Rogers and Pidgley team up for US embassy neighbour

Architect Richard Rogers is teaming up with housebuilding guru Tony Pidgley to design 800 homes and a hotel in the shadow of the planned new US embassy in London.

The planning application, to be submitted at the end of the summer, will be Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ first major UK residential application since the collapse of the Chelsea Barracks scheme last year.

The practice was given the job to design the scheme, which is being built by Pidgley’s Berkeley Group subsidiary St James Developments, on a five-acre riverside site between Battersea Power Station and the £690m Kieran Timberlake-designed embassy.

The scheme is set to become a significant part of the planned regeneration of the 450-acre Nine Elms area, which is seen by London mayor Boris Johnson as the next major development focus for London.

The Rogers scheme (pictured) includes 800 apartments, underground parking, a 125-bedroom hotel, a health club, and a collection of restaurants, bars and retail spaces, along with a new public riverside walkway.

The architect won the scheme following a design competition by the previous owner of the site, an unnamed Middle Eastern investor, in June last year. Berkeley Group bought the site in November 2009 and decided to keep the design after consultation with the local authority and Cabe.

The developer has told locals it plans to start on site as early as summer next year if the application is successful.

Pidgley said he had no concerns taking on the architect of the controversial Chelsea Barracks scheme: “This a very refreshing piece of architecture supported by Cabe, the Greater London Authority and the local council. And this is a derelict brownfield site, not in the middle of Knightsbridge surrounded by some of the wealthiest people in the country.”

The regeneration of the Nine Elms area also includes plans to extend the Northern line and build 3,500 new homes. As well as Berkeley Group, developer Ballymore and the New Covent Garden Market Authority are planning major regeneration schemes there.