Orms-designed block to add to developer’s emerging commercial complex near Tate Modern
Southwark council has approved Landsec’s plans to add a 12-storey office block to its complex of commercial buildings near the Tate Modern on London’s South Bank.
Councillors voted to approve the Orms-designed redevelopment of 22 and 24 Southwark Bridge Road earlier this week.
The scheme, located just south of Southwark Bridge, will back onto Landsec’s Forge development, a nine-storey office development designed by Piercy & Co which was completed by a Sir Robert McAlpine/Mace joint venture in 2023.
The new project will see the demolition of the seven-storey red brick building at 24 Southwark Bridge Road and the partial demolition, recladding and vertical extension by five storeys of the six-to-eight-storey building at 22 Southwark Bridge Road.
The two sites will be combined to create one block covering 0.25 ha and range from six to 12 storeys, providing around 20,000 sq m of office space.
The proposals had been recommended for approval by Southwark’s planning officers ahead of Tuesday’s planning committee meeting in a report which praised the scheme’s “elegant and distinctive” design.
“The architectural design is sound and well considered,” officers said. “The building, which takes up the full length of the block, benefits from a unifying design approach to the Southwark Bridge Road frontage.
“The composition is measured with a confident and engaging base, a polite middle and a highly articulated and recessive top.”
An earlier version of the scheme was significantly revised after being criticised as “confused” by the council’s Design Review Panel in 2023. The amended plans were submitted in July last year.
The project team includes cost consultant Core Five, structural engineer London Structures Labs, planning consultant Avison Young, facade consultant Eckersley O’Callaghan, townscape consultant Turley, fire and sustainability consultant Aecom and principal designer AtkinsRealis.
McGee is on the project team as pre-demolition advisor.
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