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PLP Architecture

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One Bishopsgate Plaza

By PLP Architecture
Feb 9, '22 1:12 PM EST

One Bishopsgate Plaza, the Pan Pacific London hotel Completed

PLP Architecture’s One Bishopsgate Plaza in the City of London is now complete. The project rejuvenates a key site along Bishopsgate into a dynamic mixed-use urban development organised around a large new public plaza.

  • Created for UOL Group Limited, this marks the Singapore-based developer’s first major project in the UK
  • The main tower houses Europe’s first Pan Pacific hotel, with luxury residential apartments (The Sky Residences) above
  • The development opens up and reconnects the site with the surrounding richly historic neighbourhoods

One Bishopsgate Plaza is the first high-rise residential and hospitality development built in the City in recent years and stands as a bold commitment to the continued vitality of the area. The site includes a new 43-storey tower to house the hotel and residential uses along with a refurbished and extended Victorian building lining Devonshire Row that incorporates restaurant, office and retail space. The retail units open directly onto both the street and the new public space.

The development is situated on a unique site between the bustle of the city and the vibrant residential neighbourhoods around Spitalfields and Petticoat Lane Market to the east. It acts as a mediator between these contrasting districts, establishing new routes to and through the site for local inhabitants and visitors alike. The welcoming and accessible environment established by a new plaza—the largest along Bishopsgate—has created a lively public realm that helps to draw people in, contributing to the city’s ambitions to become a 24-hour destination whilst capitalising on increased foot traffic associated with the Post-COVID return to offices and the new Crossrail station that will open next year.

The five-star Pan Pacific London hotel is located on the tower’s lower floors and offers 237 luxurious guestrooms with interior design by the noted practice, Yabu Pushelberg. Above this, 160 Sky Residences feature open, flexible layouts and full height glazing, affording dramatic views over the surrounding area. A range of public and private amenities are incorporated across the site, including the subterranean Pacific Ballroom nestled below the plaza, a dedicated Wellbeing Floor, a gymnasium, and cafes and restaurant facilities for guests and residents.

The tower is designed to reflect the quality and ambitions of the overall development, with extensive glazing incorporating bronze louvred screens in varying configurations that provide aesthetic differentiation and architectural sophistication to the overall form. The building steps back as it rises, accommodating terraces and other amenity spaces and lending visual contrast to the more solid and blocky forms of nearby towers.

The 144-year-old Devonshire House has been thoughtfully reconsidered and expanded, with shops, a restaurant and a cocktail bar -tucked below a dramatic scale-like curved aluminium and glass free-spanning roof. A portion of the building has been meticulously replicated utilising the original materials and construction methodology to match the existing building, and a listed façade has been repaired and reintegrated using traditional craftsmen and techniques.

One Bishopsgate Plaza works holistically to embrace the City of London’s goals of becoming a more inclusive place for meeting, living, working and exploring. It stands as a bold new step for visiting and living in the City and supports its future growth as a global centre for international business and leisure.

Selected Key Team Members

PLP Architecture (Architect); Yabu Pushelburg (Interior Design, Hotel); MSMR (Interior Design, Sky Residences); WSP (Fire, MEP, Structural Engineer); Donald Insall Associates (Historic Buildings Consultant); Eppag (Façade Consultant); Inverse (Lighting); Alinea Consulting (Quantity Surveyor); DP9 (Planning Consultant)

About PLP Architecture

PLP Architecture is a collective of architects, designers and researchers who value the transformative role of ideas and architecture’s ability to inspire. Based in London, the practice is led by an experienced and dedicated group of partners who have worked together for more than three decades. Together, they have designed and delivered a wide range of projects around the world, producing intelligent, ground-breaking and exciting designs through a profound commitment to social, economic and environmental ideals. PLP Architecture has created some of the greenest buildings on the planet and is now designing and building projects on three continents.

Contact

Email – press@plparchitecture.com

Telephone – +44 (0) 20 3006 3900