Amanda Levete and Adam Caruso among objectors to plans to redevelop headquarters of law firm Linklaters
High profile architects including Stirling Prize-winner Amanda Levete are among more than 1,000 people who have now spoken out against SOM’s plans for two 20-storey office towers next to the Barbican.
The 1 Silk Street scheme, which is being masterminded by 22 Bishopsgate developer Lipton Rogers, has amassed a total of 1,038 objections from members of the public against just nine public representations of support.
Submitted in June last year, the scheme would replace the London headquarters of law firm Linklaters with a pair of buildings containing 91,000sq m of commercial space.
But the proposals have been widely criticised by nearby residents and heritage groups for being too large and overshadowing the neighbouring grade II-listed Barbican estate, with Historic England, the Twentieth Century Society and Save Britain’s Heritage all objecting to the scheme.
Levete, whose Future Systems-designed Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Groud was awarded the Stirling Prize in 1999, said the proposals were “completely inappropriate” for the City fringe site and described the design as “average”.
She said: “As a Stirling Prize winning architect, I wish to object to the 1 Silk Street development plans. The building is completely inappropriate in scale and height for the setting of the Barbican development, damaging the heritage and conservation area. There will clearly be a loss of sunlight and daylight to the surrounding areas and community. This speculative office building is too big and of average quality.
“The Barbican and the City deserve a building of real quality here - one that respects the globally admired Barbican Cultural Centre and the rich composition the Barbican’s trinity of towers.”
Caruso St John co-founder Adam Caruso said the proposed architecture was “generic” and had been designed to prioritise speedy construction and “satisfying the expectations of the current real estate market”.
“The height and volume of the proposal in no way acknowledges the history or the specific character of the site and its surroundings. Its architecture, organisation, and scale come from a globalised language of contemporary commercial architecture,” Caruso said.
He added that the decision to demolish the existing building “should not be acceptable on environmental grounds, criticising the ”enormous amount of embodied carbon that will be ‘wasted’ in the process of demolishing the existing structure, and in the new construction.”
Inskip, founder of London practice Inskip Gee, supported redevelopment of the site’s existing 1980s building but said the two proposed blocks would be “totally inappropriate” for the setting, calling for a building which is “much smaller [and] lower”.
Other objectors include graphic designer Richard Hollis, who lives in the Barbican’s Cromwell Tower, and Francis Pugh, who leads tours of the Barbican Estate for charity Open City.
Barbican resident Margaret Pennycook described the proposals as “grossly out of scale” with the historic setting, adding: “Approving this clumsy and unattractive structure would be quite inappropriate for any responsible planning authority.”
The application’s nine letters of support include an endorsement by Jessica and Elliott Pycroft, the children of former Mace chairman Steve Pycroft, who argued the scheme represented a “forward-looking response to the evolving needs of the City of London”.
The pair added that they were “particularly encouraged by the project’s strong sustainability credentials”, which they said “reflect a responsible and future-focused approach to development”.
Government heritage advisor Historic England said it did not oppose the redevelopment of the existing 1 Silk Street building as it “relates poorly to its surroundings”.
But the statutory consultee said the site’s proposed replacement, which would be around 15m taller than the existing building, would harm the setting of the Barbican and the grade I-listed St Bride’s Church and called for the scheme to be redesigned.
SOM is lead architect and structural engineer on the project with the team also including T&T Alinea on costs, Arup on MEP, DP9 on planning, Donald Insall Associates on heritage, Montagu Evans on townscape and Kanda on public consultation.
SOM and Lipton Rogers have been approached for comment.
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