commissioned by developer Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd. to design a new 294,570-sm mixed-use tower in Tianjin, China. The Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower will be located within the city’s newly planned business district, and at 439 meters it will be one of China’s tallest buildings. The massive complex will feature 134,900 sm of Class A office space, a 400-key, five-star hotel, 55 condominiums, and 8,550 sm of retail space. The architects are designing the tower with multi-story atriums and a high-performance curtain wall to bring daylight deep into the building, thereby creating deeper lease spans. The project is currently finishing design.
