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It's official, Arena Central, the oft delayed whopper in Birmingham is back from the dead. Following reports from the Rumour Monger in March site developers Miller Developments and Bridgehouse Capital have confirmed that they have awarded a pre-construction contract to Mulitplex who are now front-runners to win the full job.
The tower which is 175m to roof and 245m was designed by HOK and recieved planning approval on the 25th of February 2000. In that guise it was an office tower but thanks to a decline in the market and insecurity over September the 11th it was put on hold and the site was sold on.
Now the developers plan to build what will be Europe's tallest residential tower so they'll be gunning for a height of at least 190m. A reapplication will be required thanks to the change of use and any substantial design changes such as an increase in the height of the roof, leaving it currently with only outline planning permission. We understand the 245m height is the maximum the structure will be allowed to reach but detailed permission is expected to be a formality.
At 5.6 hectacres the massive site has already seen some work on it with a 19 floor residential tower underway. This particular phase of the scheme is set to cost £120 million and construction is expected to start in the summer of 2005.
By then it should be neither the uk's tallest as London Bridge Tower will have started earlier, nor even the second tallest to the tip of the spire as the Minerva Building which is also scheduled to start by then will be 2m to the tip of the spire. Still, it'll put Birmingham a step ahead of Manchester again which has been getting all the trumps lately.

Will Alsops controversial and unpopular design for the 4th Grace in Liverpool has been cancelled following disputes of cost overruns between the architect and the site developers. Alsop maintains that the budget is only £200 million and it can be brought in for this whilst the developers are asserting the budget has increased to £324 million.
Combined with fears of a Millenium Dome mark 2, outright hostility over the way the entire design competition was won, and the fact that the project was redesigned to excede the height of the existing Three Graces when the fact that it previously didn't was instrumental in it being chosen over three other designs have left it politically and financially unviable.
Alsop himself only found out the project had been cancelled from the press and it seems the whole thing is now going to the lawers.
The 4th Grace was supposed to be the centerpiece of Liverpool's 2008 European City of Culture. It was picked over designs from Richard Rogers, Norman Foster and Edward Cullinian despite coming last in the public consultation and the architects consultation. Unlike the other three entries it was only a rough design which has raised questions of just how level the playing field was.
The supposed main reason was this was the only entry that respected the massing of the Three Graces and would respect Liverpool's application for World Heritage status. The catch was that in order to make it more viable the residential element was increased in height to 120m from the original 89m showing the weakness of picking a concept over a cast-iron plan as this thrust for viability immediately clashed with the demands placed on being a World Heritage site that you cannot excede the height of the Royal Liver Building.
There was also the 'Ghery effect', every city in Europe now wants to be the next Bilbao but for many this development tries just too hard to be unconventional and falls over as a result. Thanks to it's look it was immediately nicknamed 'the cloud' or 'the turd' depending on whether you liked it or hated it and has seen a vigouress local campaign against it that has seen it make few friends but many enemies.
Its a typical Alsop design from an architect who has an approach of just drawing a blob for almost every building he is ever involved in since the break up of his seminal partnership with Stromer which acted as a restraint on his blobby excesses.
Liverpool now has only a matter of weeks to find a new project to spend the European money on that was going into this one or hand it back and stand the ignoble fate of being the first city to completely mess up it's day in the cultural spotlight. This debacle will run and run.

A new tower has been proposed for the City of London by Henderson Global Investors' Central London Office Fund. Ellerman House is a 21 floor speculative development housing some 215,000 sq ft / 20,000 sq ft of office space reaching to a height of 377ft / 115m that will stand on Camomile Street.
The base of the tower will hold retail units and a new library for the Corporation of London whilst the top will have a massive rooftop garden of almost 10,000 sq ft (900 sq m) that the developers boast will be the tallest in Europe.
The location of the tower is uncontroversial as it will stand literally adjacent to the 183m 110 Bishopsgate and 95m Heron Plaza which was yesterday granted permission. Along with these and the redesigned Willis Building 2005 looks like a very good year for the City.
The construction of this tower reflects further confidence in the the impovement of the office market in London and the preparations investors are now taking to their their new office stock ready in time for the predicted upturn. Designs are at an advanced stage and with the leases for the property expiring in June 2005 construction is to begin almost immediately for a 2008 completion.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is going to buy phase 1 and 2 of Aldgate Union to accomodate some of its staff in the City from the developer Tishman Speyer in a deal worth £200 million to aquire 600,000 sq ft of new office space. The project has been approved but left on-hold thanks to the lack of a prelet despite coming close to being occupied by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development as we revealed in 2002.
Only a stone-throw from Minerva, phase 1a of the scheme (pictured) includes a 17 floor 79m tall tower designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects and represents another major step in the building up of the eastern City-fringe. Later phases include the remodelling of the street plan and a taller tower of perhaps 150m, also designed by Wilkinson Eyre.
It now looks like work will be beginning in the next 12 months if RBS are to have the property available in time to fit in with their schedule.

