structural ever engineering since the in windcatcherseen as towers. enabling astack coolingeffect for interiors, form has been useful environmentally, or houseapeal ofto bells. And their functional instruments: for calling prayer,to symbolicallycities themselves. the formed by towers comein turn representto or contemporary . The skylines pays for, inRenaissance Siena seenalike and gymnasticsthe engineering that capital and symbolic moundsof accumulated capital associated with mercantile power, as literal isolation, it’s aform that has also become with a darkflipsideof imprisonment and military control andauthority andfreighted Rapunzel or The Fountainhead. and infiction,beit the Tower of Babel, associations andsymbolism, both inhistory attaches through their use, construction, built forms to apowerfulwhich mythology The tower is one of those stereotypical They have alsobeenshowpieces of But towers have alsoalways been Commonly an instrument of politicalor

100 Bishopsgate by Allies and Morrison p32

vertical vertical The Bryant by Chipperfield Architects p46 than elide, the grain of the city at itsbase. Fender Katsalidis), intended add to to, rather Its designers, Allies and Morrison (with Arney Cluster, that has been 15 years in the making. Bishopsgate, anoffice tower, part of the City footprintscarbon withtheir designers. We talk about their contexts, clients and either in the UK or by UK-based architects. feature three recent or completing towers today? Inour buildingstudies in this issue we attractive ina post-Covid era. of occupation they offer promises be less to theyrequire. density same timethe At the carbon-intensity of heavyweight engineering environment, not least tectonically, given the underscrutiny for they thetoll on the take materials technology are permitted now century that advances and inengineering the glassy modernist towers of the past half- that building tall allowed. and the new heights and density of function advancestechnical of 19thcentury Chicago In the City of , we visit 100 So what isit designandbuild a to tower But today the tower form andinparticular

The Water Tower by Tonkin Liu p58 Rob Wilson landscape contexts. Works –both designed engageto with their UK –by Richards Nissen StudioandDenizen York; andacoupleof innovative towers in the and RSHP coincidentally completing in New KPF; a brace of towers by Foster +Partners completions in the by PLP and architects: two other newly minted office comparable current projects by UK over its flat, windswept landscapesetting. how the designisclosely allied to views out a disused water tower into ahome. We hear ‘steampunk’ retrofit by Tonkin Liu,converting the Norfolk countryside to visit aninspired different conditionsof building in the States. environment of Manhattan and the very about designingin the historic high-rise and talk projectto architect Mattias Kunz a 32-storey residential andhotel tower, new buildproject in the city, The Bryant, Chipperfield Architects’ first completed To begin with, we flagupacrop of Our third study usbytakes contrast to In City, we lookat David

New towers The Scalpel, 52 Lime Street, London EC3, by KPF The up and the coming Kohn Pedersen Fox’s City of London tower received planning permission in 2013 after Here’s a snapshot of some towers recently or currently sprouting: two further being slammed by English Heritage which had concerns over the building’s impact additions to the City Cluster of tall office buildings in London’s Square Mile, on the Tower of London. Nicknamed ‘The adding to its ‘toy box’ of shapes; two mixed-use residential projects by UK Scalpel’ in an article in the FT in 2012 owing to its shape, which tapers to a point architects currently completing in , both reacting to the context of at a height of 190m, the 57,000m2 tower historic 20th century towers; and two viewing structures designed to look over sits next to Rogers’ Grade I-listed Lloyd’s landscapes: an archaeological site in Suffolk and a botanical garden in Scotland Building and was completed last year. The building’s angular shape was designed to allow it to be built along Leadenhall Street without interfering with any of London’s protected views. Its façade leans back so that it is hidden behind St Paul’s Cathedral when viewed from Fleet Street. Awarded a BREEAM Excellent rating, the project is clad almost entirely in high- performance glass with its lift and core placed on the south façade to shade interior spaces. The simple geometric form is reinforced by its bright metallic fold lines.

PROJECT DATA Start on site December 2014 Completion September 2018 , London EC2, Gross internal floor area 57,000m² by PLP Height 190m Storeys 42 22 Bishopsgate is the tallest new Construction cost Undisclosed skyscraper in the City of London and can Architect Kohn Pedersen Fox accommodate up to 11,500 people. Client WRBC Development UK Over 10 per cent of its internal area is devoted Structural engineer Arup to a so-called Vertical Village of amenity M&E consultant Arup 28 29 spaces spread through the building. These Annual CO2 emissions (predicted) include an Active Commuter Hub, with 1,700 1,015 tonnes bicycle parking spaces; The Market, with six different eateries; The Exchange, with co-working areas and broadcasting booths; and a fitness zone and spa with medical facilities. At the top is a public viewing gallery. Organised around a core, the office space can be open-plan or cellular and is designed to accommodate up to four tenants per floor. Floor-to-ceiling heights are at least 3m on most floors. A low-iron glass closed-cavity façade with movable, operable blinds in the cavity allows 55 per cent light transmission into the interior, an increase of 60 per cent over standard insulated glazing. 22 Bishopsgate is WiredScore Platinum certified and designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.

