Center Point
| Center Point | |
|---|---|
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| Basic data | |
| Place: | Borough of Camden , London , United Kingdom |
| Construction time : | 1963-1966 |
| Status : | Built |
| Architectural style : | brutalism |
| Architect : | Richard Seifert |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Office until 2015, from 2018 residential |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 117 m |
| Rank (height) : | 66th place (London) |
| Floors : | 34 |
The Centrepoint is one of R Seifert & Partners created in the 1960s building complex in London in the borough of Camden . It consists of a 34-story skyscraper and another building that is connected to the skyscraper by a bridge. After completion, the office tower stood empty for years until it was rented by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In the 2010s, the skyscraper was converted into a residential building with exclusive luxury apartments and reopened in 2018.
history
The St Giles Circus was in the 1950s one of the busiest intersections of London, which is why the London County Council (LCC) the intersection into a roundabout wanted to remodel. The living space lost as a result of the renovation was to be compensated for by three apartment blocks on the corner lot between Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road . Litigation erupted between the LCC and the landowners, which Oldham Estates Co got out of the way by purchasing the property at a price higher than the compensation the council was going to pay the landowners. Oldham Estates also bought the adjacent land so that more space was available for the project. The real estate company Oldham Estates was owned by Harry Hyams , a then young real estate agent from northern England who later became one of the richest British people. The company ceded the land required for the redesign of the intersection to the LCC and, in return, received the right to build higher buildings on the property that went beyond the normal zoning regulations.
Hyams commissioned Richard Seifert to design a mixed-use high-rise complex, which the LCC approved in November 1959. The development provided for a 29-storey, slim skyscraper in the middle of the planned roundabout and an 8-storey block called Center Point House with shops and apartments, the block being connected to the skyscraper by a bridge over the roundabout. The skyscraper had a diamond-shaped floor plan and was similar to the Pirelli skyscraper in Milan . Changes to the project were necessary because the LCC wanted wider streets: the floor area of the high-rise building was reduced, the high-rise building was increased by two floors and the connecting bridge was built with two floors.
In 1961 construction began on the Center Point House . In January 1963, the again revised planning of the high-rise received the building permit. The traffic concept with the roundabout was not implemented, because before the development was completed, Tottenham Court Road was converted into a one-way street to the north. This concept was so successful that the construction of the roundabout at St Giles Circus was no longer necessary.
Center Point was completed in 1966 and was received somewhat cautiously, but mainly enthusiastically. The design of the high-rise was a transition from the smooth regularity of the international style to brutalism with a sculptural approach and strong contrasts between light and shadow.
When the complex was completed, the market for new office space was saturated so that Hyams could not find a tenant for the property. However, he insisted on only renting out the entire tower block. He was able to afford the vacancy because he had sold the real estate of the plot to be built to the LCC and rented it for the next 150 years at extraordinarily favorable conditions without increasing the rent. The complex therefore remained empty for a long time and was briefly occupied by housing emergency activists in January 1974. In 1975 the Greater London Council insisted that at least the apartments in Center Point House be let. With the Confederation of British Industry (BSI) it was still possible to find a tenant for the high-rise. This used the high-rise as its headquarters between July 1980 and March 2014, but only occupied a few floors, while the rest of the building was still empty.
In 1995 the Center Point was placed on the list of buildings of particular architectural or historical interest , whereby it was assigned the protection level 2 ( English : Grade II ), which distinguishes buildings of national importance. The slim skyscraper had become a landmark in London. In 2002 the main entrance to the high-rise building had to be redesigned because the existing entrance had to be closed due to the construction site for the new Crossrail station on Tottenham Court Road .
The real estate company Almacantar acquired in 2011 the Center Point for 120 million pounds (about 136 million euros ) and was soon announced its intention to rebuild the tower in a luxurious residential building. 82 apartments were built for 350 million pounds (approx. 410 million euros). The renovation was completed in 2015, but by October 2018 only around half of the apartments had been sold. The prices were between 1.8 million pounds (approx. 2 million euros) for a one-room apartment and 55 million pounds (approx. 61 million euros) for a five-room penthouse with a living space of 670 m².
Building
With a height of 117 meters, the Center Point skyscraper was the tallest building in London when it opened. In addition to the high-rise, the building complex consists of the nine-story Center Point House to the east , which is connected to the high-rise by a two-story bridge.
The two main facades of the slim skyscraper are slightly convex, the narrow side facades are drawn in in the middle. The building envelope consists of prefabricated elements made of fine concrete , for which broken Portland stone was used. During construction, the prefabricated elements could be attached to the structure without the use of scaffolding from inside the building, which was a novelty at the time. The bright prefabricated elements create a strong contrast between light and shadow, which made the Center Point Tower one of the most striking high-rise compositions of the 1960s in London.
On the square in front of the skyscraper there was a pond with a fountain designed by Jupp Dernbach-Mayen , an artist who immigrated from Germany. The system had to be removed in the course of adapting the Tottenham Court Road underground station for the Crossrail project in 2009.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Conran and Partners unveiled residential conversion of Center Point. March 28, 2018, accessed April 22, 2020 .
- ^ A b Jerry White: London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People . Random House, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4070-1307-7 , pp. 51 ( google.ch [accessed April 25, 2020]).
- ↑ a b c d e Center Point. In: Historic England. Retrieved April 22, 2020 (English).
- ↑ a b Richard Seifert - Center Point. In: www.archipicture.eu. Retrieved April 25, 2020 .
- ↑ Martin Pawley: Obituary: Richard Seifert . In: The Guardian . October 29, 2001, ISSN 0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 26, 2020]).
- ^ Center Point Occupation 1974. In: Ian Bone. November 7, 2007, accessed April 25, 2020 .
- ^ Center Point. In: Hidden London. Retrieved April 25, 2020 (UK English).
- ^ Find an Architect: Center Point. In: RIBA. Retrieved April 26, 2020 (English).
- ^ Joseph Curtis: Center Point becomes another of London's 'ghost towers'. October 31, 2018, accessed April 25, 2020 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 '58.2 " N , 0 ° 7' 46.9" W.