Ken Shuttleworth's practise, Move, who are in the news right now with their barmy tower designs have been selected as the detailed architect for Elephant and Castle. The massive scheme which has been masterplanned by Shuttleworth's old practise Foster and Partners is the first job for his new practise.
The choice suggests however that perhaps the developers are more interested in continuity and that Shuttleworth had already worked on it at his previous job than any chances of seeing radical and eccentric buildings taking shape, or a dissatisfaction with Foster and Partners. What 'detailed architect' means is Shuttleworth will be working from the broad strokes of the masterplans to make buildings that fit the specification of each plot that has been planned.
The centerpiece of the project is two towers arranged over a new transport hub that will link it to the center of London and undo the horrible sixties planning mistakes the area currently suffers from. Highlights include a glazed station concourse which will be overlooked by the two new towers which we estimate will come in at around the 100m mark, and a public square, something much lacking in the current Elephant and Castle.
Central to the plan is the wish to make Elephant and Castle a place people actually want to visit rather than escape from by making it a desirable attractive area rather than a place currently cut up by a series of oppresive roads with pedestrians forced underground.
The poor quality 60s blocks of the Heygate Estate are set for demolition and to be replaced by 4200 new homes which are a central element of the Mayor, Ken Livingstone's policy of creating enough housing in London to cater for the booming population.
It is the latest of a series of plans for what has been a troubled development. These though look more likely going ahead thanks to the relative lack of ambition (no 800 feet tall towers this time) which signal an acceptance of the reality for the area. As long as they leave the wonderful victorian Chaplin pub there won't be any objections from here.

EXCLUSIVE - Manchester looks set to get another major tower with the proposals by the BSC Group to build a skyscraper on the Greengate site in Salford near the city center, which if built will be it's tallest building.
The 201m tall project if built will contain a grand total of 56 floors and will be topped with a wind turbine to provide some of the electricity needs of the project, an idea first floated by Broadway Malayan in St Georges Wharf London, which finally seems to be catching on elsewhere. The project will be largely residential and contain a whopping 1,000 1 and 2 bedroom flats in total and the developers plan to have it start in late 2005 with construction completed in late 2008.
The tower consists of two curved wings, clad in blueish/green glass which are horizontally flipped and then placed alongside each other joined by a central core which will provide services. It is this core that is topped by the wind turbine which pushes the height to the pinnacle. In terms of massing it strongly resembles the CIS tower on the skyline.
The Greengate site has seen previous proposals for towers with Whealing Horton Toms proposing two a couple of years back, but then selling the site on after recieving outline planning permission for two 30 floor towers.
From a planning point of view this means that the principle of tall buildings here has been accepted by the authorities. This doesn't necessarily mean that the BSC Group only have outline permission and will need to file a detailed application and environmental statements.
Thanks to the current lack of detail and the small team before going public, in complete contrast to Beetham's, there's certainly an argument to be made that this is a spec project to boost the value of the site even further but rather intriguingly it seems marketing for the apartments within the tower has already started.
Time will tell, but if built this tower will be 31m taller than the now under-construction Beetham Tower.

The Norman Foster designed Willis Building on Lime Street opposite Lloyds of London, which has seen groundwork commence is to be redesigned following the Willis Group's dissatisfaction with the current floor plates and the lack of adaptability of the existing design to their needs.
The prospective tenant, who signed the agreement to occupy the building two months ago are insistent on having a single building for them to occupy. As this fails to optimise the site fully the current stepped project will be replaced with a high-rise slightly taller than the current 125m plan but set back 25% from that, which will be occupied fully by Willis and low-rise element which the developer British Land will be able to rent out to another client.
The sticking point was the positioning of the core which Willis had requested be moved to make the floorplates more receptive to their needs, which it appears Foster and Partners were unable to move to the satisfaction of the client.
This development marks some disappoint for British Land who had hoped that the Willis Group would take the vast majority of their existing design. Despite this set-back work is expected to continue as the current building gets demolished and the site is then prepared for construction. There should be little noticeable delay in actual construction of the building with its completion date in 2007 pushed back a matter of months at the most.

The proposed tower at Chiswick Highroad which SN.com has been following since its inception has finally been cut down in height from 28 floors to a mere 12 following a protracted battle between the developer. The local council and outraged residents who think towers should be built elsewhere in London and that being 800m from the Thames it should be classified as a "riverside building" and thus subject to much stricter planning controls have opposed the tower plus the plans for neighbouring buildings from the start.
The 11 floor block adjacent to the cancelled tower which is being built specifically to house health workers for the local hospital is to goahead despite local opposition.

