Traditionalists take a dim view of flat tower
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Your support makes all the difference.New York's famous wedge-shaped Flatiron building could be thoroughly upstaged by a London skyscraper designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the architect behind the Eden Project in Cornwell.
It is exactly a century since New Yorkers were thunderstruck by Daniel Burnham's acutely-angled office block, which achieved instant iconic status. Grimshaw's team may have come up with a new icon, provided that the developers, Minerva, can usher their shimmering, 217m-high (712ft) vertical blades of light through the planning minefield.
Official reaction to the £350m Minerva Building, which would become the City of London's tallest, has been mixed. The Government's Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is for it, saying yesterday that it "offers both elegant architecture and high-quality workspace". But English Heritage says the original designs for the site at Houndsditch and St Botolph Street jeopardise views towards Potters Fields and Tower Bridge, and would adversely affect the Tower of London World Heritage site. English Heritage has yet to scrutinise the latest version of the tower – but it is clear that it will call for a planning inquiry if its fears are not assuaged.
The design is certainly unusual, taking the Flatiron building concept – imagine a tall, partly opened book on end – and quadrupling it. The effect promises to be graceful rather than phallic, and the main tower will look super-slim from open ground near Aldgate Underground station.
Grimshaw's design has gone for elegance and environmentalism. The tower has a double glass skin with an outer layer of "slot" openings to allow an unusual degree of draft-free natural ventilation, and produce "an iridescent tapestry" effect, according to Grimshaw's director, Neven Sidor.
A tough, 43-storey tapestry though. The Minerva tower's design has been affected by 11 September: key structural joints will be "ductile" to prevent the rapid and devastating pack-of-cards collapse that levelled the World Trade Centre. And there are more than the usual numbers of lifts and escape stairs in the 1.4 million square foot structure.
The Minerva tower may come to eclipse the Big Apple's Flatiron masterpiece. But will its virtues be enough to stop it being wrecked by planners?
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