Eric Parry says too many are not good enough

Eric Parry

Eric Parry

The architect behind the planned tallest building in the City of London has warned that the capital鈥檚 skyline is at risk of being ruined by towers that are not good enough.

Eric Parry Architects鈥 73-storey tower at 1 Undershaft was given planning last November and will be close to 305m tall when built.

But the architect (pictured) said: 鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt about it, London鈥檚 skyline is being trashed. Tall buildings in the city need much closer overall scrutiny than they鈥檙e getting鈥 The mayor has really got to get his act together.鈥

Parry said too many were being given planning by local councils without serious thought to their quality. He added that 鈥渄esign and build quality is quite good in the centre but becomes terrible as you move further out鈥.

And he said too many local authorities were complaining about neighbouring boroughs鈥 towers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear there鈥檚 inter-borough strife between different local authorities that creates a very interesting set of tensions. Westminster complains against towers in the City, the City complains against Southwark and so on. Where is the mayoral power-broking between the boroughs that London needs?鈥

1 Undershaft Eric Parry

Parry is the latest high-profile architect to complain that London lacks a coherent planning strategy.

Earlier this month Norman Foster said: 鈥淭here鈥檚 now pretty much a total absence of planning, so you have individual boroughs that act in isolation from other boroughs and therefore an absence of an overall strategy is one of the manifestations of seeing towers where you would expect to see them and also perhaps seeing towers which are less predictable.鈥

The latest report by New London Architecture on the number of buildings over 20 storeys planned for the capital rose to 455 last year from the previous year鈥檚 436. The report added that in the past 12 months one tower a week was coming out of the ground.

Parry鈥檚 new skyscraper at 1 Undershaft, which is being masterminded by Singaporean developer Aroland Holdings and has been dubbed the 鈥楾rellis Tower鈥 for its criss-cross fa莽ade, will take the title of the Square Mile鈥檚 tallest tower from the Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners-designed Leadenhall 黑洞社区 when completed.