Endurance

So much has gone on in my life in recent months: Went to Amsterdam, fell in love, didn't go to India (yes, that is, believe it or not, something to note), broke up a fight, got a new dream job, formed a band that properly gets paid, went to France (twice), went to Finland, survived the economic crisis (so far)...

... as has at least one of the London new builds by the looks of this photo. Which I can non-exclusively reveal is.... The Heron Tower. Also, Broadgate Tower looks well and truly occupied (though not featured in this photograph). God knows what's happening to the Cheesegrate or the Bishopsgate Tower though. The demolition of the Cheesgrater site started well before the Heron Tower one, so it's all a bit arse abourt face if you ask me.

I'm retired from skyscraper hunting officially, but couldn't resist posting this photo, together with a link to skyscrapernews to read more about it.

By the way - and I hate to go on about it - but my new blog is starting to pick up in frequency of posts, and it is more fun writing when you have more readers, so please do take a look.

Farewell

A number of factors have combined to quieten this blog of late:

1. Very unreliable internet service at home
2. Being quite busy with life ingeneral
3. I'm moving to Amsterdam soon, and have been debating whether to continue with the blog at all.
   

#1 is now resolved, but #2 and #3 still loom large on the horizon. Delving in in more depth:

#2
I started the blog when my houseshare was less than ideal and spent a lot of time in my room hiding/plotting. Nowadays I don't have the same incentive to remain ensconced with my laptop, and writing the blog on a regular basis feels a bit like a chore.

#3
Well, it's pretty flat really, isn't it. I'll probably get bullied for not being horizontal enough in my enthusiasms if I continue with the blog. I won't be able to take any photos of the works in progress, so will be reduced to scouring the new websites for updates. This is something I haven't been doing too much of lately either as www.skyscrapernews.com does a far beter job in all honesty.

So I am retiring the blog for the time being. I don't expect the move to Amsterdam will be permanent (probably about 6 months), so I may return one day to continue the tall building commentary. It all depends on how big a public outcry there is.

I'll leave you with two things:

1. There is one hoarding in the city which is not, surprisingly, around a construction site: it's around an archaeological dig at a buried section of the Old London Wall near Leadenhall Market.
2. One last poor photo of the Broadgate Tower:

When is a skyscraper finished?

I'm not sure if I actually pointed it out the other day, but the Willis Building is still, as yet, unoccupied and is still evidently a bit of a mess inside. And yet, I have considered it finished for some time, and, looking at Broadgate Tower and considering it incomplete, I have come up with teh following criteria for a building's completion (for the purposes of this blog).

1. All cranes dismantled and taken down
2. All glazing in place
   

And there we have it.

The photo on the right was taken from a street I've never been down before, also home to this fetching electricity substation. It provides a good view of the rear of the building which, to all intents and purposes, looks finished (although this doesn't hold true for street level).

It also looks pretty polished from Bishopsgate Street, with the facade of 201 Bishopsgate snaking along the pavement, and now the glass reaches down to the ground (but not the cladding on the pillars, which remain resolutely gravity defiant).

A week ago on Sunday was a gorgeous day in the city, as you can see from the blue skies. I ended up in Spital Square drinking coffee, eating a slice of pizza, cycling through a mirrored sculpture and reading in the frosty sun.

Finally, to keep the blog, as ever, with it's nose to topical affairs; much of the American democratic candidate debate revolves around healthcare.

1. This week I have seen an ambulance with balloons, streamers and a just married sign hanging off the back (I only hope they dropped it off at the depot before going off on their honeymoon).
2. I cycled pasta sinister black van with "PRIVATE AMBULANCE" written on its side. That labour government and it's PFI's! What number d'you call for this ambulance service? 666? Joking aside, why would a private ambulance look so sinister?

Remember; you heard it here first.

Broadgate Tower - an icon of our age

It's been a while yet again since I last wrote. But the Broadgate Tower waits for no man. It's left me behind and is mingling with the stars and mythical creatures.

I do of course mean it's allstar appearance on tonight's Dragon's den.

I've never noticed it before, despite being an avid viewer. This means that either:

1. all the other episodes (bar tonight's, which was a recap episode, 3 months on) were filmed before the tower was tall enough/respectable looking enough to be featured as a cutaway shot or (even better) as a backdrop for Evan Harris' summation speech.
2. the Dragons have moved den!