EXCLUSIVE - Plans have been submitted to redevelop the former GlaxoSmithKline site in Brentford, Wallis House. The masterplan for the area includes, the retention and alteration of the existing Wallis House, construction of a new healthclub, a residential element added to the project, the retention, alteration and extension of International House to be used as a 201 room hotel.
The centerpiece of the project is the demolition of all other buildings on the site to create 24,886 sq.m of retail and office space along with 1040 new homes. This will be contained in a series of buildings ranging from 4 to 10 floors, and the construction of a landmark 30 floor tower topping out at around the 100m mark.

Ken Shuttleworth, formerly of Foster and Partners who has defected to form his own pratise, Move, has unveiled his first design called Vortex.
The highly conceptual tower features a vase-like shape which is narrow in the middle and widens at the top and bottom, and is clearly based on the cancelled Bayonne Television Tower of New Jersey. The design complete with Shuttleworth's signature diamond lattice cladding that has been used to such great effect on Swiss RE, and is multicoloured as favoured in the concepts of the likes of Future Systems (anyone remember Greenbird?).
At a whopping 70 floors in height the chances of this outlandish design getting built are tiny but as many previous architects have found out, the best way to launch a new pratise is to do something mad, it gets the press talking!
Meanwhile Move have been appointed as the detailed architects for Elephant and Castle to work on the Foster and Partners masterplan, expect something more conservative there from then for this and nothing of such height as the plan only allows for towers between 25-35 floors.

The Commission for Architecture and Built Environment has savaged P.Os plans for a new tower at the sensitive sight on the South Bank at Elizabeth House. The controversial 33 storey sculptured slab occupies the site directly behind the landmark Shell Center and threatens to block some of the views from the hugely popular London Eye to the City and Southwark, reaching some 130m tall.
It's traditionally said that the top and bottom of towers are the hardest bits to do, and C.A.B.Es report reflects this criticising how the tower would fit into the streetplan, particularly at ground level and that it didn't gel properly with its surroundings. Basic design and urban concepts the commission felt needed a lot of refining before the project was of a suitably high quality for the position it would command.
The project was also criticised for the lack of detail that had been submitted to C.A.B.E which prevented them from judging it fully on it's merits, given the wealth of information other developers have made available for land-mark projects the demands of what is expeceted when a project goes through the planning system have obviously increased. Of particular concern was the lack of reliable imaging from multiple angles to give an impression of just how the tower would appear failing to make the concept seem real.
On the plus side they were not opposed to a building on this site in principal, but it seems the report from the teacher to the tower's architect, RHWL reads "has potential but must try harder."

EXCLUSIVE - Brighton based Brunwick Developments has joined up with the architects Wilkinson Eyre to develop over 1000 new homes around the site of the Brighton Marina with a landmark tower as the center of the ambitious scheme. The tower which will have 40 floors, and be a tad under the magic 500ft/152m mark giving sweeping views as far as France on a clear day. The height and number of floors is subject to consultation as it works its way through the planning process so it could shrink or grow depending on how well it's recieved. It will be surrounded by a series of smaller blocks reaching 14 storeys in height where the 400 affordable homes of the scheme will be located.
The light looking tower of gentle curves is designed to have a slender profile on the axis pointing out to see to maximise the views from the shore of the channel, and gently tapers in and out along the height of the northern fascade in a wave-like motion as it rises to its peak. Visually the tower is split into a lower and taller section to provide a contrasting appearance, and topped with a triangular crown on each of the two main sections.
Brunswick bought the land on the Marina for £9 million pounds in 1996 from Brent Walker and have been trying to figure out what to do with it since then to maximise their return. They've clearly taken their cue from proposed City Gateway Tower in nearby Portslade of the single tower model, not to mention the residential trends that are driving proposed tower blocks for Brighton ever taller. Tall residential towers in Brighton are nothing new though, for years it has had the tallest residential tower outside London with the 102m Sussex Heights.

What will be Portsmouth's tallest tower, excluding the under construction Spinaker Observation Tower, has seen work start on its site. East Side Plaza will reach 95m over it's 26 floors in a circular apartment building, with lipstick-like topping. Designed by Broadway Malayan it marks the centerpiece of Gunwharf Quays providing giving an iconic impact to anyone who looks up the length of the Quays, off the center of a circular openspace that almost evokes memories of new town planning of the 60s and 70s thanks to how the rest of its lower-rise neighbours border onto it. The tower should be complete by 2007, expect more from Portsmouth in the not too distant future.

