Tall & Urban News

Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has unveiled new designs for a retail and office block within the emerging development location next to London Bridge Station. 
 
The practice has teamed up again with Shard developer Sellar Property Group for the scheme, which is planned for a warehouse building on the corner of Bermondsey Street and Snowsfield. 
 
A planning application is expected to be submitted to Southwark Council later in November for the project, which sets up a new pedestrian route from Bermondsey Street to the top of Weston Street. 
 
The project is part of the wider St. Thomas Street East Framework, a “coordinated approach” by for four landowners – Greystar, Columbia Threadneedle, CIT and Sellar – rather than part of the formal planning process, which is backed by the local council.  
 
It includes the redevelopment of 1980s office block Becket House on St Thomas Street for a new commercial scheme, which is being overseen by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. 
 
It also includes plans for the redevelopment of neighboring office block Capital House, opposite the Shard, the site where SPPARC Architecture’s controversial Quill student accommodation high-rise was approved in 2010 but never built. 
 
Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects has now designed a 39-story tower with an “origami-style” façade for developer Greystar on the Weston Street site, currently being considered by Southwark Council. 
 
Amendments to the original plans for the student accommodation tower – which include the demolition of office block Capital House – were submitted last week, reducing the tower from its original height of 45 stories.  
 
Proposals are also being drawn up for the former car park site, known as Vinegar Yard, which is being developed by CIT with designs by KPF.  
 
For more on this story, go to Architects’ Journal.