New designs unveiled for 22 Bishopsgate – the skyscraper formerly known as the Pinnacle
The Building Formerly Known As The Pinnacle has become the butt of various jokes over the last three years, after the 63-storey tower was abandoned by its developers during the depths of the property crisis in 2012 with just seven storeys built. Not surprisingly, it's since been known as "The Stump".
But now the site's new owner, Axa Real Estate, has unveiled a design for a new tower at the site along with Lipton Rogers, which is acting as the development partner on the project. At 62 storeys, it'll only be slightly smaller than the Pinnacle – but this one won't include the specially moulded, eye-wateringly expensive, curved-glass panels…
It even has a new, more grown-up name: 22 Bishopsgate.
According to Axa, the new building will be a "vertical city" with space for more than 12,000 people, with floorplates of over 20,000 sq ft at most levels. It'll offer 1.3m sq ft of office space, with another 43,700 sq ft dedicated to restaurants, bars, retail and a viewing gallery, which will be free to the public.
And bike nerds will be catered for, too, with 1,500 bikes and 100 showers, along with "hire, repairs, safety training, spinning classes, laundry and drying facilities".
The new tower will include 1,500 bike parking spaces (Source: Axa Real Estate)
Sir Stuart Lipton, of Lipton Rogers, said the building will be an "elegant" addition to the City.
"Technically advanced, with care for people at the heart of its strategy and taking new ways of working at its essence, the building will… earn its place as the finest working environment in Europe," he said.
The designs will now go to consultation, with a new planning application due to be submitted later this summer. Whatever you do, just don't call it The Pinnacle…
— UPDATE: 22/06/15 This article has been updated to show Brookfield Multiplex were not the developers on the original scheme, but the contractors, and are also the contractors on the current scheme.