‘Gotham City’ comes to London
Henderson Global Investors has secured planning permission from the City of London for its £391m mixed-use tower building scheme at 40 Leadenhall Street, set in London’s dynamic insurance district.
The 910,000ft2 scheme, nicknamed ‘Gotham City’ due its neo-gothic architecture influences of buildings in Chicago and New York, will vary in height from seven and 34 storeys, with use split between 890,000ft2 office and 20,000ft2 retail. A Grade II listed building at 19-21 Billiter Street, built in 1865, will also be restored and integrated in the proposed scheme.
The scheme has been designed by the architectural practice Make, and is formed of vertical slices arranged around the listed building creating a striking design that complements the existing buildings on the London skyline. The proposed new building is also terraced at high level on the northern side of Leadenhall Street so that it remains ‘out of sight’ when travelling along Fleet Street, the ceremonial route to St Paul’s Cathedral. To create a sense of space around the scheme’s footplate the ground floor entrance and retail frontages have been designed to create pedestrian zones, wider pavements and spaces along pedestrian routes.
Waterman were commissioned for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), environmental statement and technical assessments to support the planning application. This required our team to overcome inherent environmental challenges to maintain the protection of townscape views, built heritage and archaeological heritage assets, ensuring suitable wind conditions at street level and on the terraces, as well as over shadowing from nearby properties and amenity areas.
The development has been designed to meet the BREEAM New Construction 2011 Excellent standard and the sustainability measures proposed will allow the Building Emissions Rate to be reduced by a minimum of 40% below Part L2A of the 2010 Building Regulations. As part of it sustainable commitment the building will provide 1,067 bicycle spaces with additional mobility scooter charging spaces, 113 showers and two disabled car parking spaces.
Construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2017.