Songbird, the consortium set-up by Morgan Stanley, have won the bid to take over Canary Wharf Plc following a protracted battle with one of the main shareholders Paul Reichman for control of the group. The group has been having a rough ride from shareholders ever since the revelations that the lease agreements on many of the buildings were not as watertight as shareholders had been led to believe, which had caused a slump in share price and outright hostility from some quarters.
Songbird's offer for 295p per share was accepted by 60.9% of the shareholders, slightly over the 54% requirement to approve a takeover. A rival bid by consortium Brascan which promised to break up the estate had only offered 275p per share. The Songbird proposal however promises to keep the whole estate as a coherent entity and develop the remaining plots of land on North Quay, Riverside South and Heron Quays West instead of selling them off to the highest bidder once market conditions allow them. In otherwords, in skyscraper-land it's business as usual.

EXCLUSIVE - The Richard Rogers Partnership have released plans for two proposed inter-linked towers on Heron Quays West at Canary Wharf.
The landmark development features two separate towers of 38 and 27 floors containing 2,474,408 ft² of largely office space, the tallest reaching 214m and the shorter reaching 158m, joined together by a podium and is set on the site directly between Riverside South and Heron Quays.
Addressing the massing of problems of some of the Heron Quays buildings, and in particular number 2, these towers central visual tool is to try and break up the impact of their large scale steel and glass facades. With offset corners and a glass screen topping each tower the overall impact of the towers size is reduced whilst the 20m tall screens at the top of the buildings continue the impression of breaking up the facades and give an interesting crowning feature not previously seen in the Wharf.
The corners also help provide some colour variation and we can see from the images that the strong use of colour is becoming a trend in designs by R.R.P, particularly following their design for 122 Leadenhall Street which has similar bold uses of colour. Such use of colour though, represents a design departure for Canary Wharf who have always gone for more dour colour schemes in the past.
The existence of the central podium helps relate the towers to the groundplane whilst providing some continuity with other twin towers schemes proposed for the estate, complete with the trademarked Rogers signature of diagonal bracing on the cladding. Most importantly it provides something of a street level to help those on the ground feel less overwhelmed by the towers.
The towers themselves seem to be designed in a shape that partially tapers towards the back as the eye moves from east to west, clearly offsetting them from the docks around and providing an interesting visual contrast with its more rigidly designed neighbours. The tips of the taller crown however are designed to just reach the shoulder of One Canada Square and continue the visual theme that Canada Square is the center of the estate. Massing continuity is also provided by the shorter of the two towers which is designed to be of similar size to the neighbouring Heron Quays skyscrapers whilst the taller tower is the same height as one of the adjacent Riverside South buildings.
At a cost of £300 million pounds this project won't come cheap and it's not expected to be started until both North Quay and Riverside South are complete. Unless the current economic climate shows a remarkable change for the better we don't expect this project to start this side of 2010 which is a pity as these are the most interesting designs for Canary Wharf since we published the original Riverside South ones.

The planned 104m tall tower at New Providence Wharf, 1 mile east of the Isle of Dogs has been approved by Tower Hamlets. Previously proposed as a hotel tower the development will now mirror the increasing demand for highrise apartments in London and be entirely residential.
The lipstick shaped landmark is the last phase of the scheme developed designed for the Irish company Ballymore which has been a huge success in contrast to some rival schemes including Discovery Dock. Construction is expected to start later this year and marks a significant new step in the ever spreading Docklands cluster as it grows further east towards the Thames Gateway and bodes particularly well for the next-door scheme of a similar height on the Reuters plot (the blocky building on the far right of the image).
Ballymore are now expected to turn their attention to a scheme in the Tower Hamlets Millenium Quarter, possibly 1 Millharbour or Arrowhead Quay thanks to the planning delays over their planned tower for Crossharbour.

100 Middlesex Street, a 112m tall tower revealed by this site last year, was approved by Tower Hamlets council last night.
Designed by Orms Architects, at 25 floors with a slender profile stretching from north to south it will feature glass curtain walling, stone at street level and matching concrete on the upper floors, topped with a spire pushing the total height to 127.5m.
Most importantly it is a significant step for the City which is seeing growth on the area labelled the City Fringe around its border with Tower Hamlets and will help to push the skyline significantly further east, particularly when taken into account with the planned New Corporation HQ at Wapping Docks.
Construction is not expected on this office development until a significant let takes place.

