The City of London has granted planning permission for ACME’s 15-story office block in Aldgate – eight years after it won consent for an earlier version of the scheme. The practice has already updated the scheme, gaining planning permission in 2020 for a version featuring a reprovided Star and Still pub under part the office block fronting Aldgate High Street.
Now a new set of changes, approved by the City of London on 26 April, 2022, will see the office project’s height increase to 80 meters – up from 69 meters – with the addition of two new stories: one for office use and the other for plant. The revised design also includes the terracing of upper floors, from the 10th story, to create 636 square meters of outdoor amenity space for office users, with a mezzanine added on the double-height ground story.
The proposal also features a “hanging” structure, with some ground-floor columns removed and the ground floor plate reduced – adding 230 square meters to the public realm, including space used for planters. Total floorspace has increased to 33,385 square meters, up from 28,690 square meters in the 2020 scheme and 18,060 square meters in the 2014 scheme. The latest design also introduces openable windows for natural ventilation.
For more on this story, go to Architects’ Journal.