Sheffield City Lofts Work Begins

Preparation work is beginning on site for what will be Sheffield's tallest tower, a 101 metre high largely residential development by City Lofts.Set in the landmark St Paul's Place in Sheffield city centre, the scheme has been designed by Conran and Partners as the centrepiece for the Sheffield City Council backed project. The development also includes an adjoining 13 floor block also developed by City Lofts that when combined with the main tower will offer a mix of 316 studios, 1 bed and 2 bed apartments. There will also be around 2,000 square metres of lettable commercial space attached to the project.The development had initially proven controversial. Not only did it exceed in height by a large margin the current tallest in Sheffield, the Arts Tower, but the location near to the Winter Gardens created many fears that the plants would be overshadowed and would even need replanting or face dying, something that daylight studies have since shown is not the case.Clad in bronze curtain walling, light grey terracotta and local stone the tower was actually increased in height from the earlier designs to help alleviate fears it should just be another squat block pushing it just past the hundred metres point and giving it more of a feeling of soar.Sooner rather than later the Arts Tower will finally surrendering its thirty plus years record to a new kid on the block. When finished it will also be the second tallest all residential tower outside of London a mere one metre shorter than Sussex Heights, the current record holder, unless someone else beats them to it.