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Architects: PLP Architecture
- Area: 49800 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Julian Abrams, Jack Hardy, Nathaniel Moore
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Manufacturers: Abbey Thermal, B&B Italia, BDL, Brown and Carrols, C&C, Expanded, Frener&Reifer, George Banrsdale & Sons, Kone, Maylim, Paolo Castelli, Ruddy, Scheldebouw, Szerelmey
Text description provided by the architects. One Bishopsgate Plaza is the first high-rise residential and hospitality development built in the City in recent years and stands as a bold commitment to the continued vitality of the area. The site includes a new 43-storey tower to house the hotel and residential uses along with a refurbished and extended Victorian building lining Devonshire Row that incorporates restaurant, office and retail space. The retail units open directly onto both the street and the new public space.
The development is situated on a unique site between the bustle of the city and the vibrant residential neighbourhoods around Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane Market to the east. It acts as a mediator between these contrasting districts, establishing new routes to and through the site for local inhabitants and visitors alike. The welcoming and accessible environment established by a new plaza – the largest along Bishopsgate – has created a lively public realm that helps to draw people in, contributing to the city’s ambitions to become a 24-hour destination whilst capitalising on increased foot traffic associated with the Post-COVID return to offices and the new Crossrail station that will open next year.
The five-star Pan Pacific London hotel is located on the tower’s lower floors and offers 237 luxurious guestrooms with interior design by the noted practice, Yabu Pushelberg. Above this, 160 Sky Residences feature open, flexible layouts and full height glazing affording dramatic views over the surrounding area. A range of public and private amenities are incorporated across the site, including the subterranean Pacific Ballroom nestled below the plaza, a dedicated Wellbeing Floor, a gymnasium, and cafes and restaurant facilities for guests and residents.
The tower is designed to reflect the quality and ambitions of the overall development, with extensive glazing incorporating bronze louvred screens in varying configurations that provide aesthetic differentiation and architectural sophistication to the overall form. The building steps back as it rises, accommodating terraces and other amenity spaces and lending visual contrast to the more solid and blocky forms of nearby towers.
The 144-year-old Devonshire House has been thoughtfully reconsidered and expanded, with shops, a restaurant and a cocktail bar -tucked below a dramatic scale-like curved aluminium and glass free-spanning roof. A portion of the building has been meticulously replicated utilising the original materials and construction methodology to match the existing building, and a listed façade has been repaired and reintegrated using traditional craftsmen and techniques.
One Bishopsgate Plaza works holistically to embrace the City of London’s goals of becoming a more inclusive place for meeting, living, working and exploring. It stands as a bold new step for visiting and living in the City and supports its future growth as a global centre for international business and leisure.
