AFK’s City tower plans challenged by listing bid for existing 90s offices

The Twentieth Century Society has made a bid to list a 1990s office block in the City of London and save it from being flattened to make way for a 63-storey skyscraperLast week it emerged that Arney Fender Katsalidis (AFK) had submitted plans on behalf of Schroders Capital Real Estate for a 285m-tall office tower at 55 Bishopsgate.The £600 million scheme, on the western edge of the Square Mile’s growing high-rise cluster, would replace a 10-storey 1992 building designed by Fitzroy Robinson.The heritage campaign group described the existing block as a ‘sophisticated commercial building with high-quality finishes and detailing’ which ‘draws on and reflects’ the Mewes & Davis 1920s Grade II-listed Hudson Bay House opposite.The listing bid is supported by architect John Robertson of John Roberston Architects , who was partner in charge at Fitrzoy Robinson during the design and delivery of 55 Bishopsgate.In a letter shared with the AJ ( see below ), Robertson said the original building had been conceived as ‘a loose fit and flexible design, easily capable of retrofitting and extension’ and branded AFK’s proposals ‘harmful’ to townscape views.AFK’s proposed skyscraper, together with a linked 22-storey block, would provide about 74,000m² of office space as well as ‘expansive’ public space on the top floor – dubbed the ‘Conservatory’ – and activation at ground level.If completed today, it would be the UK’s third tallest building in the UK behind The Shard by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, the current national record holder at 310m AOD, and the neighbouring 22 Bishopsgate (295m AOD) by PLP, the highest completed building in the Square Mile.The AFK scheme would sit between Richard Seiffert’s NatWest Tower (Tower 42) and GMW’s 99 Bishopsgate.According to the Twentieth Century Society, the design team behind the original 55 Bishopsgate office had ‘decided against building a tower on the site and instead built at a more modest scale to provide … some ‘breathing space between the two towers’.The society said the design team had been influenced by the ‘stripped Classical design’ of Otto Wagner, with its ‘language of panels and joints’ evoking his Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna (1906).The society’s listing application to Historic England cites a number of contemporary critics writing around the time 55 Bishopsgate was completed. It quotes John Wrothington, in Architecture Today in 1992, saying: ‘55 Bishopsgate is an asset to the City of London. It brings dignity back to Bishopsgate, provides a continuity of streetscape and offers both framed vistas and enjoyable fragmentary details.’The application concludes: ‘In our view, [the building] has national heritage significance and should be statutory listed to prevent its demolition.’ Historic England confirmed it had received the listing application and that, having been consulted on the AFK proposals, was carrying out its ‘initial assessments’. It is understood the main heritage issues are likely to be the impact of the proposed tower on the protected views out of St James’s Park and of St Paul’s Cathedral from Waterloo Bridge.According to the AFK team, the tower will be ‘one of the first all-electric tall buildings in the UK in both power supply and standby generation’. The designers also claim refurbishment of the existing 30-year-old Postmodern block was ‘ aIn response to Robertson’s letter, AFK founder Earle Arney insisted ‘a retrofit could not be justified, given the way in which the City and the rapid advancement of both technology and city-making approaches since the completion of the existing building’.Arney ( see letter bottom ), added that a Heritage, Townscape and Visual Impact Assessment demonstrated the proposed tower would ‘not result in unacceptable harm to the historic environment and will also deliver significant townscape and urban design benefits that will contribute to the vital activities of London’s commercial centre’.Subject to approval, the scheme is set to complete in 2030.View of existing office building at 55 Bishopsgate, which would be demolished to make way for the new tower:Location City of London Local authority City of London Corporation Type of project Commercial Client Schroders Capital Real Estate Architect/principal designer AFK Studios Landscape architect Townshend Planning consultant DP9 Structural engineer Robert Bird Group M&E consultant Hilson Moran Quantity surveyor alinea Lighting consultant Speirs + Major CDM Harwood Main contractor Not appointed Contract duration five to six years Gross internal floor area m² 126,500m² Total cost Approx £600 million