Video: Peter Rogers adds building is capable of lasting ‘200 years’

The developer behind 22 Bishopsgate has said the pandemic has meant tenants want more fresh air inside the building as the 62-storey tower begins to fill up after being completed last year.

Tenants moving into the City’s tallest building include the US law firms Cooley and Covington & Burling and insurance companies Hiscox and Beazley.

Developed by AXA IM Alts and Lipton Rogers and built by Multiplex, the building claims to have the highest smart building standards in Europe.

22 bishopsgate

Source: Shutterstock

Designed by PLP, the scheme was completed by Multiplex last year

Tenants’ facilities will include a fresh food market, laundry facilities, a bike repair shop, a gym, along with social and communal spaces.

But in a video interview last week (see below), Peter Rogers admitted the building, which was first started in 2007 before being mothballed because of funding issues for the previous developer ahead of eventually resuming in 2016, needed to adapt in the wake of covid-19.

“We have got to bring more fresh air into the building which is one of the big demands at the moment,” he said.

He added that the designs of the lifts has worked well in terms of covid compliance. “We always wanted the lifts to run from the ground floor, we didn’t want a sky lobby where people congregate.

“Now that’s quite lucky because if people come in, they go straight to their lift bank and it takes it [them] straight to their floor, so that face-to-face contact has been reduced.”

Peter Rogers talking during Open Doors week, describes how he was running his first big construction site in his 20s:"You can get a lot of responsibility very quickly if you're a fast learner, reasonably competent and up for it".

He admitted that “environmentally I would change [22 Bishopsgate]” but he added: “That’s a building that should last for 100, 200 years. There’s no reason to knock it down, you could modernise it, refurbish it, you can adapt it.”

Rogers also weighed into the issue of attracting more people into the industry that saw Build UK run its Open Doors Week last week which included opening up 200 sites and running events with more than 40 construction firms.

He said: “Everybody thinks [construction] is being a bricklayer, a plumber or doing one of the skilled trades. Yes, of course, that’s an invaluable part of our industry but it’s also very wide-ranging - engineering skills, architecture, cost consultancy - and in general that’s not well explained. Careers advisors are not that clear what construction can be.”

Sites taking part in the Open Doors initiative included Wates’ Lucent scheme at Piccadilly Circus, Mace’s Paddington Square development, which topped out last month, and the Alexander Stadium scheme in Birmingham which is being built by McLaughlin & Harvey and will host the athletics events at next year’s Commonwealth Games.

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