PROPERTYdevelopment


sophisticated way, rather than simply adding rather odd features. It’s also interesting that most of the


designs make an effort to build public access into the towers, with open atriums, viewing decks and observation decks, a public garden on the top floor of the Walkie Talkie, and perhaps most strangely, a massive aquarium in the reception area of Heron Tower. Peter Damesick says this reflects concerns over towers being “out of touch with their environment”; planning authorities are concerned that the towers are properly integrated, so the decision to have public access isn’t entirely altruistic.


The Shard Perhaps the


bravest of them all. A ‘downtown development’ or a terrorist attraction? It’s very tall, it’s covered in slanting glass, it is totally fantastic and we want to live and work in it.


Heron Tower, in fact, is the centrepiece


of a larger development, Heron Plaza, which will include a Four Seasons Hotel, an unusual use for a City site. It’s the Shard, though, the only one of these towers not within the City boundaries, which is a truly mixed use development. The whole area around the Shard is also being regenerated, with the redevelopment of London Bridge Station, and the creation of affordable housing. The Shard itself will include prime residential space on the 53rd to 65th floors; Peter Damesick points out that there’s a good reason for this. “In part the mixing of uses could be related to aspects of the


PROPERTYdrum JANUARY 2011 33


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