A new 18 storey office and retail development in St Mary Axe, nicknamed the ‘Can Of Ham’, has been given approval by the City of London Corporation, according to Building Design. The new building will replace two existing buildings and be 90m tall.
The semi-elliptical building was designed by architects Foggio for the Norwich based developers, TargetFollow.
The Can of Ham had been opposed by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) who described it as creating an “uncomfortable and unattractive form both at street level and on the city skyline”. They were also concerned that the new building was too similar to the nearby “Gherkin”, adding “the echo of the elliptical section of 30 St Mary Axe is unfortunate; the parallel will be immediately apparent”.
What do you think of the Can of Ham? Will it make a welcome addition to the City skyline?
I can certainly see the CABE’s point of view, it does somewhat caricature the Gherkin, although the City skyline is certainly looking better and better, way better than Canary Wharf, though that’s no yardstick of quality!
It’s about bloody time that London started revolutionising! This is the 21st century, get some more skyscrapers in, for instance, look at New York, Tokyo. Their skyline is stunning. London needs to keep up with their standard of modernisation. The mayor should build more skyscrapers in Canary Wharf and the city centre.