Gensler tower planned for City fringe

Gensler has submitted plans for a 30-storey tower in London’s East End.

Hackney council received an application for a 106m glass building on a 0.2ha site at the southern tip of the so-called “Shoreditch Triangle”.

The site at 201-207 Shoreditch High Street is located on the edge of the City of London’s northern fringe, an area which is currently beset by a number of disputes between developers and conservationists.  

Under Gensler’s designs, the building will contain 32,495sq m of space, just under half of which is earmarked for a 200-bed hotel.

The bulk of the remaining floorspace is flexible offices, which will be targeted at firms in the area’s booming creative and tech media sectors.

The building will consist of a number of different levels, which will step up from seven to 30 floors rising to 106m at its tallest point.

The planning statement submitted for Folgate Estates says the scheme will complement the tall buildings to the south of the site on the City fringe, which include the mooted development on Bishopsgate Goodsyard.  

The site is currently occupied by a pair of low-rise buildings, currently housing a Majestic wine shop and a sauna, both of which were built during the Seventies on what was then a bomb site.