Foster + Partners reworked Whitechapel tower scheme set for refusal
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Since 2018, the practice has put forward numerous plans to demolish two buildings on the City fringe site between Whitechapel High Street and Commercial Road. In 2022, a version featuring a 14-storey block on the 0.67ha site was refused by Tower Hamlets Council.At the time councillors objected to, among other things, the schemes height, the demolition of heritage assets, its daylight and sunlight effects on neighbours, and the harm to the setting of the nearby, Charles Harrison Townsend-designed Grade II*-listed Whitechapel Gallery.The practice returned last year with a fresh application for the same developer, South Street Asset Management, working with architect Haverstock, which is overseeing the rejig of Canon Barnett Primary School within the development plot.AdvertisementAlthough the scheme in the Whitechapel High Street Conservation Area is now three storeys taller and has a larger footprint, it involves less demolition, steps back at its edges and would retain, rather than remove, the frontage at 2-4 Commercial Street. The Edwardian faade at 102-105 Whitechapel High Street would be kept, as before. The 2024 scheme promises to create 3,260 jobs, provide incubator spaces for small and medium businesses and includes a relocated and expanded playground for the primary school.But the changes have not appeased either heritage campaigners or Historic England, and Tower Hamlets planning officers are also unconvinced. They have recommended councillors refuse the scheme tomorrow night (15 January). A scheduled decision in December was deferred to allow councillors to visit the site.The scheme has also prompted 294 objections.SAVE Britains Heritage conservation officer Lydia Franklin branded the plans highly controversial and said that an office block towering 17 storeys above its neighbours is not what this area needs. Any development on this corner of Whitechapel should celebrate the areas history and identity.AdvertisementShe added: A building of this scale would tear through the conservation area which was created to draw a clear line between the bristling towers of the City fringe and the very different character of the historic East End.Also objecting is the Victorian Society, which said that though the 82.5m-tall scheme now partially steps back, these design moves were a superficial attempt to assuage height concerns.Historic England said it could not support the plans, claiming the height and massing would starkly contrast with the human scale of the surrounding buildings. It said the robust Victorian commercial character of the retained faade of 2-4 Commercial Street would be significantly undermined by the overbearing presence of the 18-storey building immediately behind and partly cantilevering over the frontage.The planning officer's report concluded: The benefits that would flow from the development when taken together do not carry sufficient weight in order to outweigh the harm to designated heritage assets and other harms that have been identified, in particular the adverse effects on existing residents and the learning environment at Canon Barnett Primary School.Foster + Partners, Haverstock and South Street Asset Management have all been contacted for comment.
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