The new London skyline?

English Heritage are leading the opposition to a huge expansion of office tower blocks in central London especially the one propsed on the left, the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ building that developers Land Securities want to put up at 20 Fenchurch Street. The City of London wants more office space to keep businesses from moving to Canary Wharf, but as that’s just about the oldest part of London tall glass towers are going to impact on the older historical buildings.

The original Walkie Talkie design was a for a 630ft tower with 45 floors and the Mayor was all for it which he seems to be for any big scheme waved under his nose by developers. In their initial press release Land Securities said the building was designed by Rafael Vinoly, one of the world’s most innovative architects and the design ‘deliberately draws inspiration from its surrounding environment and complements the neighbouring buildings.’ Looking at the picture of how it will look I’m struggling to see what around it inspired Vinoly or how it fits in.

The government minister will have the final say on whether it gets built, personally I think if you’re going to put something so dominating in that area it needs to look a lot better and less gimmicky.

By Chris | Permalink

Related Posts

• High rise London
• Open House London
• London’s Gherkin
• Switched on London
• What’s on London’s drawing board

Subscribe London RSS Feed

Print

Share