Either way I know that as well as looking like it's filmed in an East End converted warehouse studio, it is actually filmed in such a place.

But despite its new glitzy lifestyle it still lacks two things.

1. Completion. It actually seems to be going backwards as yesterday, after the Arsenal Chelsea game, the builders had blocked bishopsgate street and were in the process of - or so it seemed - erecting a new crane!
2. A name. This, I admit, is all my fault. I have been remiss in not capitalising on the, albeit limited, momentum I had. I will make up for this by printing t-shirts and selling on lulu or cafepress, where you can also buy this most interesting calendar for 2008. I have seen the back of every page of the calendar and they were most white and clean, which is what you'd expect.
   
   The Gherkin has a name and is doing well for itself. They've just illuminated an entire floor bright red (it doesn't, alas, show up too well on the photo, but it is very eye-catching). Would that ever have happened to plain old 30 St Mary's Axe? I think not.

My beautiful galleria

Gorilla, galleria, lager, regal, logger...

Those are about the only words I can think of with those 3 consonant sounds and no others (garullous has an s, and grilled has a gr not a g and an r).

I doubt that was a criteria when the architects of the Broadgate Tower were thinking what to put between the tower and 201 Bishopsgate. A gorilla would've been nice, and exotic rather than continental. Lager would have been downright irresponsible in these days of bingeing, and probably structurally unsound (unlike the gorilla - no one could claim a gorilla is structurally unsound!).

It's very clever what they've done. The railway running underneath the site means no weight can go straight down through the middle, hence the steel girder buttresses propping up the tower from the side. But these girders by themselves do look rather stark and industrial, and it's quite obvious that what they're doing is holding up the tower.

But just look at the effect now. Looks like a prism, a short section of DNA, or a half completed spirograph drawing. The top level of beams aren't structural at all - they are in fact held up by steel cables - but it's important they're there in order to convince the walk through galleria goer that they're inside a great big sculpture. Maybe they'll wonder since when Antony Gormley or Thomas Heatherwick have built skyscrapers.

You can see the tiered rear of 201 Bishopsgate in the photo too. Or would it be better termed an overhang. Either way I like the way it looks in general, but I wonder, looking at this particular photo, whether it'll defeat the object of having a big airy covered space in the gap between the buildings by crowding the space a little.`

As a final aside, the other day I was riding the top deck of a bus home. Looking out of the window I saw an elderly asian shopkeeper and what looked like several generations of his family gathered outside the shop. There was a very cheerful atmosphere. The kids were doing that thing where they look slightly upwards and swing their heads from side to side, grinning, to check if the adults are enjoying themselves as much as they are.

The reason for all this glee?

They were putting up a sticky banner in the window which proudly proclaimed they were now an "Oyster ticket stop."

And if that doesn't deserve a photo of a patch of blue sky, I don't know what does.

The Devil is in the details

A wise man (David Gest) once said 'When you come to know somebody as well as I know Michael, years can pass without seeing each other, and yet we still recognise each other like old pals when we meet again. It's like the time never passed!'

He was lying when he said that as both he and Mr. Jackson are plastic freaks who never look the same from one week to the next. For most people, however, it would be a true statement; the little changes brought on by the ravages of time don't wear away your familiarity with someone. That's exactly how I feel about the Broadgate Tower.

When I look at it I see some things that are familiar:

• The things still don't extend to the ground for some reason. By 'things' I mean the grooved cladding put around the main supporting beams. On 201 bishopsgate the glazing is in place behind them, so I think when they finally extend to the gound they will be kept in the open air, as decorative modern pillars. Talking of pillars, I only realised recently that the reason the Greeks are so pissed off about the elgin marbles is that they were taken from the Acropolis. Bloody cheek we had! Give 'em back, I say.
• For some reason the builders have still neglected to peel away the backing plastic from the lower reaches of the fire escape. They've also missed a bit higher up. It'll be a devil to reach that now. they'll have to hire a trapeze. Or Spiderman, but unless the Green Goblin's really getting on his tits he doesn't take kindly to being distracted by requests to do such menial work.

But also a lot that is new:

• Bits of wood boarding up spaces where there should be panes of glass. Down the road from where I used to live they built this hideous 3-storey block of flats. On the ground floor the windows were floor to ceiling. Now - what Hackney teenager can resist hurling a brick through such an inviting target? Idiotic design decision.
  The 10th floor of a building you'd think woud be safe though wouldn't you, but even windows all the way up there get broken. Or maybe it's just not glazed for access reasons.
  


