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EXCLUSIVE - Following the now topped out Beetham Tower in Liverpool the city's famous waterfront looks like getting another tower with proposals for a stepped 20 floor tower. Named the Unity Tower by developers Rumford it is an all residential project which our sources tell us will be increased to 26/27 storeys. Set to contain 161 apartments the block will be slightly shorter than the Beetham Tower coming in at about 280ft according to our estimates.
There are also plans for a rather squat block of 21/20 or 17 floors depending on who you listen to facing it with what has been named as the Sentienel Tower which is not being redesigned and will be as it is shown in the rendering to the right alongside the original Unity Tower design. Featuring office space Rumford are said to be looking for a major corporate client willing to pay £22 per square foot before going ahead, refusing to build speculatively given the current envirnoment. Whether they find someone remains to be seen but it does look like the Unity Tower will see the light of day soon.

On the bad side (or good depending on your stand point) it looks like the Fourth Grace, much reviled by almost everyone has run into trouble. The concept won controversially against three other fully fleshed designs despite coming last in the public and architectural consultations. It seems that the 'cloud' which was to contain exhibitions for Liverpools 2008 City of Culture show has fallen into the Millenium Dome trap of no-one having a clue what to put in it, whilst Will Alsop is doing frequent redesigns and arguing with the developer over what exactly they'll get prompting Nation Museums Liverpool to threaten to pull out of the project. The North West Development agency has also cast doubt on the viability of the plan but has reserved its verdict in October when it will consider the financial viability of the project. Lets hope that SN.com's reservations on this project aren't born out by the bitter experience of Liverpool.

Meanwhile some good news for skyscraper fans everywhere, our spies tell us that Sir Norman Foster's ubquitous Swiss RE tower, dubbed 'the erotic gherkin' by the excitable English press, is externally complete.
Following controversy over the avante-garde design it started construction in October 2001 and has progressed rapidly ever since exciting everyone who has seen it, bare in mind that its neighbouring, Tower 42, took 9 years to complete.
You can see an animation of much of the construction here. It will be updated shortly to reflect the finished article.

EXCLUSIVE - A proposed 28 floor tower to be built on Chiswick Highroad adjuacent to Gunnersbury Station has run into further trouble following outraged conservation groups despite having two floors lopped off it as a hoped compromise between the developers and heritage bodies.
One group claims that the tower which is 800m from the Thames should be considered a riverside building so have its height limited as a result whilst Kew Gardens complain it will detract from their buildings in the skyline by providing a new focus and the Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society complains that even a ten floor building would be completely out of proportion for the area. Presumably they have no complaints about the church spires which are also out of proportion.
Meanwhile the residents are also campaigning against a new walkway from the station to help pedestrian access saying it will disrupt the lives of locals, and an 11 floor block being built specifically to house health workers in the area arguing they should be housed elsewhere in London and new developments in Chiswick should be limited to a mere five stories. If any residents of the area are willing to write and tell us why no towers should be built in Chiswick but it's ok to build them everywhere else in London please do, we'll publish your thoughts.
If you want to support this tower you can email planningenforcement@hounslow.gov.uk stating why you think it would be a good idea to build this tower.

EXCLUSIVE - Despite the current downturn in the office market in London Tower Hamlets council has seen yet another tall proposal with planning permission filed for a 28 floor tower only 100 yards from Liverpool Street Station on Middlesex Street.
The largely office tower designed by ORMS architects for GE Capital will contain 24 upper floors, plus 3 basement floors and a restaurant on ground level. At 110.5m to the roof and a 23.5m tall spire leading to a total height of 134m making it one of the tallest buildings in the City.
This is one of a number of proposals to recently come out along the fringe of the City bordering Tower Hamlets that have included News Internationals similar sized tower for Wapping plus a number of medium rise developments along Commercial Street. Seen in this context it's clear that the rumours of the City building eastwards to avoid height restrictions of St Pauls are very true and it's already happening.