Following the approval of Columbus Tower by the planning committee of Tower Hamlets council the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has rubber-stamped the project giving it the thumbs up. It's hardly a surprising decision as the Mayor was known to be broadly supportive of the project and initially floated the idea of building a tower on that site in the first place.
The 239m tall tower has had plenty of opposition though from neighbouring Canary Wharf who paradoxically are complaining about the stress it could put on the local infrastructure, and also City Airport who claim the tower infringes their flight-paths. Despite this the Civil Aviation Authority have not complained about the height of the tower which is actually under the height limits set on the flight paths and it is the CAA, not City Airport who are able to block the tower if they object.
Now the Mayor's Office has approved this project it gets passed back to Tower Hamlets council who will examine the proposal further. There are a number of outcomes...

• Tower Hamlets may now ask the developer to reduce the height. The developers could then either withdraw the application, reduce the height and re-submit it, or Tower Hamlets could refuse it and the developer would then submit a new application which means the whole process starts again. Simply demanding a reduced height is not a reason for permission.
• If the developers do not change the design and Tower Hamlets decide to refuse permission, the developers could then appeal and this would be dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate. It seems unlikely Tower Hamlets would refuse planning permission having given it provisional approval but if they did the whole issue of the tower blocking flightpaths would be considered and given the data on the flightpaths it is likely the appeal against refusing planning permission would be upheld.
• Tower Hamlets could give the tower full approval but the C.A.A could then have the tower called in for a public inquiry as they are a statutory body in the planning process. As they have not complained about the tower impeding flight paths so far this does not seem likely.
• The developers of Columbus Tower could pay off the owners of City Airport. Rumours have been flying for months that they have tried to buy the airport for half a billion pounds to shut them up.
• The most likely option given how the building has progressed through the planning process and the realities of the nature of objections against it suggest that it will be given full approval and that the C.A.A will not insist on a public inquiry. Of course, with the British planning system nothing is sure-fire.

City Airport have also been objecting to a series of other planned developments for the Isle of Dogs which they claim will impede flight-paths. Developments include Riverside South which is towers of 214m and 189m which they say infringes the flightpath by approximately 100m.
This has left many people baffled as between Riverside South and City Airport are three skyscrapers on Heron Quays ranging between 150m and 160m in height and these are by City Airports calculations clearly infringing the flightpaths too and yet were built with no problem.
The neighbouring planned Heron Quays West which should be a similar height, and North Quay on the northern edge of the estate also look likely to run into complaints. The planned 168m tall tower at Docklands arena has already had 30m lopped off it because of objections about it straying into the flightpaths although this tower is substantially further south than the core of the cluster. These developments combined with Columbus Tower total approximately £3 billion pounds in value which raises a question on the economic viability of City Airport on the surrounding area.
To add to the riddle, City Airport mainly takes executive sized aircraft which carry passengers largely to Canary Wharf. Blocking office developments in the area hampers further passenger growth of the airport and restricts its own revenues.
The crucial issue however is whether the Civil Aviation Authority listens to the objections that City Airport is now lodging against schemes in the area.
Some analysts believe the owners are creating circumstances whereby developers in Isle of Dogs will have to club together to purchase the airport for greater than its market value to shut it down lest it impede their much more valuable investments. Ideally such transport infrastructure should be an asset to London but if it starts to seriously impede development then it's days can only be numbered and in the medium term a buy-out would be a must.

Islington Council have announced their policy on tall buildings for the borough. The council, which apart from the noteable exception of Ropemaker Place which lies literally on its boundary has been anti high-rise strictly enforcing a limit of 30m whereever possible.
The new policy enhances this for developers and seeks to clarify existing points. There is little actual change except for a few notable examples where by they will allow one 150m tall tower on a parcel of land next to Citypoint, two buildings on Old Street at 120m and 80m, and an 80m tall tower on the City Forum site at a maximum of 115m high. A further two sites are earmarked as suitable for buildings of 60m whilst redevelopment of Archway Tower is also recommended as the council consider its prominent position ruins the current view.
The council expect all towers to be slender in profile rather than lumpy, they should have high quality detailing, and be set on podiums so they can relate to ground level better. Any tower that does not have a podium will be refused planning permission, perversely this would prevent 30 St Mary's Axe from getting planning permission whilst Centerpoint would be approved. It appears that judging each individual application on it's merits is not exactly on the table.
In addition to this they will not allow any towers to be built infringing viewpoints including viewpoints which have already been blocked by existing towers. Development will not be allowed in conservation areas either.
It is clear that despite a massive shortage of housing in Islington and enormous demand for existing stock the council will not permit even medium rise high density developments to take some of the strain out of the market. This can only mean more the of the lowrise expensive gated developments that are starting to cover Islington along the rapidly gentrifying Essex Road area.
At best this document can be called a start for developers. Given that Islingtons south boundary area is a prominent business area literally adjacent Moorhouse their opposition to projects over 30m tall seems it will hamper business growth in the borough, the sort that Tower Hamlets have been encouraging thanks to the spillover on the City fringe to the east.
Most disappointingly the document is highly critical of current towers in Islington using them as justification of why a larger number of towers or even developments of 50m tall should not be built. Whilst it is clearly positive that Islington Council is keen to avoid mistakes of the past, architecture has moved on from the sixties as the opening of 30 St Mary's Axe has shown but some councils in London still believe high is bad and evokes an image of grotty sixties concrete. The jury is still out on whether Islington is one.