• The galleria is taking shape at last... but that's for another time

Baptism or How to make up names and influence people

It's really quite amazing how short the tower looks from the street. It only just peeks out from behind 210 Bishopsgate, despite being more than twice the height. The word tower doesn't seem appropriate when seen from this angle. 'Slab' would be a better word.

But then again, the other night I was at the Light Bar with Paul and his friend Marie from New York, and from that angle it looked very thin; she said it herself: "What's that thin building?"

This whole fat/thin dichotomy makes me think the nickname "Razor" is appropriate. the shape is particularly emphasised in the promotional poster.

The question is, though, how do I propagate this nickname? I missed a trick by not spreading it to New York via Marie, but there you go. My ideas so far are to:

• Phone Jonny Vaughan's breakfast show every day, using a number of aliasses (Chris the orthodontist from Harrow, Beverley the Chauffeur from Peckham Rye, Denis the Balloonist from Thamesmead), and wedging in a mention of the tower by its nickname.
  Jonny: So, Charlotte [the amateur cricketer from Enfield], what d'you think of Boris? Has he got what it takes to be mayor, or is he just a bit of a joke?
  Charlotte [aka me on helium]: Well, Jonny, I was walking past The Razor the other day, down by Liverpool Street station, and I have to say I think he's a bit of a joke.
  
• Starting a hate campaign against all things with Broadgate in their name, therefore forcing a reappraisal of the tower's name by British Land.
• Printing some posters and sticking them on the hoarding.
• Recording a novelty rap/children's song, in the style of The Budgie Man ("I'm the Budgie Man, I'm the Budg-, Budg-, Budg-ie Man"), who can often be seen outside the Tate Modern.
• Paying various minor clebrities, such as Prince, to use the name as part of their clothing range.

Please put any ideas you have in the comments. (Even though my ideas are silly, I am sort of being serious about getting the name to catch on).

PS - I know this completely ignores the results of the nickname competition I held a few months ago, but what can I say - I'm an arrogant ignoramus. (Maybe I should join the American presidential race).

Return of the prodigal son

Every time I've gone past the Broadgate Tower over the past few months I've felt very strong feelings. I went to see a therapist about it and she told me my feelings of guilt at having abandoned it at such a tender stage were eating away at me, and would probably eventually result in a horrendous crime on my part. Such as a string of unexplained shopliftings.

Horrified by the prospect of the good proprietors of East London being terrorised and out of pocket, I made it a priority to visit the tower just as soon as I got my arse into gear.

I have now fulfilled my pledge. I think I'll get a few posts out of the visit. First, a general overview.

As you can tell from the photo the tower is considerable more glazed than it used to be. Less obvious in a daytime photo (I'll have to take a night time one soon), is that once they glaze a floor they also put in lights and, maybe, partitions within the floors. The top two-or-so unglazed floors shine one very bright light out at night, but the lower floors twinkle with lots of smaller lights.

Speaking of the glazing, it really does emphasise the difference in the pattern of struts between the sides of 201 Bishopsgate and The Broadgate Tower. The Tower's Diamonds look a lot more balanced than the 2 vertical zigzags of 201 Bishopsgate. Why they chose to include them at all is a mystery as they don't make an apperance anywhere else on the building - clean vertical lines dominate elsewhere. Re-looking at the photo now, I think just verticals would look like a harsh 80's tower block - something to avoid - but the zigzags don't work either. Perhaps extending the tiered/faceted look of the rear around to the side would have worked better. But what's done is done.

On the back of the tower, however, the broken diamonds look works quite well. Quite cleverly done, really.

My second youth

Ok - you win.

Complete strangers have used the words 'wicked' and 'mate' in the same sentence when commenting on the blog. I think it's about time I came out of retirement.

