3XN working with Shard developer on plan for £500m City tower

Shard developer Sellar and Japanese builder Obayashi have announced plans for a “landmark” £500m office tower at 60 Gracechurch Street in the City of London.

The pair have launched the first public consultation on designs by Danish practice 3XN for the tower, which will rise to at least 30 storeys and contain around 400,000sq ft of floorspace.

It will replace the site’s existing eight-storey building, which was completed in 1997 and currently serves as the London headquarters of German financial services firm Allianz.

Early images of 3XN’s proposals show a large building with a series of planted balconies slanting across a white-coloured facade and several larger terraces at roof level.

Obayashi development manager Neil Connolly told Building Design the aim was to “produce something which is at the forefront of today’s thinking on carbon and genuine sustainability, but also something which will stand the test of time”.

The project team so far also includes Turner & Townsend Alinea on costs, project manager Gardiner & Theobald as project manager, Arup on engineering and sustainability, DP9 on planning.

The Townscape Consultancy is also on the team as townscape and heritage consultant along with public realm and landscaping consultant Townsend on public realm and transport consultant Velocity.

The tower would be the latest in an emerging group of tall buildings along Gracechurch Street that are set to fill in the currently low-rise gap between the Walkie Talkie building and the City’s eastern cluster of towers which includes 22 Bishopsgate.

Other planned schemes in the neighbourhood include the 32-storey Woods Bagot-designed 85 Gracechurch Street, KPF’s 33-storey 70 Gracechurch Street and Fletcher Priest’s 32-storey 55 Gracechurch Street, all of which have been consented in the past three years.

All of these buildings are around 150m in height, which is expected to be around the height of 3XN’s plans for 60 Gracechurch.

Consultation documents said the brief for the scheme was to develop an “iconic building that is worthy of its prominent position” as one of the last remaining development sites on the western boundary of the cluster.

A second consultation will be held in late spring before a full planning application is submitted this summer, with a decision by the City expected towards the end of the year. 

Construction will then start in 2026 once the existing building is vacated and complete in 2029, according to the developer team.

Obayashi, founded in 1892, is one of the largest construction companies in Japan with turnover of nearly £13bn last year.