The Government’s architecture watchdog has questioned the need for a tower as the centrepiece of Railtrack Property’s designs for Paddington Station.
CABE’s design review team, headed by Paul Finch, welcomed the changes to architect Nicholas Grimshaw’s scheme, but said that “further clarity and design refinement” was needed.
The committee’s report said that it approved of the “grander” design for the interior of the station, but was “not completely satisfied that a case for this particular tower had yet been made”.
Members of the committee suggested that office space could be more evenly distributed by raising the height of the other buildings.
The height of the tower was recently trimmed by 17 storeys, from 42 to 25, following objections by Westminster council’s planning sub-committee. The size of the office building was cut back from 93,000 sq m (1m sq ft) to 70,000 sq m (780,000 sq ft).
EGi News 25/09/01
