Tall & Urban News

Scheme Featuring Planned 170-Meter Tower Set for London Approval

The new vertical campus would include a 24-story and a 37-story tower.
The new vertical campus would include a 24-story and a 37-story tower.
25 February 2021 | London, United Kingdom

The City of London is set to approve an office scheme designed by 3XN which features a 170-meter-tall tower on the edge of the Broadgate estate

The Danish practice, working with developer British Land, wants to demolish and replace two 1980s buildings by Peter Foggo, which currently occupy the 2 and 3 Finsbury Avenue Square site. Both have immunity from listing certificates which last until 2024.

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The new vertical campus would be 3XN’s first building in London, and its first major UK project since its involvement on the controversial Museum of Liverpool project in 2007.

Sitting next to Make’s headquarters for UBS at 5 Broadgate, the proposed building would feature a 24-story west tower and 37-story east tower, connected by a 12-story podium. It would provide 85,000 square meters of office space, as well as a further 15,000 square meters of retail, storage and bar space.

A report drawn up by the City of London's planning officers recommended approval for the application ahead of the 24 February committee meeting. It states: "[The] proposed development has been designed to accommodate new ways of working reflected in flexible and adaptable floor space to meet the demands of different types of business occupiers, including incubators, start-ups and other small and medium-sized companies."

It would also have a communal entrance to workspaces, split across ground and first floors, which the architect says will "create a space that offers opportunities for collaboration, wellbeing and efficient wayfinding to the various workplaces."

However the plans have received several objections, including from The Twentieth Century Society, neighboring Hackney Borough Council and the owners of the nearby, soon-to-complete One Crown Place residential tower designed by KPF.

The heritage group is opposing the scheme on the ground it considers the existing 2 Finsbury Avenue to be a high-quality building and an important non-designated heritage asset, adding that it could instead be sympathetically upgraded rather than flattened.

Hackney Council, meanwhile, claimed the scheme’s massing and height would reduce the amount of daylight and sunlight for nearby residents as well as visually dominating the Grade II-listed Flying Horse pub and the Sun Street Conservation Area.

The owners of One Crown Place, which features 29 and 33 story blocks, also complained about the impact on light into the scheme’s flats.

While the City's planning team acknowledged 3XN’s towers would affect "daylight and sunlight to a number of rooms"on the KPF scheme, officers argued the impacts were not "unacceptable" given the "densely populated" city center location. 

The latest application supersedes an application for a 32-story office tower, designed by Arup Associates, which won planning in 2016 but was never taken forward.

In terms of environmental sustainability, British Land said it was working with GXN – 3XN’s innovation arm – and engineer Ramboll on how it could recycle elements of the existing Finsbury Avenue Square buildings.

The developer has vowed to make all of its new developments net zero carbon.

Last year British Land chief executive Simon Carter said it had not been possible to retrofit the existing building at 2 Finsbury Avenue Square, but said the project team would "push the boundary" for sustainable credentials on the job.

According to the developer, the building will incorporate ‘a series of forward-thinking environmental initiatives in a bid to achieve net zero carbon in construction and operation, as well as a BREEAM Outstanding certification.

British Land has said vacant possession of the existing buildings, which provide office space to businesses including Bjarke Ingels Group, could be obtained this year.

For more on this story, go to Architects' Journal.