Tower Place

Foster’s publicity for this rather elegant 42,000 sq. m. office building claims it as a reinvention of the famous, early ‘70’s Wills Faber design replacing taller and ‘insensitive’ 1960’s designs, and the medieval grain of small buildings and streets. Two triangular plan buildings are linked by a superb large atrium: “the stone and glass facades. . . allow maximum daylight penetration, while blade-like aluminium louvres provide solar shading and add a shifting textural layer to the facades.” Actually, it is the ‘atrium’ semi-enclosed outdoor space which makes the project special. This incorporates 20m high fagades and 3.56-metre-long borosilicate tubes which transmit wind loads from the fagades to the steel columns supporting the roof structure. The needles have a load – bearing inner tube and a protective outer tube, with PVB sheeting between the two and with steel end components. A tensioned steel cable was inserted in each tube to resist wind suction.

Underneath the atrium deck is a large coach park. And on the deck are sometimes difficult security guards who insist upon telling everyone they can’t take photos (which is an improvement on when the building opened, when they didn’t allow any tourist to even stand still). In fact, there are well-marked public rights of way (look for the studs) and they can’t stop you doing whatever you want within those areas (which are, in effect, the public highway. I have had it in writing from the City Planning department). This difficulty is met all over the capital, especially in the City: at Canary Wharf, at Broadgate, at Merrill Lynch, Minster Court, etc. The problem is that what appears to be entirely public is actually private, with public access. Sometimes (as at Merrill Lynch and Minster Court) you will find gates closing off areas during the weekend. It all reminds one of the law at the end of the C19th. which forced owners to remove the gates in typical London squares which prevented the riff-raff from entering. Now we are getting gated communities all over again, courtesy of the late 20th. c. privatisation movement.