So much has happened since I last wrote. So much so that I can't even hope to write it all up, so, for the sake of brevity, I'll unfortunately have to leave out the bit about my amazing adventures in space. Here is a recap (in rough order of importance) of some of the other significant things I made a note to write about:

1. I have a new bike which, thus far, has not been stolen.
   
2. The Walkie Talkie has been given planning permission. The Times headline is "St Paul’s, meet Darth Vader cathedral", which I quite like. Ruth Kelly didn't actually get around to makinga deceision and it was left to her successor (Oh yeah - we have a new government since I last wrote!) Hazel Blears to give a couple of weeks' deliberation to the months of case files before giving the stamp of approval. Is there a stamp, I wonder? Or is it all digitised these days?
3. (such and such a number) Bishopsgate street has been cloaked in scaffold and demolition rags. Don't think the actual; knocking down has begun yet, although it's possible they've started gutting the interior. That's always a possibility.
4. I have moved house. Back to Bow, my original London haunt, but in a nicer bit next to the park and canal.
5. Broadgate Tower is now nearly fully glazed, though I don't have a photo to prove it as yet (but cycle past there daily, so who knows what could happen!)
6. I missed yet another chance to go inside the Gherkin.

That's all for now. My blogging stamina is waning.

Unlike my cycling stamina. I rode all the way to Enfield yesterday, where the canal smells of dog biscuits.

*edit* Blogger thinks I've turned German:

Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster)

That's what happens; you go away for a while and it's like your friends don't even know who you are any more.

Sky high tower

Just a very quick - alas, imageless - post to announce that the pinacle of the 'third diamond' of Broadgate Tower has recently appeared. Which means that, aside from maybe a lift shaft head or something, the Tower is as tall as it's gonna get.

ULTRA BOOM

At first glance it looks like the architects underestimated the weight of the Broadgate Tower and have had to enlist the help of a JLG ULTRA BOOM to take the strain. But that's not what it's really there for.

'JLG Industries, Inc. is the world's leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of access equipment', and the ULTRA BOOM is merely a telescopic boom lift, which I think is business speak for cherry picker (I didn't know what a cherry-picker was (unless you count Jordan) until watching that Simpsons episode). I thin kJLG give the best description of what the boom is for though:

When you're reaching for the sky, reach for JLG's Ultra Series Telescopic Boom Lifts, and the powerful performance geared towards operator convenience.

The main reason I'm bothering to write a bout the ULTRA BOOM is the name, which has whispers of Cillit BANG! about it. 'Fed up of being stuck on the ground floor when all the action is up on the 10th? BOOM! and you're there.'

S'pose you could use it hold up a skyscraper though. If you were desperate,

Run, run, run to the Centre Broadgate

British Land - the developers of The Broadgate Tower - have suddenly gone upmarket, replacing the dingy little British Land signs with larger, glossier signs more befitting the venue.

They've also opened a marketing suite. This strikes me as a tad late as the Tower is now almost (if not completely) fully pre-leased. I suppose there may still be a lot of space to let in 201 Bishopsgate.

What do they do in the marketing suite? Do they have an endless stream of top city executives popping by to chew the letting cud; unlikely I think. I may pop round during the week sometime. Finish work a bit early, slip my trusty suit on, and start talking in figures. I wonder if you can go on a site tour yet? Not sure how much use it would be to a potential tenant as it's probably still quite messy and dusty, but I'd damn well like to see inside the place!

This would probably be a good place to demonstrate how far away 201 Bishopsgate is from having photos of it included in a glossy brochure. Work on the facade has actually slowed, with only half a floor glazed in the last month (although large swathes round the back of the building are looking a lot more shipshape these days).

A scaffold is for life, not just for construction

I was scathing in my views the other day of the eventual surface the Broadgate Tower is to have; all silky smooth transparent pale glass. I think it would look much nicer were it to be surrounded by something a bit like the cluttered cross-strutting of the cranes and lift tracks.

Bear with me.

Since Richard Rogers built the Centre Pompidou and the Lloyds Building it is no longer shameful to unabashedly include the utilitarian parts of a building as an integral part of its aesthetic design. It's not too big a flight of fancy to suppose that leaving bits of structure resembling cranes etc. when the building is complete could have similar aesthetic appeal.

Well, I think the mixture of clutter and regularity is pleasing to the eye anyway. Almost like a Jackson Pollock.

There is a recent precedent to a London City Building having a wireframe type structure around its exterior, namely 1Plantation Place (pictured. The building to the right is the "will they/won't they replace it with an oversized communication device 20 Fenchurch Street). The outer layer of glass - set a good metre or 2 out of reach of the inner one - is designed to stop rain getting in through the inner windows, which open to allow air to circulate. The end result is something that looks a bit like pinhead from hellraiser... but I like it. There's a recent upstart to the mechano/lego throne called k'nex, and it looks almost as if it's built out of the stuff, which is a good thing.

