The News Building, London: design and construction cantilevering over a live transport hub

Abstract

developed on The Shard that would appeal to large corporate organisations as a headquarters to be proud of.Large, efficiently planned floor plates of 1900-2800 m 2 area were deemed necessary to attract the target audience. A further requirement was that the floor plates would be flexible such that they could be subdivided into quadrants to suit smaller tenants should the need arise. In addition, the design had to be adaptable to provide tenants with a variety of air-conditioning options and achieve an 'excellent' Breeam rating with a compliant tenant fit-out.Through the client's partnerships with Network Rail and London Underground, the brief also called for section completion of the bus station prior to the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games embargo, improvements to the underground station ticket hall and the creation of a new urban realm. Site constraintsThe development site, with an area of 0·55 ha, occupies the greater part of the city block defined by Railway Approach to the west and north, London Bridge Street to the south, and London Bridge station to the east. Three Castles House, London Underground's operations centre for London Bridge, occupied the western portion of this city block and was demolished and replaced elsewhere to accommodate the development.Located directly in front of London Bridge rail and bus station, the site was originally occupied by a Richard Seifert-designed, 25-storey reinforced-concrete office block. Known as New London Bridge House, this was situated at the east end of the site adjacent to London Bridge station and its associated undercroft car park structure. IntroductionThe News Building in the new 'London Bridge Quarter' commercial district in central London, UK was formally opened in September 2014. Situated next to its sister building The Shard, the tallest building in western Europe (Parker, 2013), it was developed by Sellar Property Group in association with London Bridge Quarter Ltd and designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano (Figure 1).The prestigious building − formerly known as The Place − now houses News UK's titles The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun as well as sister News Corp businesses Dow Jones and HarperCollins. It provides 40 000 m 2 of efficient, modern office space over 17 storeys. Occupants benefit from direct access to London Bridge Quarter's new piazza and the unrivalled transport connections at London Bridge station, providing a seamless transition from station to workplace. This paper illustrates the challenges of working over a live bus station, in front of one of London's busiest rail terminals and surrounded by London Underground's critical buried assets. It describes how these challenges were overcome by integrated design and construction teams working in a truly collaborative way and by using bold techniques. The briefArchitect Renzo Piano stated his vision for the project was, "a building with its own character: strong, compelling, visible, and coherent with The Shard. The building will float above the ground, liberating space and cre...

Editorial

“…The first of the four papers in this issue describes the design and construction of The News Building in London, sister building to The Shard at London Bridge (Adams et al, 2015). Its innovative cantilevered structure has been driven by the need to minimise disruption to the operational railway and bus depot below at this major London transport hub.…”