A new landmark has competed on London’s River Thames between Cannon Street Station and London Bridge. Watermark Place extends across a full city block and is the centrepiece of a new urban quarter that is designed to reconnect the City of London to the Thames.
The prominent new office building, designed by Fletcher Priest Architects and owned by Oxford Properties Group and UBS Global Asset Management, exemplifies the practice’s commitment to sustainable development as an integrated part of the design process. This is reflected throughout the design and it exceeds existing sustainable standards by 20% with a carbon neutral building facing the river. It also establishes the continuous River Walkway along the north bank of the Thames with the largest public space on the river between the Palace of Westminster and the Tower of London.
The site has always had an important place in London’s role as a port and international trading centre. The northern boundary, along Upper Thames Street follows the line of the Roman wharf and the river frontage next to Cannon Street was the site of the 15th Century Hanseatic trading post, the Steelyard, once the largest medieval trading complex in Britain.
In the 1970’s the site was cleared for an international telephone exchange, a building of industrial proportions that became obsolete due to rapid advances in communications technology. This redundant building had blighted the river for many years and its removal presented an opportunity to bring life to the riverside. A rebuilt pedestrian bridge and crossing provide a pedestrian connection from the north across Upper Thames Street, and this connects to Angel Lane which is widened and tree-lined, more than doubling the existing public space around the site.
An analysis of the very extensive below ground structure revealed that an extraordinary 31% of the existing building by weight could be retained, with sufficient capacity to support the new building. A new transfer structure converted the below ground imperial column grid to a new metric grid above. Reusing the structure resulted in significant cost, material and programme savings. The environmental impact of the demolition was reduced, minimising demolition waste and avoiding any disturbance to below ground archaeology. The contractor received a Gold Sustainable Award from the City for the achievement of recycling 98% of the construction waste.
The 525,000 square foot of offices and retail space is made up of four principal volumes with two taller blocks to the north enclosing a full-height atrium and two lower blocks along the river walk to define a south-facing public space.
The highly efficient cladding is customised for each façade so that it achieves a 20% improvement over the new Building Regulations Part L2 required performance and will meet anticipated future requirements. Responding to the ever-changing colours of the river, the taller blocks have a coloured pixilated image of the Thames, coated to the glass, and this dot-matrix image shades the interior without restricting the views out.
The unparalleled panoramic river views from this location include Tower Bridge and the London Eye. Unobstructed views are achieved with full-height glazing protected by a massive timber shading structure, manufactured from sustainably sourced green oak. Viewed from the river, this massive structure is redolent of the wharf timbers of the working river. Extensive private grassed roof terraces amounting to some 2230 square metres also enjoy some of the most spectacular views in the City.
Housing a bar/restaurant with offices above, the naturally ventilated mixed-mode building to the south east, has sun-tracking timber louvers in a double-skin façade and exposed concrete slabs and soffits to aid natural cooling This carbon neutral building is powered by 850 square metres of photovoltaic panels on the main roof.
With over 2000 square metres of sedum on the upper roofs, rainwater harvesting energy controls and heat recovery systems, the BRE has confirmed a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and EPC B rated.