Canary Wharf Group abandons office tower for residential space

Canary Wharf Group (SWG) has dropped plans for a Squire & Partners-designed office tower in favour of a new residential skyscraper by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The landowner received permission in 2015 for 90,000 sq m of office space at 1 Park Place, but never acted on it. Now it has submitted a scoping report to Tower Hamlets Council, outlining plans for a 60-storey tower with more than 700 rental flats and a smaller six-storey tower with shops, co-working space and leisure space. It confirmed SOM as the architect for the Docklands development, which will sit next to the Morgan Stanley building at 25 Cabot Square. A CWG spokesperson said: “Canary Wharf is a mixed-use estate with a pipeline of more than 5 million square feet of future office space and more than 3,000 apartments…In the residential sector, we have already successfully opened two award-winning purpose-built rental buildings on the eastern side of Canary Wharf at Wood Wharf, and two more residential rental buildings will open this summer along with our first privately sold apartments”.

Architects’ Journal (13/04/2021)