As demonstrated in this photo (click for much bigger) 1 Plantation place does tower above most of its riverside neighbours. It also only finished construction in 2004, but went unnoticed by me, even though in 2004 I did walk regularly home from work along the More London side of the river.

The point being, I should be a bit more liberal about my 100m minimum for buildings covered in this blog. I see plenty of cranes around and I really should show a lot more verve in investigating them.

Two-things-only-safe

Combisafe - who provide safety netting for Broadgate Tower - are proud to announce that they have just exhibited at 'The most successful Bauma of all time.'

Good for them.

It is a silly name for a construction industry event - sounding more like an innuit coming of age ceremony, or the name of a crime-fighter in a hurry - , but as you can see from the photo the event is full of big machines, and is basically a schoolboy's dream. So I shan't mock something which I damn well wish I could go to.

Combisafe have the following to say about their range of netting and fences:

Our edge protection systems don't comply with safety standards.

What?!?

They set them.

Aaaah. Clever.

And reassuring too.

Their site safety solutions include some that are 'based around a square concept', and others which incorporate 'a "zero" factor fall arrest system.' Perplexing though these product descriptions are, the most bizarre thing about the company is why they call themselves Combisafe? It's surely a bit self-aggrandizing to suppose that using two different kinds of thing - namely nets and fences - is justification enough to use the prefix 'combi'. A greengrocer - with his myriad varieties of fruit and veg - could perhaps justify calling his stall 'Combiveg', but I think if you only peddle 2 kinds of wares you're over-egging the point a bit. Here's what the world would be like if the practice was widespread:

• Bikes would be known as combiwheels. (Bike thieves would still however be known as 'bike-thieving bastards' as the alliteration really helps exorcise those bilious feelings).
• Trousers would be known as combitubes
• Twins would be called combipeople
• Newton's third law would be renamed 'Newton's law of combi-ness'

I'm sure you get the idea by now?

Ok, one more then. But only because I'm quite enjoying this.

• Fences would be known as combisides

The white tower

As you can probably already tell from your aching cheeks and sides, and from having co-workers give you uncomfortable stares which can only mean 'Why are you laughing?', I have turned my hand to what is popularly known as comic photography, but for which I have coined the term wittography (derived from the roots 'wit' and 'graph' in the original English and Greek, which literally mean 'funny picture').

The Broadgate Tower, as I have pointed out before, dwarfs all the buildings around it. In fact, you could say it's upstairs of everything.

But as I also pointed out the gradual increase in height is only half the story. The glaziers started work months ago, and are still going strong. Since mid April they have covered over another half-diamond with glass (the half-diamond being the standard unit of measurement for the Broadgate Tower).

I'm afraid I'm going to have to be critical of the glazing though. Not just the glazing, but the cladding on the structural elements. As the glass is just clear glass, and the cladding on the beams is virtually white the end result is going to be a very pale tower (unless they fill it with very dark things - millions of undertakers' offices - in which case the effect will be like a negative of a tudor building). Pale glazed tall buildings are relatively rare; the only one I can think of is HSBC Tower in Docklands, but that is in very glitzy metallic surroundings. I'm not sure how well a squeaky clean Broadgate Tower will harmonize with grimy Shoreditch. Even if, as London Lite claims, Shoreditch is virtually the West End now, the area will continue to look grubby unless the buildings are knocked down. Or sand-blasted, like St. Paul's. And that ain't gonna happen. Unless I launch a campaign. I'll make spurious claims that unsandblasted buildings are carcinogenic. People will believe me. I'm well-trusted about town.

Also, the fire escape is being put together at an impressive rate. But for some reason the sticky back plastic at the bottom is yet to be removed. A minor criticism, but my Mum always told me to clear up one mess before starting to make another, and ignoring that advice has left me in the many messes (mostly bedroom floor based) I find myself in today.

A treat tonight - 2 posts for the price of 2.

I mentioned once before that I inspired ( I think) somebody to take photos of the Willis Building. on Saturday a similar thing happened at the Broadgate Tower.

