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Londo
London skyline kerfuffle An influx of foreign capital and an acute housing crisis have created a surge in tall buildings, and in an ancient, low-slung city, that’s controversial. P R O F I L E
By RICHARD MASSEY Managing Editor O nce dominated by landmarks like Parliament, Tower Bridge, and the dome of St. Paul’s Ca- thedral, the London skyline is now home to tall buildings like the Gherkin, the Shard, the Cheeseg- rater and, to the chagrin of many, the bulbous Walkie Talkie. If that were all, then no harm no foul. Big cities have big buildings, and as one of the world’s top fi- nancial centers, and with a population north of 8 million, it’s reasonable that London would have its fair share. But the capital of the U.K. is also home to the Razor, a 43-story residential tower south of the River Thames that won the 2010 Carbuncle Cup as the ugliest building in the U.K. And a recent study by New London Architecture found that there are 436 tall buildings in the pipeline citywide – a back- log, according to critics, that could one day ruin the tapestry of one of the world’s most historic cities. “The prime concern is that the character of London is changing. We’re getting really trashy buildings going up.” Opposing the recent high-rise trend is the Skyline Campaign, which looks to at least curb the con- struction of unsightly tall buildings in bad loca- tions. “The prime concern is that the character of Lon- don is changing,” says the Skyline Campaign’s di- rector, architect Barbara Weiss. “We’re getting re- ally trashy buildings going up. The city is covered in cranes, and that has scared a lot of people.” Weiss says that the biggest problem with the new buildings is that they are residential, not commer- cial. Instead of being owned by one group, like an REIT or a developer – and built to a very high stan- dard – the towers are sold out to numerous buy- ers, making long-term maintenance, among other concerns, a key issue.
Weiss says a brand-name architecture firm is of- tentimes hired to design the structure, but a less accomplished firm is the one that actually delivers the product. The result? “They are building them as cheaply as possible,” says Weiss. “The details and materials are shoddy. …These are the slums of the future.” Even though Weiss and her supporters oppose the new towers, they do not deny that there is an acute housing crisis in London – particularly for afford- able housing. Her solution to the problem is mid- rise buildings of around eight to 10 stories in the suburbs of London, where land is still available. In all facets, Weiss says, mid-rise buildings – from fi- nancing to construction and to maintenance – are simply “easier” than towers. Weiss says nearly all of what’s either been recently built, is under construction, or is in the proposal pipeline, came about during the administration of former Mayor Boris Johnson, in office from May 2008 to May of this year. At the helm as London emerged from the Great Recession, it was Johnson who made it possible for the sudden wave of mod- ern towers. “It was really selling off the skyline,” Weiss says of Johnson’s brand of economic development. “It was a way of bringing cash into a cash-depleted city.” Now that Johnson is gone, the Skyline Campaign has turned its attention to the new mayor, Sadiq Khan, and has asked him to enact a six-month mor- atorium on planning consents for tall buildings. Citing the Mayor of London Order, Khan declined to grant the moratorium. However, he did say that his administration is doing a full review of the Lon- don Plan, and that he will assess “how effective the existing London Plan has been in resisting inappro- priate tall buildings and consider additional mea- sures if these are necessary.” Under one demographic projection published by the city of London, the population is expected to grow from about 8.7 million to about 10.8 mil- lion by 2041. That translates into a lot of housing
Boris John- son, Former London Mayor
Peter Murray, Chairman, New London Architecture
Sadiq Khan, London Mayor
Barbara Weiss, Found-
er, Skyline Campaign
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