Manchester has seen its first super-tall proposal with Ian Simpson Architects for Beetham proposing a 150m+ tower for Deansgate, the current ground zero of the city's redevelopment. The 48 floor hotel and residential building, which has been secretly under design for over 2 years has the support of both English Heritage and the local council. At a cost of £150 million the 153m tall glass tower will be have on its top an 18m "glass blade", views of Snowdonia and Liverpool, a 285 bed Hilton Hotel, and 219 apartments ranging from £100,000 to £2.5 million each. Most impressively of all will be a skybar on the 32nd floor serving drinks to those who want to admire the view giving proper public access to the tower which will be the tallest outside of London.
Beetham already have a number of towers under construction in Britains regional cities with both Liverpool and Birmingham seeing new skyscrapers rise. Each proposal has got progessively more ambitious but scaled back, however with the support of so many public bodies this one looks likely to go ahead.

Much maligned by the locals, the SOM designed London Arena has gone back to the drawing board and a new design has been released featuring a single tower of 170m/556ft which is actually an increase in height. The blue and white tower will contain 53 floors setting a new record for the number of floors in a British tower. The rest of the masterplan for the area has been downgraded to groundscrapers with the other five towers proposed completely scrapped. Reflecting the current downturn in the office market Ballymore have reduced the amount of office space available. Thanks to changes in design it should sail through and we should see construction starting in early 2004, the only question is whether it will beat St Georges Wharf (below).

British Waterways have finally announced their initial masterplan for Woodwharf, directly East of Canary Wharf. The plan involves a number of densely placed office buildings, on the western end of the site with two of approximately 150m/500ft and 35 floors. The architectural centerpiece of the business district will be an 80m arch providing a gateway to the corridor running through the site and to Canary Wharf, something similar to what we've already seen in Paris. The eastern end of the site involves lowrise housing, bizarrely only up to a maximum of seven floors which fails to make proper use of the land. Local campaigners and water lovers will be overjoyed that most of the dock will remain.
Its pretty unimaginative stuff, hampered by the height limits of the CAA thanks to it's close proximity to London Airport. This height limit means the business district will have flatter squatter towers, less space and crucially daylight in what can only be described as a claustraphobic and over developed environment as the developer tries to cram as much floorspace as possible in. We're told though that these plans don't have a hope in hell of being what is actually built as it is very early days.

Minervas proposed tower for the City of London has faced a major design modification following complaints from overshadowing by local residents. The tower will retain 1million square feet of space despite being scaled back with the podium being reduced in height to more daylight in. To compensate for this one of the windtunnel areas will be filled in and have offices there instead. The height of the main tower will not be affected by this.

Ironically the Kohn Peterson Fox designed skyscraper to stand on the site of London Bridge House has been criticised by Southwark council for potentially blocking the views of St Pauls from the viewing galleries of the contentious London Bridge Tower. LBT has just had its public inquiry finish and although it has yet to be ruled on it seems Southwark council must be pretty confident about its chances to request KPF to scale the tower down in height. 180m or so for a final height should see this problem eliminated.

St George have had their application for St Geoges Wharf Tower refused. As we predicted the 25% of cheap housing in the tower wasn't enough and this and a parking space for every apartment were the main reasons for the refusal. The developers are now increasing the amount of affordable housing in the 181m tall project to 40% of the total and will be cutting back the total amount of carparking available which is common-sense given its close proximity to the major public transport interchange at Vauxhall.
Another development to this story is that the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has threatened the council with a public inquiry if they do not approve the design this time around criticising bodies in London that are holding back development.

The long running plans to build more skyscrapers in Croydon have taken another step forwards. Norman Foster has been working on a landmark 30 floor 135m tall office tower with a whopping full height atrium to sit on a derelict site next to East Croydon station. There will be four medium rise buildings also planned for the site reaching up to 70m in height, and a large residential aspect too as has become fashionable for all brownfield regeneration sites. The council plans to build an indoor arena have been left out of the plan raising the threat of another Elephant and Castle style debacle with arguments between developers and council resulting in an impasse.