I was stood on Bishopsgate taking photos and a mother/aunt with two youngish children walked by. As i lowered my camera I saw the boy's eyes look at me, the camera, and then where the camera had been pointing. When he saw the subject of the photo he just said 'Wow!' It's a bit worrying that he had just walked straight past the building without noticing a thing until he saw me. But then again, I am quite eye-catching, even to the untrained eye I suppose.

And well might he wow. It's an awe-inspiring sight, it is. Going back to talking about cranes for a second, there are still 3 working on the actual Tower, but it's now so tall that, up close, all but the one on your side of the building can be completely hidden from view.

Up, up and away

Cranes: Where would tall buildings be without them?

Completed, that's where.

A sign that 201 Bishopsgate is progressing nicely is that one of the cranes has been dismantled, leaving but a stump behind.

Another feature of the cranes I noticed at the weekend (but which isn't new - I've checked the old photos) is that the tower cranes for the Broadgate Tower are anchored to the tower itself. Tower cranes always do seem flimsy things. On reflection, the ones at Broadgate do look a bit slimmer than your average stand-alone ones, and tying them to the building under construction does probably mean they can make economies when it comes to crane girth.

Intermission
Today's song is brought to you by Squarepusher, and it's from the Lost in Translation Soundtrack. It's a good skyscraper song.

Back to the cranes. You might remember the yellow platforms on the Broadgate Tower, which I researched their purpose, and came up with the conclusion that they're for micro cranes to deposit their loads on. I've since changed my mind. I reckon they're just for the normal tower cranes to deposit their loads on as I can't see any sign of the mini cranes.

I really like the photo to the right. It's very cluttered, but really vibrant colours and striking shapes. One of the best ones I've taken of Broadgate in my opinion.

The Broadgate Tower is glazing over

The Broadgate Tower is glazing over. It wasn't so long ago that I measured the rate of completion of the Tower in Diamonds. Now I can do likewise for the vertical reach of the glass. As you can see from the photo, it's nearly 1 diamond high. As this photo from mid March shows, the extent of the glazing has grown by half a diamond in 1 month. Assuming a linear growth rate, this means the tower will be fully glazed in about another 4-5months. Scenes such as that to the right will soon be a thing of the past.

One thing that concerns me is that the outer casing overlayed onto the main supporting struts (eg the outline of the diamonds) are concave, and will surely just collect grime. They're also ideal nesting sites for pigeons. Now, i like pigeons, but I'm pretty sure the developers would rather keep the tower pigeon poo free.

It's difficult to tell from external appearance how close to completion a skyscraper is. I'll write tomorrow about the Willis Building, where I think it's most likely on the last lap (it's due for 'practical completion' (whatever that means) soon anyway). But, as I've just said, the Broadgate Tower, proceeding at the same rate as today, should be fully glazed by sometime in early Autumn... though it's not scheduled for completion until May 2008. Maybe progress gets significantly slower the higher up you go.

Here is a demonstration that 201 Bishopsgate is glazing over too. And that Bishopsgate is a far less busy street at the weekend.

Broadgate Tower signage

Yesterday's surfeit of signs has spurred me on to add this photo. I think the 'DANGER pedestrians crossing' may be a little overkill on the building site safety front. I doubt traffic goes very fast on this particular thoroughfare, being as you have to go round a sharp bend and get some gates opened for you to get this far.

Here's another sign. The wording at the bottom says 'Two imposing new office buildings.' Given the level of dialogue surrounding all the other new skyscrapers - 'it's impact on the view will be minimal... it'll fit in just fine... damging to the skyline's character? Pshaw!' - it's quite refreshing to see that one of them is unabashedly proud to be a colossus.

On the other hand, maybe this is how it pans out after planning is granted. All meek proclamations (eg 'It may be 35 stories, but they are very small storeys... honest') when you need approval, but as soon as the licence is signed, out come the heavy metal music and the tattoos and dirty high-rise machismo. If the Walkie Talkie gets approved maybe the posters round the construction site will say somethingalong the lines of '20 Fenchurch Street - an eyesore, and proud of it.' The Leadenhall Building will have similar fare - 'The Leadenhall Building - I'm the daddy now.' Bishopsgate Tower - 'Mwahahahahaha'.

