54-Story City of London Tower Approved

RSHP has won approval for a 54-story skyscraper in London’s Square Mile, Architects’ Journal reports. The 93,000-m² scheme for Brookfield Properties involves demolishing an existing building and replacing it with a 254-m-tall office block with cafés and shops at ground level, along with a standalone six-story cultural pavilion, dubbed Open Gate, with a map of London on its outer veil, accommodating creative and community uses. The RSHP scheme is expected to contribute 8.3% of the additional office space needed by the city by 2040. According to the design team, the “visibly green building scheme” prioritizes adaptive reuse and will retain all the existing foundations to reduce embodied carbon. The plans include the retention of a 3-m-thick reinforced concrete structural raft at the foot of the existing building, which, though impacting the number of cycle spaces, would save large amounts of carbon. The new tower would rise above Foster + Partners’ nearby Gherkin (180 m) and RSHP’s own Leadenhall building (224 m).