Liverpool is set to get a new tallest building with the announcement by Maro Developments of an Ian Simpson designed 50 floor residential tower for Brunswick Quay. The £70 million project will top the magic 500ft /150m mark easily beating the current record holder, the Beetham Tower by around 200 feet and is being funded entirely by the developer Maro Developments.
Simpson is proving ubquitious at the moment when it comes to residential skyscrapers in regional centers having just designed the now under construction Beetham Tower in Manchester and the winning entry for Criterion Place in Leeds, a competition that Maro Developments also submitted an entry for.
Clad in glass, the tower and two planned neighbouring buildings will contain 532 new apartments as well as retail outlets and entertainment on the lower levels to add more life to the dockside.
Construction is expected to start early next year assuming planning permission is awarded with completion of the project scheduled for 2007. It might not be the Liverpool record-holder for long though, rumours are already flying of a taller project nearby for Stephen Beetham.

30 St Mary's Axe, Swiss Reinsurance's brand spanking new headquarters is set to be opened on the 27th of April for business. Designed by Foster and Partners, the building with it's unique tapering cylindrical design has already been taken into the hearts of Londoners and dubbed the Gherkin by the press and public alike having done more than a million campaigns by architects to change peoples perceptions of what a highrise building can be. With it's futuristic design and environmental credentials it is the first step of what has become a trend in the City, with the equally impressive Minerva and Willis Buildings due to start withing a matter of months.

Leeds have announced the winner of their design competition for Criterion Place, and for a change the safest design, or the most unpopular design didn't win.
Ian Simpson's design of twin shards for Smith's esates came romping home in first place and look set to provide Leeds with a building of outstanding architectural quality and a symbol for the 21st century.
Hopefully it should have a less painful development than Bridgewater Place.

Brighton looks set to get a new tallest building with a proposal for a 135m tall residential tower with 35 floors. The City Gateway development has been designed by GS Architects for a brownfield site Portslade. It will feature a whopping 500 new apartments including 40% social housing which will go a long way in somewhere like Brighton (pop approx 200,000).
In massing terms it's a retro design with the main tower rising from the center of a substantial base which is something all too rarely seen in the U.K these days.
The current site already has planning permission for a 29,000sq ft gym which has been incorporated into the new design, which appears to slavishly follow the Unitary Development Policy on tall buildings drawn up by Brighton Council. Unlike previous developments it will not stand in a largely lowrise residential area and will provide a mix of uses, this alone should see insure that the project will face much less hardcore opposition than other high-rise projects in Brighton have.
Meanwhile the Preston Road development in Brighton has been destroyed by blue-rinse opposition which have seen it reduced to a mere six floors. Clearly Brighton isn't quite the capital of cool it hoped to be yet.

With announcing their latest results the Minerva Group have announced that the 216m / 725ft tall Minerva Building planned for the site of St Boltophs in the City of London will be starting groundwork before the year is out. The group had previously ruled out construction without a significant pre-let so presumably this means that they expect to exchange contracts with a client soon.
This news follows hot on the announcement by British Land regarding Lime Street and clearly shows that things are starting to hot up in the City again. When completed the Nicholas Grimshaw designed skyscraper will be the tallest building in the City of London dwarfing the current title holder, Tower 42, by over 100 feet.

Plans have been announced for a design competition in Leeds to build a new and inconic tower. Criterion Place has seen three rival plans from leading British architects to produce a landmark building. DTR:UK has designed a 22-storey tower for Marco Developments' scheme, Simons Estates and fresh off their Manchester Beetham success Ian Simpson Architects are proposing a double tower development with the main block reaching 47 storeys, whilst Rushbond has joined forces with architect DLA for a 32-storey building. Heights for the proposals range up to 160m for the Ian Simpson design.

