GCI Financial - Offices Development - London E14, Quadratic

Date: 17 May 2001

Quadratic, a 13 storey signature office building designed by the award-winning architect Patrick Davies, was given detailed planning approval by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets planning committee last night.

The development will provide 25,840 sq.m net (278,000 sq.ft) of top specification office space in a self contained building with clear floorplates of around 2,336 sq.m (25,145 sq.ft) each. Unlike other schemes available in the area, Quadratic is of an ideal size and layout to accommodate single/multi users, reducing the risk of obsolescence.

CB Hillier Parker and Chesterton are seeking a pre-let for the scheme.

Davies' innovative `H' shaped design is supported at each of its four corners rather than its original central core; is environmentally sensitive in design; includes an 11-storey double atrium on its east and west sides and a two storey winter garden on its north and south sides. The building will have stunning views across Canary Wharf and the City.

Patrick Davies said: "Without a central core, this building is able to provide significant office floorplates without obstruction. I conceived the building as a fusion of the best of current office design, with advanced flexibility, with a picturesque, romantic skyline that distinguishes the building when viewed from any angle. As a corporate headquarters it will be one of the most distinctive buildings in the New Millennium Quarter. The four towers of glass and travertine on the ends of the `H' shaped plan give the building its form, and its name."

Davies added: "The building will be clad in a mix of planar glazing glass and cut travertine stone - from the same quarry as the stone cut for the Colosseum and St. Peter's in Rome."

The proposed building will be located approximately 300m from Canary Wharf, occupying a prominent site within Tower Hamlets' Millennium Quarter Masterplan. The building will have easy access to a range of established leisure and retail facilities, will have access to some of the best electronic communications infrastructure in Europe, including Broadband, and the greatest concentration of fibre optics in the UK. Quadratic will also be highly accessible with easy connections to Canary Wharf Jubilee line Underground Tube station as well as Heron Quays and South Quay Docklands Light Railway (DLR) stations.

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