The development and expansion of the Moorgate Cluster is continuing apace with the plans of a 21floor tall office block at St Alphage House. The site which is located on the edge of London Wall is currently owned by the Corporation of London who are planning to sell the site for a whopping £57million. The Coporation has appointed KPF architects to draw up a plan for the area to include two new office buildings on the site of the current one, a small building on the west part of the site of 57,000sq ft and on the east side of the site another building of 475,000sq ft.
If this goes ahead it should see a tower of approxmiately 100m (327ft) rising from this site further plugging the current gap of midrises between Wood Street and Moorgate. Although no developers have been appointed for construction yet the location of the site means no sight-lines will be breached leading to what we can hope will be an easy ride through planning permission, particularly given the current scope of development on London Wall which is seeing the sixties blocks torn down or in the case of Royex House reclad to drag the area from brutalism into the 21st century.

Stratford City, a new 3 billion pound proposal for East London just inside the M25 has had its plans finally revealed in what will be one of the largest brownfield developments in Europe and to date the largest planning application ever recieved.
The project which is aimed to take advantage of the new highspeed rail link being built to St Pancras will be a mixture of 4500 new homes, 2000 hotel rooms, 5m square feet of offices and 1.5million square feet of retail space.
The centerpiece of the 180 acre site will be a 50floor hotel/residential tower flanked by a separate 30floor and a number of 20floor midrises, and in skyline terms making London more like the prickling skyline of Tokyo with multiple clusters.
The plans make it quite clear from the diversity on offer that they have no intention of rivalling Canary Wharf and thanks to the satellite location, even with the new train-line it will be likely to provide back offices rather than company headquarter.

The Moorgate mini-cluster on the edge of the City of London is set to take another step forwards as Deutsche Bank are to finally get a new headquarters in London. The developer Hellical Bar is set to file for planning permission next week, at Ropermaker Place. The tower, designed by German firm Gensler Associates is set to be a series of interlocking blocks of 8 and 24 floors and the height is expected to come in at about that of the neighbouring Citypoint and Barbican towers.
Deutschbank have been known to be shopping for a new headquarters for years and have previously been linked to Riverside South in Canary Wharf and also a 200m tall leaning tower designed by Shepard Robson for the same site at Ropermaker Place. Both schemes have now been ruled out by D.B thanks to recent redundancies making them too large however Shepard Robson have been in talks for some time with another potential customer about the 20 degree leaning design for a different site in the City.

St Georges Wharf Tower, in Vauxhall has been broadly welcomed by the Mayor of Londons office following a redesign by the architects Broadway Malayan with only minor criticism made of micro-climates around the base. The mayors office was also slightly critical of the low level of affordable housing in the tower, which is only 25% but noted that the wind turbine on the roof negated this as a planning gain, something SN.com is sceptical about given the cost of this turbine will be paid for in the long term thanks to savings in the electricity and save residents money so such things are only short term planning gain but a long term money maker for the developer.
The 181m tall tower, which if built will be the tallest residential tower in London is now before the local council who are expected to give it planning permission.
The London board of English Heritage meanwhile has criticised the project saying it should be delayed until Vauxhall has a proper high-rise plan, an excuse they use for any project that they cannot stop any other way. The London board though is the most conservative body in English Heritage and frequently disagrees with the organisations main leadership, most recently having demanded that Minerva be called in for a public inquiry, but given their past record they are likely to be ignored.
Construction for St Georges Wharf tower could start before the end of the year.

The project to redevelop the Greenwich Peninsula and the area surrounding the troubled Millenium Dome has taken another step forwards with proposals by Meridan Delta to develop what will be London's tallest hotel at 127m. The hotel tower designed by Terry Farell and Partners, along with a number of highrise residential towers will be located on the far north of the area next to the Dome itself with the hotel planned as the highrise centerpiece of the district. In terms of size the masterplan, which includes over 6000 houses is the largest single plan ever seen in the United Kingdom.

Convoys Wharf in Deptford, London, looks like being the scene of the next highrise cluster to grace the skyline. Plans put forwards by News Corporation. The plan which will create over 1million square feet of new space has been mooted as a possible headquarters for News International by the press, but don't they know this same company plans a HQ in Wapping?
The proposals for Convoy's Wharf include three towers of 26, 32 and 40 floors designed by Richard Rogers practise with Montagu Evans acting as site consultants. There will also be lower rise developments planned, all of mixed use. Along with the Seager Distillery plans and Meridian Gateway a rival cluster to Canary Wharf should be forming by the end of the decade.

