Wood Wharf Masterplan.

In 2007, the Canary Wharf Group initiated plans to effectively transform this area into ‘Canary Wharf Phase 2’, and with RSHP they attained a planning permission to develop the area with a number of glass and steel office blocks. Since the subsequent economic crisis, however, the demands of the area have changed, and the current masterplan is a direct response to this dramatic shift. Creating a new and dynamic quarter in the financial district, the scheme focuses on high-quality residential units provided within a public realm, which boasts truly excellent public spaces, restaurants, cafés, bars and leisure facilities that are designed to encourage living. Office space is also delivered with an emphasis on the creative industries.

The Planning Application, submitted in December 2013 includes a detailed application for a 58-storey, 212 m-tall residential tower by Herzog and de Meuron, a 42-storey residential tower by Stanton Williams and two office blocks with Allies and Morrison. A huge basement of up to 15 m deep, which houses up to three levels of accommodation, extends to 350 × 200 m, covering the majority of the site.

A number of constraints dictated structural decisions, including the presence of listed dock walls nearby and Jubilee line tunnels directly below the site protected by a 3 m exclusion zone, as well as various buried services and obstructions, which were all considered and worked around during the early design stages. The first phase of construction involved a large ‘land grab’ where the development boundary goes beyond that of the current site, moving southwards into the dock.

2014 AR MIPIM Future Projects Award (One Park Drive)