Broadgate Tower may be imposing, but it has had some difficulty attracting tennants (maybe it's the mixed messages of the imposing image combined with the namby pamby corporate responsibility of the billboards around it). In 2002 (from the Telegraph):

British Land is in discussions with Ashurst Morris Crisp, the firm of lawyers, over pre-letting around 400,000 square feet of its 700,000 sq ft ... BL has simply been waiting to pre-let part of it before starting. John Ritblat, the executive chairman of British Land, has been saying for some time that he would start the scheme speculatively if no occupier would take a pre-let. Several occupiers have looked at the scheme including Lehman Brothers, Accenture, Barclays Bank.

But that's all in the past now Law firm Reed Smith have agreed to let most of the tower. It's a good job there are billions of anonymous finance, law and consultancy companies out there that no-one's ever heard of. Ridiculous number of them. They all hang out in a city bar called 'The Underwriter.' Smoking cigars made out of gold bars. And eating truffles wrapped in rare manuscripts such as the dead sea scrolls. Philistines!

Lebensraum

Through accident more than by design I found myself taking lots of photos of accomodation over the weekend. I've already voiced my doubts about Pan's Labyrinth Peninsula being able to attract adequate punters due to the dire nature of the surrounding hubbub. Leaving the nightlife etc. aside, the design is also not hugely distinctive. They're tall buildings, and a bit bit glittery, so don't get me wrong - I give a lot of points out for tallness and glitteriness. But they're hardly going to win international awards.

So what of the other residential buildings I've looked at?

Worst of the bunch are these, to the south of the main docklands complex. The houses around where I used to go to school were yellow brick, probably built in the 60's, and about as entertaining to look at as a turd (apart from that one day when we watched through the chemistry lab windows a dare-devil ladder acrobat with a HUGE drill install cavity wall insulation in one of them). These blocks of flats seem to be aiming for the same look, but figured 15 storeys is better than 2. How ridiculous do those roofs look??

Second from bottom is this riverside warehouse conversion. I took the photo to show Broadgate Tower looking not unlike the radiator of a Rolls Royce (not so long ago I saw a latest model Rolls outside the Tate Britain - an uglier concoction of car and... car I have never seen.) Took ages to find that link to the Rolls photo - why is it that bluechip companies known for excellence in design insist on having such bloated flash websites?

But the warehouse conversion... the top floors really are extremely ugly. There are some great warehouse conversions out there - Butlers Wharf, Catherine Docks, the ones across the canal from me - but the ones in this photo are certainly not among them.

Won't bother posting a photo but these are also pretty naff. An original and geometrically interesting design in search of function, balance, character and memorability. Slightly better is this block, but only by virtue of the circular balconies. Not sure of the utilility of these - you can't have a conversation with the corner of the building in the way - but they look nice from below. What might have been better would be to alternate, floor by floor, butting the balcomies at the corners and in the middle of the walls. Did I mention I wanted to be an architect when I was bout 12?

OK - enough filler. Now we move on to the stars of the city living show.

Surprisingly for a skyscraper themed blog, they are all low-rise.

The triangular buildings in the bottom left are great! in the shadow of all these monoliths (and one building that looks like a giant microchip) are some chalet style buildings. Anachronistic given the setting, but this just adds to their charm. The photo doesn't do it justice, but they're brightly coloured too.

In third place are these flats, again down by the river. I'm no architectural expert, but it's quite obvious they're inspired by the Habitat '67 building in Montreal - the hive of flats that was meant to revolutionise the built environment... but didn't. With this being one exception. I would guess it's in wapping, and I'll add it to my 'to visit' list. It doesn't stand out, but it's probably one of London's more adventurous buildings.

Now on to the joint winners.

About 3 years ago, a few months after moving to Bow, I too a walk along the canal to meet Karen and Muzo in Victoria Park. Whilst walking along I was slightly perplexed by the buildings across the canal, which seemed to be packed with hundreds of nubile young women (not that I'm complaining). Since then I've discovered that these are the accommodation village for Queen Mary University.

I went to Uni in Warwick, where most of the accommodation lives and breathes sensible in bucketloads. Queen Mary's halls are refreshingly original, bright and welcoming and, I would guess, manage to avoid the Peckham trap: creating a futuristic architectural utopia at the expense of incubating crime and ill-feeling.

I can't be complementary enough about the buildings - interesting self-consistent, harmonious materials, colours and shapes. Little quirky features (such as the bar joining both halves of the turquoize one) which seem to serve no practical purpose, but add interest all the same.

They're wonderful. I'll try and find out who the architect is. On the off chance that someone would want to visit them, they are here.