30 St Mary's Axe, the headquarters of the Swiss Reinsurance Group was topped out last week after only 15months into the construction. What will be London's newest skyscraper had already had a topping out ceremony months previously and spent much of last winter bathed in green and blue light but despite all this the top of the crown was lowered on with little fanfare.
At 600ft tall and designed by Norman Foster the skyscraper has earned plaudits from many London residents for its unusual shape whilst has suffered ridicule from journalists eager to dub it the "erotic gherkin" which has turned from an insult into a more affectionate title.
Built on the site of the Baltic Exchange which was demolished by an IRA bomb in 1992 it is becoming clear to everyone that Swiss Res new headquarters is something of a watershed in British architecture - a tower that is becoming world famous thanks to its innovoative design and becoming universally loved before it is even completed, something that even Lloyds of London failed to achieve. Let's hope that this won't be a one off and London will see many more worthy proposals in the not to distant future.

The Canary Wharf Group have revealed further plans for Heron Quays West as predicted by SN.com earlier last year. The site which is located between Heron Quays and Riverside South already has planning permission for a 101m tall now looks like being the recipient of 1.5million square feet of office, retail and lesiure space which can mean only one thing thanks to the small size of the site - a redesign, even with the deeper floorplates seen on other Heron Quays buildings. Our guess is a 160m tall tower with a rather sizeable mixed use podium.
Construction for this area though is not scheduled until both the Riverside South and North Quay sites are complete and CWG are at pains to point out that they will not be building any more buildings speculatively for some time.

Canary Wharf have released renderings for two new skyscrapers for North Quay designed by Cesar Pelli with Will Alsop has worked on the base of the towers and their integration with ground level and the neighbouring DLR station.
The towers which SN.com first revealed early in 2003 feature 44 and 41 floor office towers and a substantial middle podium comprising of a whopping 2.7million square feet of office space (240,000sq m).
Heights for the towers are estimated at around the 200m mark with the podium comparible in height to 33 Canada Square meaning adding yet more tall proposals to the growing flood for the area that has recently seen the Columbus Tower proposed.

The Commission for Architecture and Built environment has cautiously welcomed the proposed Riverside South towers designed by Richard Rogers as shown in this exclusive rendering below, praising the overall level of architecture and saying that they have the potential to be the outstanding towers on the Canary Wharf estate but have criticised the public access issues and urged Canary Wharf to open up the top of the tower to the public, an issue that has been close to SN.coms heart for sometime.
The middle portion of the towers are also criticised as being poorly though-out so presumably they will be modified as the proposal goes through the planning system.
Their praise of the overall architecture though has to be seen in context of the existence of the Heron Quays towers and understood to be relative. CABE would certainly not be as supportive of this proposal if it was in the City but these towers do provide a nice addition to the Canary Wharf estate and are ideally placed for a public viewing platform.

"this proposal offers the prospect of some of the finest architecture yet seen in Canary Wharf. It now also holds out the prospect of offering substantial public space of a high quality. We hope more can be done to make this space as user friendly as possible. In particular, we suggest further thought to make the route through the middle building for those using the public realm, rather then accessing the office space, as welcoming as possible, and we continue to believe that public access to the top of the tallest tower is desirable and need not be ruled out on security grounds." Commission on Architecture and Built Environment on Riverside South

North Quay meanwhile has recived some strong veiled critism from CABE. Although they praised the integration of the towers at ground level which could easily be called imaginative and even exciting they failed to comment on the towers themselves.
In this case what they don't say is as important as what they do say, and no doubt after some more consultation between CABE, CWG and the architects the towers will be revised with particular attention paid to the middle portion which can at best be described as "messy".
We'd be very surprised if CABE didn't recommend that this part be streamlined with further work on the towers themselves to reduce the sheer glass walls.

