Designs for Chelsfield’s 120m-tall Grand Union Building (pictured) at Paddington Basin have been given the thumbs up by Westminster council.
At a pre-application meeting last night councillors signalled that the £300m building would get planning permission, if certain changes were made.
Councillors said that the proposed 22% affordable housing should be raised to 25% and that the public viewing platform proposed in the original scheme should be reinstated.
But the height of the scheme was provisionally accepted by councillors, even though it towers above the 100m limit set by Westminster.
Westminster’s chair of planning, Cllr Angela Hooper, said: “This is about the only place in Westminster that a tall building would be suitable.”
The approval means that the 668,000 sq ft (62,057 sq m) scheme, which includes over 300,000 sq ft (27,870 sq m) of flats, could receive planning permission in the council’s next major projects planning committee meeting at the end of April.
The Richard Rogers-designed scheme comprises six blocks of nine storeys, 12 storeys, 15 storeys, 18 storeys, 24 storeys and 30 storeys, and is only two thirds the height of the original proposals.
The original plans, for a single 164m landmark tower, were withdrawn following Westminster’s recommendation to refuse planning permission unless the height was reduced.
EGi News 15/03/02
