One Blackfriars Recognised by World Architecture Festival

SimpsonHaugh and Partners-designed tower makes WAF 2015 Awards shortlist

One Blackfriars, the iconic 170m-high tower on London's Southbank by residential developer St George, has been shortlisted for the 2015 World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards.

One Blackfriars is one of only four UK developments on a 17-strong shortlist in the Residential Future Projects category.

WAF is the world's largest annual celebration of architecture and design, and brings together more than 2,000 architects from 60 countries. The results of the WAF Awards will be announced at the World Architecture Festival, held in Singapore in November 2015.

Ross Faragher, Managing Director of St George, said: "We are delighted that the One Blackfriars has been shortlisted for this prestigious award, recognising the quality of this unique building which will soon be taking shape on the London skyline."

The 50-storey One Blackfriars tower will provide 273 new homes, a boutique-style 161-bedroom hotel to be operated by Amerimar, a landscaped piazza and retail, café and restaurant outlets.

The soaring asymmetrical tower features a dynamic double envelope façade with two distinct layers, with the outer layer taking an unusual curved form, adding an expressive new silhouette to the London skyline.

Set back from this outer layer is an inner façade which helps fresh air to circulate the building, reducing the need for further cooling systems.

The development also involves a major commitment to public space, with a new 641 sq m public piazza with gentle landscaping, seating areas, water features and a locally commissioned artwork at its heart.



For further information, please contact FTI Consulting:

Ollie Pratt     T: 0203 727 1428 E: Ollie.Pratt@fticonsulting.com  
Sian Disson T: 0203 727 1747 E: Sian.Disson@fticonsulting.com  

Notes to the Editor:


About St George PLC:

St George is proud to be a member of the Berkeley Group and is London's leading mixed use developer, regenerating brownfield land to create thriving new communities in attractive landscaped environments.
 
Since 2000 St George has delivered over 8,730 new homes; over 2,400 of which are affordable; 836,000 sq ft of commercial floor space and 83,000 sq ft of community space, as well as 30 acres of open space.
In 2002, St George was the first residential developer to be granted the Queen's Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development. The Berkeley Group as a whole received this prestigious accolade in 2008 and again in 2014.
 
Each home St George delivers creates or sustains 5.6 jobs.

About One Blackfriars:

The form of the One Blackfriars tower, designed by SimpsonHaugh and Partners, presents a range of challenges in construction.

The unusual geometry of the building means that each floor plate is different, and the smoothly curving façade with its double envelope structure is painstakingly crafted so that each pane of glass is unique.
   
The tower structure comprises 9,126 individual panels of glass arranged as two distinct layers, with the outer façade of 5,467 panels amounting to the area of three football pitches.
The building's unusual double skin façade provides residents with winter gardens.

One Blackfriars will deliver regeneration of a key vacant site on Blackfriars Road, a priority area for the council, which has been empty for over a decade after the former Sainsburys HQ was demolished.

The development will provide £29 million for affordable housing in accordance with local planning policy; half has already been paid.

One hundred people are currently working on the construction of One Blackfriars; increasing to one thousand by summer 2016.

The development has been under construction since November 2013, with its main structure soon to become visible from the River Thames.