With climbing wall, 41st floor retreat and its own signature scent, London’s biggest ever office building opens just as home working looks set to stay
22 Bishopsgate is big, as large as a container ship perched on its end. At an all-inclusive total of just over 195,000 sq metres, it’s probably the largest office building ever built in Britain. At 278 metres high – or 62 storeys – it comes second only to the 310-metre Shard as the tallest building in the country. Which raises two questions. Is there such a thing as too big when it comes to such buildings? And is so much space needed at a time when remote working and the altered habits of the pandemic might conceivably reduce the demand for conventional office space?
The project, which stands in the City of London, has been developed by Lipton Rogers Developments on behalf of the investment managers Axa and an international consortium of investors. Stuart Lipton, one of Lipton Rogers’ founders, believes that 22 Bishopsgate happily meets the demands and desires of a world that has changed in ways that no one predicted. So far it is 60% let, to businesses such as the US law firms Cooley and Covington & Burling and the insurance companies Hiscox and Beazley, with more tenants “on the way”.
By straining to maximise every cubic metre, it threatens to crush its own good intentions Continue reading...
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