Ceremony held at landmark stage of mixed-use development with BREEAM Excellent rating

A rooftop ceremony today celebrated the topping out of Legal & General Property and Mitsubishi Estate Company's Central Saint Giles mixed-use development in London.

The entire scheme, being delivered by Stanhope and construction managed by Bovis Lend Lease, is due for completion in March 2010.

The Renzo Piano-designed building on St Giles High Street in north London incorporates 392,000ft² of offices, 24,000ft² of retail, as well as 56 private and 53 affordable apartments. It has been created to bring what Piano called a “joyous vibrancy” to an otherwise overlooked area of the capital with its bright red, orange, green and yellow glazed ceramic cladding.


Topping out at Renzo Piano's St Giles building

Maurits van der Staay, of Renzo Piano Building Workshop, said: "We worked a long time on getting the right palette so it goes very well with the natural colours around the building. That's why the colours are not shocking, they're just joyful, they work with the trees and the old brick buildings next to it."

Stanhope development director Mike Knowles said: “The building is a fantastic design icon for London, not only has it utilized the most cutting edge construction processes but it also boasts impressive green credentials with a BREEAM Excellent rating.”