(This story has been updated to reflect the fact that the building will match the height of London's tallest building The Shard.)
Singapore developer Perennial Group and development manager Stanhope are preparing to submit reworked plans reviving ambitions to build the City of London's tallest tower.
Stanhope was picked last year to oversee revisions to the redevelopment of 1 Undershaft, the site of the St Helen’s building, also known as the Aviva Tower, in the centre of the financial district.
In November 2016, the City of London Corporation granted consent for the existing building to be replaced with a 73-storey commercial development, comprising 1.4 million square feet of predominantly office space, that was the tallest consented and proposed tower in the City.
The revised proposals will improve the consented scheme through the provision of new flexible workspaces and expanded civic and business functions whilst delivering a more sustainable building with more urban greening. But it will remain the tallest in the City cluster and retains the upper floors for educational and public access through a collaboration with the Museum of London.
At 309.6 metres above sea level 1 Undershaft would match the height of London's tallest building The Shard in London Bridge, and is just higher than the City of London's tallest tower 22 Bishopsgate, immediately to the west of the site. Stanhope with Schroders earlier this year gained consent for a slightly smaller tower again nearby at 55 Bishopsgate, which would be 285m above sea level.
The present building occupies one of the few remaining sites deemed acceptable for new tall buildings in the City and forms part of the planned opening-up of the area between Tower 42, Bishopsgate, Old Broad Street and Wormwood Street as part of the City of London’s Renewal Opportunity Area.
In a statement the development consortium, on a new website beginning consultation on the revised plans, says while the existing permission could be progressed, with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, desire for "more wellbeing-led office space, and the City of London Corporation’s new ‘Destination City’ initiative", the team has reconsidered the approach.
It says it will be predominantly commercial-led. It proposes a significant uplift in public space compared with the consented scheme.
There will be co-working offices and a 10th floor podium roof garden. The building also proposes Europe’s tallest publicly accessible viewing gallery and will include educational spaces.
It has increased the number of different sized floorplates and included more roof gardens and terraces for the office floors.
The building retains the tapered form at the top of the tower but includes new stepped lower sections which "preserve cityscape views and respects viewing corridors and local historic assets".
Three main office tower sections are will be placed above an elevated public podium garden at level 10 increasing daylight.
The building will now be all-electric, reducing carbon emissions and improving the energy efficiency. It proposes an additional 40,000 square feet ( of public space compared with the consented scheme.
Stanhope is leading the development, with Eric Parry Architects designing the project. DP9 is planning consultant. Newmark BH2 is development consultant and leasing adviser.
Insurer Aviva is due to move out of the 1960s 23-storey building on the site by the middle of 2024, with Perennial then set to take control of the site.
Central London is still seeing a significant number of major office developments come forward, buoyed by continued demand for the best space and despite wider concerns about the global office market.
While there has been modest office investment this year, take-up figures and rents for the most prime offices in the capital have remained robust and developers are clearly responding to strong demand for highly sustainable offices. CoStar is tracking 20 million square of offices under construction across Greater London. The largest of these are 40 Leadenhall and Google's headquarters at King's Cross.
Mark Stansfield, CoStar's UK head of analytics, said: "Should revised proposals proceed as planned, 1 Undershaft will be another addition to the City of London's burgeoning 1-million-square-feet club and another landmark tower in its famous insurance district. At 73 storeys, it would dwarf the adjacent Leadenhall Building, which set the template for modern City design, and make 1 Undershaft the tallest building in the City. The revised designs cater to increasing tenant demand for more outdoor and wellbeing spaces and greater amenity and mirror the design tweaks being made at other major developments such as nearby 40 Leadenhall."