• Rushbond are clearly going for a development that will fit in with almost under-construction Bridgewater Place with similar cladding and massing. DLAs design can only be described as the 'Leeds Look' in the same way that the GN Tower, 1 Deansgate and so on have provided a signature look for Manchester. At 32 floors it should be an almost identical height to the building it references and spur on a number of other buildings in the future that fit in nicely on the skyline although from the ground-level it stands out thanks to its largely glass look creating an individual presence. From the perspective of Leeds at the moment this is probably the design that would fit in best thanks to the lack of extreme height, and that the architecture isn't outlandish whilst it's certainly more interesting than DTR:UK design.
• Ian Simpson's towers are more literally shards of glass than London Bridge Tower forming what literally appears to be a archway. At a whopping 160m which isn't a lot for London but would completely dominate the Leeds skyline, some would say they don't relate well to the rest of the city in terms of scale but that's as much Leeds fault for not having built tall as the towers and something that future development should eventually rectify.
  This entry will contain an indoor garden at the top whilst the shorter of the two blocks will have a public viewing platform.
  Their gravity defying design though looks like being the favourite of architecture afficiandos to win this competition thanks to the sheer audaciousness of it and would certainly put Leeds at the forefront of modern architecture. It may be too avante-garde though and doesn't fit in so well with the ground plane as the two shorter designs. A great design but possibly built in the wrong place.
• DTR:UK have come up with the shortest design at a mere 22 floors, a chunky tower well under 100m tall. It's more the ordinary design that has sneaked inbetween the other two entries as always happens in an architecture competition. It definitely relates best to the area around it in terms of scale and massing but fails to provide the "wow factor" of Ian Simpson's design or the local relevance of DLAs design. Despite this it should be a strong contender thanks to the conservatism on show in the design and the Alsop style which seems to be so popular in some circles at the moment.
  

EXCLUSIVE - Glasgow is set to get a new 134m tall skyscraper, Elphinstone Place. The 1.4 acre site will contain a grand total of 45,436.8 sq m of space comprising of a mix of office accomodation, 202 luxury flats, leisure facilities and a pool, retail space and 263 car-parking spaces.
Designed by local Coopar Cromar for the scottish Elphinstone Group, Elphinstone Place will feature what is boasted as a unique tear-drop design stretched over 39 floors it will be the tallest building in Scotland exceding the current Glasgow Science Center by 9 meters.
The total budget for the building is set at just over 100 million pounds representing one of the largest property investments yet seen in Glasgow.
It's not all good news though as the tower looks set to stand on the site of the proposed Trinity Towers on run down office buildings which date back to the 1960s. Planning permission was applied for on the 22nd of March and with six months consultation process expected construction should be starting by the end of 2004 with project completion set for late 2007.
Project approval shouldn't be a problem thanks to the council's desparate attempts at leaving behind the old but still enduring image of a Glasgow ravaged by the economic problems that Thactherism brought in the 1980s.

EXCLUSIVE - The 239m tall Columbus Tower has been approved by Tower Hamlets planning committee. The skyscraper which has been designed DMWR for the property investment group SKMG will tower 63 floors above the surrounding docks and for a short time be Britains tallest building, a title that it should hold for no more than six months before London Bridge Tower overtakes it.
Demolition of the current site is expected to start in the summer with construction beginning as soon after as possible. The tower should be complete by the end of 2007.
Columbus is the latest of a raft of 200m plus proposals to be approved by London councils since the successful London Bridge Tower public inquiry in April 2002 but is certainly not going to be the last.

EXCLUSIVE - The abortive Arena Central project for Birmingham is to finally go forwards to construction following years of wrangling and cynicism. In confidential planning documents seen by SN.COM Birmingham planning department fully expects construction for the project to start in December 2004.
The only thing stopping the 213,670 sq m / 2,300,000 sq ft development is the current negotiations between the developers in the project, Miller and their partner BCC who bought out Hampton.
Arena Central was approved by the council in 2000 and rubber stamped by the Deputy Prime Minister and will stand 175m tall making it the tallest building outside London topping the now under construction Hilton Deansgate Tower in Manchester by 4 meters. Separate permission also exists for a 70m tall communications mast to be mounted on the tower.
We understand that the council has already approved the entire project and this is the project that the council expect to proceed. As no reapplication has been filed it should be near identical to the original proposals.
The £450 million pound project is expected to create some 8,000 jobs in this mixed use development.

British Land has prelet the entire planned 58 Building at 51 Lime Street opposite Lloyds of London. The half a million square foot development looks set to start almost immediately thanks to the lease signed by the insurance company Willis Group Holdings who will be taking 420,000sq ft / 39,000 sq m who will see the building named the Willis Building.
This 26 floor office building designed by Norman Foster reaches 125m / 409ft, and is one of the latest organic designs to come out of the practice. Based around a shellfish, its a highly sculpture piece featuring a series of different sections which step down to the height of their neighbours as well as providing a curving glass frontage to contrast with the techno-post-modernism of Lloyds.
Demolition on the site will be starting very soon, with construction expected to finish around 2006. When completed it will be the fourth tallest building in the City of London (assuming nothing taller is finished by then). This building stands over the road from 122 Leadenhall which can be seen in the right of the rendering infront of Lloyds.
With Norton Rose rumoured to be taking up 201 Bishopsgate, also developed by British Land, and British Land's hints they will want to build speculatively to provide them with a buffer for the market picking up as to satisfy potential rising demand, 122 Leadenhall could be on the cards sooner than people expect.