SN.com first revealed the existence of Richard Rogers largest project to date, Riverside South back in 2001 and since then the project has evolved to the point where Canary Wharf feels like it is finally ready to be submitted for planning permission. These two towers have seen some revisions since they were first revealed here and sadly much of the traditional Rogers styling, the vents, outside lifts and glass stairwells are missing to be replaced with... well... nothing giving what must be the most disappointing design by that practise to date.
The height of the towers remains as does the low-rise podium connecting the two together. It seems that the buildings have been largely toned down by Canary Wharf into rather nondescript skyscrapers, more like larger versions of HQ5, although this comparison may be seen as a little cruel by some.
Architectural criticism aside the towers will be 220m and 194m AOD (above sea level) with 34 and 28 floors which translates into ground level heights of roughly ten meters lower whilst they contain a grand total of 158,853sq m of floor space. They no longer have a spire nor a crown which makes them blend in more with the rest of the estate although the lack of Rogers styling raises concerns of a sheer glass wall fronting the Thames however with the Rogers Partnership in the driving seat we are likely to be pleasantly surprised by the finished result.

Slough of all places has decided to cash in on the current high-rise trend and build tall. Ideally placed as a satellite town of London, the council who own much of the center of Slough feel that they can rejuvenate the whole area with new buildings, including a couple of spanking new skyscrapers. Reading had similarly ambitious plans a few years back and even got as far as giving planning permission to two 500 footers but since then not a lot has happened. Hopefully Slough will have more luck than it's neighbour and this project, which is still at an early stage and now waiting for serious designs from architects could do much to improve the image of the town which at the moment isn't exactly brilliant.

Brighton and Hove is seeing an ambitious seaside plan for the King Alfred to build a new residential development that has attracted some of the top architects in the world including Frank Gehry. Ghery's plans are for four residential towers ranging from 17 and 22 floors on the the north side to 30 and 38 storeys on the beachside. The development which is in the style of Gehry's previous designs such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao is one of three rival proposals for the site. Other lower rise plans have been submitted by the Richard Rogers Partnership who seem to be everywhere right now and Wilkinson Eyre. The council which has decided 40% of homes must be affordable will be deciding which entry is suitable for winning over the coming months.

A tower that if it goes ahead will be the tallest in the country has finally been proposed by SKMC on the soon to be empty Barclays site at West India Quay. With a whopping 63floors, rising in height to a foot taller than nearby One Canada Square the Columbus Tower offers the promise of the highest flats in London.
A complete contrast to all the exisiting skyscrapers of Canary Wharf this curved building evokes memories of the Thames tidal barrier with its crown and will be clearly visible from Waterloo making a substantial addition to the skyline.
It's set to be a mixed use development is designed by DMWR and has the massive financial backing of the Abu Dhabi royal family. It will feature fully serviced aparments extending over the top half of the building plus a 266 room hotel and 315,000 square feet of office space so if you want an apartment there get saving now.

EXCLUSIVE - The 101m tall Harper Mackay designed building for the Tarmac site directly west of Canary Wharf Heron Quays is to finally go ahead. Originally proposed back in 1997 this site has been the location of intense speculation on future highrise plans for it ever since Canary Wharf Plc released a map showing the site, which they don't own, marked for future development. Now the project seems to be a joint development with Canary Wharf as the main site contractor.
The design is a quality piece of work, and featuring subtle curves which will contrast nicely with the blockiness of the nearby buildings. A large public area is promised on the lower floors which should open Heron Quays up a lot more on ground level as well as completing this area of the estate.

So you thought it would be a quiet year this year did you? 6-8 Bishopsgate, the skyscraper proposal that Murphy Jahn has long been rumoured to have been working on for German Investment bank DIFA looks set to finally become reality with the planning application due to be filed in time for Easter.
At 710ft / 215m in height the tower will feature lifts running up the outside, something that is becoming a bit of a cliche in the City, and looks set to be cylindrical which is reminisent of some of his previous work.
It seems that City developers are well aware that the property cycle is coming full turn and we can expect a flurry of applications over the coming year as they prepare to start construction in 2004/2005 for the next cycle.

EXCLUSIVE - Could Southwark be seeing plans for a second supertall? Well it appears that the rumours that have been flying around (on this site too) of a second tower at London Bridge might just be true with word that Norman Foster has been designing an extremely tall tower with engineering by Ove Arup. The proposal is to stand on the site of London Bridge House. At 800ft to roof and approximately one thousand to spire, with a flattish oval shape in plan and clad completely in reflective glass similar to the LBT cladding and a spire on the eastern side. The plan is already at an advanced stage with planning permission expected to be filed by the end of the year.