PROJECT DATA Start on site June 2016 Completion December 2020 Gross internal floor area 196,838m² Height 278m Storeys 62 Construction cost Undisclosed Architect PLP Architecture Client Lipton Rogers Developments for AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets Structural engineer WSP M&E consultant WSP Annual CO2 emissions  Regulated: 2,578 tonnes Unregulated: 4,724 tonnes LEFT: NATHANIAL MOORE; OPPOSITE: TIMOTHY SOAR TIMOTHY MOORE; OPPOSITE: NATHANIAL LEFT:

The City Cluster Brits in New York City Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, 425 Park Avenue, New York , by Nissen Richards Studio by Foster + Partners Working with the National Trust’s This is thought to be the first ‘full-block’ archaeological and visitor engagement office scheme on Park Avenue for nearly teams, Nissen Richards Studio has half a century and stands near Mies van redesigned the visitor experience of the der Rohe’s famous Seagram Building. Anglo-Saxon royal burial ground of Sutton It features a tapered steel-frame tower Hoo in Suffolk. The project includes new rising to meet three illuminated shear walls, thresholds, interpretive moments, graphic allowing for column-free floorplates within. The design and exhibition displays for the building is split vertically into three volumes: a scheduled monument, which has 17 burial seven-storey base, a recessed central section mounds dating from 625 AD and is completed and a slender section of ‘premium’ floors, all by a 19m-high new-build viewing tower. developed through detailed analysis of views of The tower, located at the heart of Top Hat Central Park. Double-height spaces intersect Wood, gives visitors unprecedented views each of the volumes, while the second set-back over the Great Ship Burial Mound and is features an amenity floor with restaurants. one of the scheme’s stand-out features. To maximise Park Avenue frontage, the core The result of experimenting with a number is placed to the rear, where a glazed lift sits of forms, its design is formed of a slender externally, offering views over the East River. steel structure clad in charred larch. The stair is constructed with a steel projection PROJECT DATA on every other landing to allow visitors to Start on site 2015 stand and see the ascending view in stages. Completion 2021 The triple-section cantilevered ramp at Gross internal floor area 52,000m² the entrance is also a timber-clad steel Gross internal + external floor area 64,193m² construction. Setting the height of 19m Height 206.45m was the result of ‘bringing a cherry-picker Storeys 43 to site and trying out different heights’ Construction cost Undisclosed says Jim Richards, director at the studio. Architect Foster + Partners Executive architect Adamson Associates PROJECT DATA Client L&L Holding Company Start on site November 2018 Structural engineer Foster + Partners, Completion June 2020 Cantor Seinuk WSP (concept to completion) Total floor area 155m² M&E consultant Foster + Partners, Height 19m Flack + Kurtz WSP (concept to completion) Storeys 12 landings, 4 viewing points 30 Annual CO2 emissions Not supplied Construction cost £2,775,000 31 Architect Nissen Richards Studio Client National Trust Structural engineer Price & Myers M&E consultant OR Consulting Engineers

VISUALHOUSE Annual CO2 emissions Not supplied GARETH GARDNER

Rural views

No. 33 Park Row, New York, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Vertical gallery and bird hide, Inverewe Garden, Scotland, by Denizen Works This boutique residential scheme in Lower While the primary arrangement faces north, Manhattan is made up of 30 apartments with these provide shading where needed and Located just north of Poolewe in Wester faces. Dark-stained vertical larch cladding, four levels of commercial space at its base. privacy to apartments. The flank walls are clad Ross, this structure is located in one of sourced on site, contrasts with smooth Located at the corner of Beekman Street in brick and act as braced stabilising bays. the UK’s best-loved botanical gardens. pine tar. Internally, the timber sheathing and Park Row, its scale bridges between the The open brief for an observation board is left exposed and the tower sits 10-storey buildings on the former and the PROJECT DATA tower to draw more visitors to the on a bush-hammered concrete base. latter’s early 20th century towers, offering Start on site 2017 garden led Denizen Works to propose views north across City Hall Park. Its primary Completion Autumn 2021 (expected) a vertical gallery and bird hide. PROJECT DATA core acts as a unifying vertical structural Gross internal floor area Its form is designed to intrigue and to Start on site September 2021 element, extending up to house rooftop plant. Residential: 5,574m², Commercial: 1,393m² function as a landmark and orientation Completion December 2021 The kite-shaped plan is set out on the diagonal Height 114m point for visitors. Forming part of a Gross internal floor area 64m² with a strong visual emphasis on the corner. Storeys 23 (25 inclusive of bulkhead route around the garden, the tower Height 24m The façade is composed of prefabricated elevator motor room) is accessed at the top across a short Storeys 6 concrete and metal sections, with its depth and Construction cost Undisclosed bridge connecting to a high point in the Construction cost £650,000 colour intended to respond to the local context Architect Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners landscape, affording views across tree Architect Denizen Works and give the building a strong identity. The Architect of record SLCE canopies. A staircase links down via gallery Client National Trust for Scotland building’s structural and internal apartment Client Centurion Real Estate Partners spaces telling the story of the garden to Structural engineer Woolgar Hunter arrangement is expressed in two-storey façade Structural engineer GACE a further network of paths at the base. M&E consultant Irons Foulner modules, taking the form of deep, articulated M&E consultant GEA Consulting Engineers The materiality of the tower is inspired by Annual CO2 emissions  loggias with patinated copper side-screens. Annual CO2 emissions Not supplied a sliced tree trunk, with rough and smooth Net zero (predicted)