Manchester looks increasingly like becoming Skychester with the second 500 foot plus project on the way. Designed by Norman Foster and Partners the Spinningfields project to sit on Hardman Square right next to the Criminal Justice Center consists of a 140m / 460ft tall tower which tops over 500ft when the spire is taken into consideration and a neighbouring 90m tall tower plus two neighbouring low-rise blocks creating a cluster around the legal center of the city.
Developer Allied London plans a total of 35 floors this makes it substantially taller than any other office tower in Manchester. The buildings are set to contain 575,000ft of office space and a massive new shopping quarter to rival the Bullring in Birmingham consisting of quarter of a million square feet of retail space.
The project is typical of a style becoming synonomous with Manchester ever since it was first seen in Number 1 Deansgate, featuring a series of triangular wedges with slanting rooves.
Planning permission is expected to be applied for in the early summer with approval taking up to six months. Construction should be beginning on the lower rise elements in the first half of 2005. The taller elements will depend on a pre-let but with the CJC nearby there should be no shortage of potential clients.

Elsewhere in Manchester the tallest building in the city, the Hilton Deansgate Tower built by the Beetham organisation has started work with the site being prepared for construction. The core shuold be rising to its full height over Manchester by the end of the year. Although dubbed Britains tallest residential building this title will remain held by the Barbican Towers in London because the Hilton Deansgate Tower is half hotel meaning well under 100m / 328ft of the height will be residential.

Here's a first look at a planned hotel and office development on the eastern fringe of the City of London, United Standard House. Designed by Seifort Architects for Columbia Properties this 353 room hotel, well contain some 25,000 sq m of office space, with the whole development centered around a glass atrium of interlocking sheets that will rise up the middle of the building all the way to its top. At slightly under 100m / 327ft with a total of 24 storeys it is the latest in a series of proposals for the area that include the landmark Minerva tower.

Heron Properties have made a formal planning application for another high-rise building in the City of London. The 95m / 300ft tall Heron Plaza will lie directly opposite their much delayed skyscraper at 110 Bishopsgate and comprise of a mixture of office and retail space. They plan on building this development speculatively along with the neighbouring 110 Bishopsgate when Norton Rose finally vacate the building in 2005 so we should see two towers on opposite sides of the road go up in tandem.

The designs for Crossharbour by SOM have finally been scaled back. Working for Irish property developer Ballymore the 170m tall tower which was to stand on the north of the site of the current London Arena in Docklands is to get 8 floors lopped off it following concerns about it's domineering position in the skyline and the complaints of locals envious of yet another expensive development going up in the area. It now looks certain to come in around the same height as the nearby proposed towers for 1 Millharbour which will be 139m tall.

British Waterways have formally announced an attempt to find financing for their 2 billion pound development scheme at Woodwharf. The project which will include two 150m tall office towers on the western side of it, a number of medium rise residential towers and a stunning arch which will provide views through a skyscraper valley all the way to the far western end of the Canary Wharf estate. In total they aim to have approximately 400,000 sq m of commercial space and 1500 new homes.
British Waterways have made much not just about the density of the development but also the massive amount of public space. In this case they plan to have almost 50% public space on the ground with a mixture of waterways, parkland, sweeping avenues and a marina - almost the antithesis to the excessive corporate blandness of nearby Canary Wharf. The estate has been developed around the idea of continuing the axis that the dock creates splitting Heron Quays from the Millenium Quarter before stepping down in height the further east it gets and closer to City Airport to provide a natural end to the cluster.
If British Waterways are succesful with their attempts to get funding they will aim to complete the entire development by 2012, the hallowed date where we *might* get the Olympics.

Beetham, Britain's answer to Trump, have announced their proposals for another tower, this time in Edinburgh Harbour near Leith. At 35-40 floors and the approximate height of their tower under construction in Birmingham, it will be the tallest structure in Scotland and the first tower to be built in Edinburgh since the 1970s. If it gets the goahead it will start construction in 2005.
Leith itself whilst not technically what you'd think of as Edinburgh is the old dockland area of the City and currently something of a waste ground. The area around the harbours has had a number of proposals recently including the European Gallery of Contemporary Arts designed by Ghery and a 16 floor residential development by CALA Homes promising an exciting and potential new skyline.
Although Edinburgh is famously conservative with new projects these lie far enough outside the historic core to actually get the goahead and if Beetham's track record is anything to go by Edinburgh will soon be getting a new tallest building.