The 600ft tall modernist housing project Skyhouse has enjoyed another media launch with acclaimed architects Marks and Barfield pushing their vision of cheap and sustainable housing in London.
With five sites along the Thames Gateway from the East of Canary Wharf and flat prices starting at a mere (for London) £75,000 all they need is a developer to provide the funding needed to get the project off the ground however thanks to the cheap planned prices developers aren't exactly flooding forwards. There's also the potential for further skyhouses from Manchester to Aberdeen.
It'll be a great shame though if such an important project, and god knows London needs cheaper housing and lots of it, is put off because property companies cannot profiteer but it's going to be interesting to see if such a needed project can happen and if it does whether it will recieve the necessary funds to be maintained. Fingers crossed.

Paddington is taking another step forwards towards a properly developed cluster with the impending decision by Westminster Council on a new 133m tall residential tower at Paddington Green. Designed by Squire and Partners for West End Green the tower if approved will be London's new tallest residential. Refusal of the project by the council on the grounds that it infringes on the royal parks looks unlikely given the precedent set by 132m tall Grand Union Building which is currently having foundation work done just half a mile south.
When combined with the planned 110m tall Station Tower and the existing 99m tall Hilton Paddington should soon have what will be London's fourth skyscraper cluster with more to come.

EXCLUSIVE - The growth further and further east in London of the skyscraper looks set to continue with the an ambitious planning application made by News International, the newspaper publisher, for new developments on their site to create a new headquarters complex.
Designed by Terry Farell the proposals include an impressive 400ft / 122m tall 27floor office tower next to their Wapping site on the corner of Highway and Vaughan Way, which will be Tower Hamlets 9th tallest building, and a shorter 12 storey building next to it to provide supplementary offices. The tower features curved glass facades, and is certainly slim-line to provide a thin side when viewed from certain angles and to give more impressive views of the Thames from it.
The actual planning applications were filed in the middle of November with Tower Hamlets council, however ironically for a new headquarters for a news organisation details on the project haven't exactly come flooding out but this is the tall Farell project mentioned in Rumour-Monger back in August, let's wait for the KPF one now.

Manchester which has seen a glut of medium rise proposals over the past few years looks set to get it's first 500ft+ skyscraper with the proposals for a landmark tower in the Castlefield area of the city which is currently being redeveloped. The dramatic sail shaped tower, proposed by Blantyre and designed by architects Virtual Planit features some 35 floors as the centerpiece of a scheme to develop Castlefield Junction and Quay. Although details are sketchy at this early stage of the project it appears that the ex manager of New Order and the Happy Mondays Tony Wilson is involved - you're twistin' my melon man.

Contary to the ever accurate reporting of the anti-skyscraper Evening Standard, Chelsfield have not cancelled the 132m tall Grand Union Building in Paddington which has recently started construction. As with many developers they have decided to work on the foundations of the scheme and then pause the project whilst waiting for a client to reduce and possible speculative losses. This also does not mean Paddington Station Tower which will stand at 110m has been cancelled either. The property market in London is suffering something of a downturn thanks to depressed demand from major financial companies who have been rattled by losses on the stockmarket so developers are taking a wait and see approach so there you have it, the Evening Standard is incorrect that towers will ever see the light of day.

Leeds is to see another new high-rise proposal with the announcement of what will be the city's tallest development at the Plaza on Claypit Lane between Hepworth House and the main road. The architect Carey Jones have designed this residential proposal containing 570 flats for Unite. Towering at 25 floors it is set to surpass the current tallest, West Riding House, although it will be short of the troubled Bridgewater place development which is still suffering contractual difficulties.
Sadly the design isn't the most imaginative and evokes images of 60s modernist concrete clad blocks thanks to the over blockiness and cladding. Although at 83m the height and effect on Leeds skyline will be welcome what Leeds needs is a Bridgewater Place style development to banish the bad memories of the current problems they are trying to sort out before they revert back to this style.