Crown Place Set For 2008 Finish

Work on an 81 metre tall tower near the also under construction Broadgate Tower is underway on the fringe of the City of London.30 Crown Place is as 23,225 square metre development designed by Horden Cherry Lee Architects with a tower element and lower-rise 8 storey block attached. The tower will contain office with retail space on the ground floor.The speed everything has happened is for something this size, almost unprecedented. They managed to secure planning permission in record time, it took them a mere 16 weeks from application to approval, impressive going compared to many projects that have to go through numerous revisions first.The secret to this pace is simple, the developer held open days on site attended by 500 people, involved everyone in the design process and even held workshop sessions for stakeholders to attend and help influence the direction the project would take. Compared to the often synthetic claims of caring about opinion and careful P.R management of "consultancy" meetings when an architect or developer would hold a gathering with an already fully designed project and pretend it wasn't with the aim of manufacturing consent to what has already been drawn up, this is a positively enlightened approach to take. Of course, involving locals including those who would normally oppose a project from the word go can help make them feel included in the process and cuts down on the number of objections a developer can receive but the inclusiveness practised during the planning process is something many others could learn from.What makes this project even more unusual isn't just the speed and grace its gone through the planning process with but also the fact that there's plenty of office buildings approved in the City of London area and lots of those developers like hanging around for a pre-let. Often it can take years for a project to go ahead, if it does at all. Some fall by the wayside after failed attempts at filling them but developer City Assets Ltd and non profit developer Renaisi aren't waiting around here and construction is underway for a 2008 finish.It seems the perfect location thanks to both the popular Broadgate Centre and Liverpool Street Station, combined with the ever more confident approach of those who can afford is driving the area around the northern end of Bishopsgate between the City of London and Hackney into becoming a boom area similar to that around London Wall / Moorgate that is more than just the Broadgate Centre. It should be a bright and interesting future for this part of London.