More details of 36-storey scheme revealed at latest consultation round
Sellar and Japanese developer Obayashi have unveiled the first detailed images of their plans for an office tower at 60 Gracechurch Street in the City of London.
The £500m building will rise to 36 storeys on the site of an existing eight-storey block which currently serves as the London headquarters of German financial services firm Allianz.
Designed by Danish practice 3XN, the proposed tower would contain around 400,000sq ft of floorspace and is being billed as the southern boundary of the City’s main cluster of skyscrapers which includes 22 Bishopsgate.
New images revealed at a second consultation this week show a soft terracotta-coloured podium of six storeys beneath a 30-storey tower clad in white masonry.
The visuals also show close-ups of a diagonal line of heavily planted balconies which will slant across the upper part of the building, culminating in a series of roof gardens at the top.
Sellar and Obayashi said the scheme would “take its place among the existing and emerging skyline and seamlessly integrate with the rest of the buildings in the City”.
The podium level aims to connect the site with the surrounding streetscape and would contain the building’s ground floor lobby, a cafe, a courtyard space, a separate entrance for cycle parking facilities and showers and access to a public roof terrace.
>> See also: Sellar unveils plans for £500m City tower at Gracechurch Street cluster
Construction is scheduled to start in 2026 once the existing building is vacated and complete in 2029, around the same time as several other proposed schemes around the City cluster including Brookfield’s 99 Bishopsgate and Stanhope’s 55 Bishopsgate.
The project team so far includes Turner & Townsend Alinea as cost consultant, project manager Gardiner & Theobald, Arup on engineering and sustainability and planning firm DP9.
The Townscape Consultancy is also on the team as townscape and heritage consultant along with public realm and landscaping consultant Townsend and transport consultant Velocity.
3XN is an emerging force on the London tower architectural market with the firm behind plans to revamp British Land’s Euston Tower scheme as well as the same developer’s 2 Finsbury Avenue project, a 37-storey tower due to be built by Sir Robert McAlpine at the ongoing Broadgate redevelopment.
The proposals for 60 Gracechurch would be the latest in an emerging group of tall buildings along Gracechurch Street that are set to fill in the currently mid-rise gap between the Walkie Talkie building and the City’s eastern cluster of towers which includes 22 Bishopsgate.
Other planned schemes in the neighbourhood include the 32-storey Woods Bagot-designed 85 Gracechurch Street, KPF’s 33-storey 70 Gracechurch Street, which has recently been revised, and Fletcher Priest’s 32-storey 55 Gracechurch Street, all of which have been consented in the past three years.
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