Willis Building (London)

Last updated

Willis Building
Willis Building (London).jpg
Willis Building (London)
General information
Location London, EC3
United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°30′46″N0°04′53″W / 51.5129°N 0.0815°W / 51.5129; -0.0815 Coordinates: 51°30′46″N0°04′53″W / 51.5129°N 0.0815°W / 51.5129; -0.0815
Construction started2004
Completed2008;15 years ago (2008)
Height
Roof125 metres (410 ft)
Technical details
Floor count26
Floor area50,107 m2 (539,350 sq ft) [1]
Design and construction
Architect(s) Norman Foster
Structural engineer Ramboll
Main contractorMace
References
[2]

The Willis Building is a commercial skyscraper in London named after the primary tenant, Willis Group. It is located on Lime Street in the City of London financial district.

Contents

The building was designed by Norman Foster and developed by British Land. It stands opposite the Lloyd's building and is 125 metres (410 ft) tall, with 26 storeys. It features a "stepped" design, which was intended to resemble the shell of a crustacean, with setbacks rising at 97 m (318 ft) and 68 m (223 ft). In total, there are 475,000 square feet (44,128.9 m2) of office floor-space, most of which was pre-let to the insurance broker Willis.

History

The Willis Building was constructed between 2004 and 2008 under the management of Mace [3] and represented a significant addition to the City of London skyline at the time, becoming its fourth-tallest building after Tower 42, 30 St Mary Axe and CityPoint. The core was topped out in July 2006 and the steelwork completed in September that year. Cladding began in July 2006 and the structure was externally completed by June 2007. It was internally fitted out and officially opened in April 2008.

The building was the first[ citation needed ] in a wave of new tall towers for London's primary financial district. Others included 22 Bishopsgate, the Leadenhall Building and the Heron Tower.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">30 St Mary Axe</span> Skyscraper in London, England

30 St Mary Axe is a commercial skyscraper in London's primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 floors, it is 180 metres (591 ft) tall and stands on the sites of the former Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 in the Baltic Exchange bombing by a device placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, a narrow street leading north from Leadenhall Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shanghai World Financial Center</span> Supertall skyscraper in Shanghai, China

The Shanghai World Financial Center is a supertall skyscraper located in the Pudong district of Shanghai. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by the Mori Building Company, with Leslie E. Robertson Associates as its structural engineer and China State Construction Engineering Corp and Shanghai Construction (Group) General Co. as its main contractor. It is a mixed-use skyscraper, consisting of offices, hotels, conference rooms, observation decks, and ground-floor shopping malls. Park Hyatt Shanghai is the tower's hotel component, comprising 174 rooms and suites occupying the 79th to the 93rd floors, which at the time of completion was the highest hotel in the world. It is now the third-highest hotel in the world after the Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, which occupies floors 102 to 118 of the International Commerce Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Helen's (skyscraper)</span> Commercial in London, England

St Helen's is a commercial skyscraper in London, United Kingdom. It is 118 metres (387 ft) tall and has 23 floors. The postal address is No. 1, Undershaft, though the main entrance fronts onto Leadenhall Street, in the City of London financial district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">122 Leadenhall Street</span> Skyscraper in London, UK

122 Leadenhall Street, which is also known as the Leadenhall Building, is a 225-metre-tall (738 ft) skyscraper in central London. It opened in July 2014 and was designed by the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; it is known informally as The Cheesegrater because of its distinctive wedge shape similar to that of the kitchen utensil with the same name. It is one of numerous tall buildings recently completed or under construction in the City of London financial district, including 20 Fenchurch Street, 22 Bishopsgate and The Scalpel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">22 Bishopsgate</span> Building in England, UK

22 Bishopsgate, also known as Twentytwo, is a commercial skyscraper in London, England. Completed in 2020, it occupies a prominent site in Bishopsgate, in the City of London financial district, and stands at 278 m (912 ft) tall with 62 storeys. The project replaces an earlier plan for a 288 m (945 ft) tower named The Pinnacle, on which construction was started in 2008 but suspended in 2012 following the Great Recession, with only the concrete core of the first seven storeys. The structure was later subjected to a re-design, out of which it became known by its postal address, 22 Bishopsgate. It is the second tallest building in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Millennium Tower</span> Defunct London skyscraper proposal

The London Millennium Tower was one of several ideas for the site of the former Baltic Exchange at 30 St Mary Axe in the City of London, that had been destroyed beyond repair by a Provisional IRA bomb blast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Capitals</span> Mixed-use in Moscow, Russia

The City of Capitals is a mixed-use complex composed of two skyscrapers and an office building located on plot 9 in the Moscow International Business Center in Moscow, Russia with a total area of 288,680 square metres (3,107,300 sq ft). The two skyscrapers are named after the two historical capitals of Russia: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Construction of the complex began in 2005, with the office building completed in 2008 and the two skyscrapers completed in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Scalpel</span> Skyscraper on Lime Street in London

The Scalpel is a commercial skyscraper in London, United Kingdom. It is located on Lime Street in the City of London financial area. Originally a nickname but subsequently designated as its official name, the term "Scalpel" was coined by the Financial Times due to the building's distinctive angular design. The building has also been noted for its similarity to a "play" media button due to how it looks from South of the River Thames. This follows a trend of nicknaming new buildings based upon their shape, such as the nearby Leadenhall Building, also known as "The Cheesegrater". Completed in 2018, The Scalpel at 52 Lime Street is 190 m (620 ft) tall, with 38 storeys. It was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

References

  1. "The Willis Building". Skyscraper Center. CTBUH. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  2. "Emporis building ID 135969". Emporis . Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  3. "Willis Building – London". Skyscraper News. Retrieved 20 May 2008.