黑洞社区

Eric Parry Architects will resubmit its plans for the tallest building in the City of London in the coming weeks but will not remove the scheme鈥檚 controversial viewing platform, 黑洞社区 understands.

Councillors voted in July to defer a decision on the 74-storey 1 Undershaft scheme, which is being developed by Stanhope and Aroland, until a series of 鈥渕inor鈥� design changes had been made.

The proposals, which had been  by planning officers, were heavily criticised at the planning committee meeting for reducing the amount of public realm space on the site.

The 309.6m office tower would be exactly the same height as the Shard, currently the UK鈥檚 tallest building, and is envisaged as the 鈥榩eak鈥� of the City鈥檚 eastern cluster of towers which includes 22 Bishopsgate and the Gherkin.

But the design of the scheme鈥檚 lower levels has provoked a series of objections as it would result in the loss of around a third of St Helen鈥檚 Square, one of the few large public spaces in the cluster.

>> See also: Decision on Stanhope鈥檚 1 Undershaft tower deferred as proposed viewing platform likened to 鈥榩lastic spoon鈥�

Government heritage advisor Historic England, a statutory consultee on the planning application, argued in May that the proposals would 鈥渟eriously degrade the scale and character鈥� of the square and appeared to favour a previous version of the scheme which was approved in 2016.

Much of the remaining square would also be overshadowed under the new proposals by a controversial viewing platform cantilevered 42m above street level which has attracted criticism due to its design, with one City councillor likening it to a 鈥減lastic spoon鈥�.

黑洞社区 understands the project team are 鈥渧ery keen鈥� to keep the viewing platform and say the feature, which members of the public would be free to access, is inspired by the popular Sky Garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street, the tower otherwise known as the Walkie Talkie.

It is understood that the changes made to 1 Undershaft since its planning deferral in July relate almost entirely to the ground level public realm on St Helen鈥檚 Square, although the footprint of the building, which partly covers the existing square, will not change.

The changes will be submitted as an amendment to the existing planning application rather than as an entirely new application and are expected to go out to a fresh round of public consultation, with the City looking to vote again on the changes in December.

The scheme鈥檚 other high profile critics include Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of Lloyd鈥檚, which is based in the neighbouring grade I-listed Lloyd鈥檚 building.

In a letter sent to the City on the day before the July committee meeting, Carnegie-Brown urged councillors to reject the proposals 鈥渁s currently presented鈥� due to their impact on St Helen鈥檚 Square.

He wrote: 鈥淚 write to add my voice to those who have expressed concern about the loss of open space which would result from the proposed redevelopment of 1 Undershaft.

鈥淭he City of London has a commendable record of opening up additional public space at street level whenever new development plans are approved. For the first time in recent memory, the plans for 1 Undershaft would rob the City of a really important convening space.鈥�

He added that this was not addressed by the 鈥渃ompensatory offer鈥� of the 11th floor viewing platform, and he believed the security arrangements which it would require would make it 鈥渟ignificantly less attractive than the space it would replace鈥�. 

>> See also: Is the City set for a new tower boom?

In a statement following the City鈥檚 vote to defer a planning decision in July, the project team said it had 鈥渓istened carefully鈥� to the comments made at the meeting on the loss of ground level public space and would be 鈥渨orking closely with the City of London Corporation and our neighbours in the insurance industry to consider these through minor revisions to the scheme.鈥�

If the City approves the amended plans they will then head to the Greater London Authority for further assessment and finally to secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities Angela Rayner for final sign off.

The consultant team for the project includes WSP as multi-disciplinary engineer, Aecom on costs, DP9 on planning, FMDC on facades, David Bonnett Associates on accessibility, Tavernor Consultancy on townscape and Space Syntax on urban design.