City Hall, London (Newham) Explained

City Hall
Status:Complete
Location:Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE[1]
Coordinates:51.507°N 0.0161°W
Start Date:March 2011
Completion Date:July 2012
Architect:WilkinsonEyre
Owner:Greater London Authority[2]
Cost:£30 million[3]
Architectural Style:Neo-futurism
Structural Engineer:Arup Group
Services Engineer:Arup Group
Main Contractor:ISG
Opening:September 2012
(repurposed as Greater London City Hall January 2022)

City Hall, in the London Borough of Newham in east London, is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), the regional government for Greater London. It replaced the previous City Hall, in Southwark in 2022. The building opened in 2012 and was previously an exhibition centre for sustainable architecture, known as The Crystal. Built and opened by Siemens, it was the first building in the world to reach the highest sustainable award level (see LEED and BREEAM). It was bought by the GLA in 2019 for the docklands redevelopment project.[4]

The building is situated next to the redeveloped Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town. The northern terminus of the London cable car, and Royal Victoria station, the Docklands Light Railway and Custom House railway station on the Elizabeth line are within walking distance.[5] It is close to London City Airport.

History

Exhibition and conference centre

The Crystal was built as a key part of the Green Enterprise District policy of the London Development Agency.[6]

The building was designed by Perkins+Will (fit-out, design leader) and Wilkinson Eyre Architects (shell and core), with Arup Group who were the building and civil engineers, and Townshend Landscape Architects who designed the public realm.[3] Event Communications were the exhibition designers,[3] responsible for the interpretive planning, exhibition design and creative direction, graphic design, media direction and construction management for the exhibition spaces.[7] The building was the first to achieve the highest sustainable building accolades, platinum and outstanding respectively, from the world's two leading accreditation bodies, LEED[8] and BREEAM.[9]

When it opened, the Crystal contained a permanent exhibition about sustainable development, and was owned and operated by Siemens. In 2016, Siemens sold the building to the GLA, who acquired it to use as a base for the Mayor of London's £3.5bn project to regenerate the Royal Docks. After Siemens vacated the building in 2019, it was used by the Royal Docks regeneration team but large parts of the building remained empty.[2] [5] [7]

City Hall

In June 2020, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the GLA from City Hall in Southwark to The Crystal in order to save £55 million for the GLA over the course of five years.[2] The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020; Newham Borough Council gave permission for a change of use for the building in December 2020.[10] [11] The move was completed in the third week of January 2022, delayed from the previous planned opening date in December 2021.[12] The building was renamed "City Hall" in December 2021.[1] [13]

Architecture

The entire site is in size and the surrounding landscape was designed to be a sustainable urban landscape to help encourage a shift in the social ideology, making 'sustainability' more attractive and allowing people to participate in social activities within the site, which includes local food programmes and community gardens to help foster this principle.[14]

The building contains a number of sustainable technologies, including the building management system and KNX infrastructure. The building control devices, such as lighting, windows, blinds and heating, are connected using the KNX protocol. The building has over 2,500 KNX connected devices.[15]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Contacting City Hall and the Mayor. May 22, 2018. London City Hall.
  2. Web site: Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services. 24 June 2020. London City Hall.
  3. Web site: Case Study: The Crystal, London. ISG Contractors. 7 October 2019. 7 October 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191007185031/https://www.isgplc.com/en/who-we-are/sustainability/case-study/sustainability-the-crystal. dead.
  4. News: 22 March 2022 . London Assembly moves into new Royal Docks headquarters . en-GB . BBC News . 11 November 2022.
  5. Web site: About The Crystal . 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120916130156/http://www.thecrystal.org/_html/about/about.html . 16 September 2012.
  6. Web site: Green Enterprise District: East London . London Development Agency . 1 May 2010 . 17 November 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110728102613/http://www.lda.gov.uk/Documents/Green_Enterprise_District_summary_6666.pdf . 28 July 2011 . dead.
  7. Web site: The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens. Event Communications. 11 October 2016. 6 March 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190306075456/http://www.eventcomm.com/work/crystal-an-urban-sustainability-centre-by-siemens#.V_0BLywVBaQ. dead.
  8. Web site: Press. press.siemens.com . Siemens.
  9. Web site: GreenBook Live. greenbooklive.com.
  10. Web site: 3 November 2020. City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End. BBC.
  11. Web site: King. Jonathan. 11 December 2020. City Hall move to The Crystal given thumbs-up. Newham Recorder.
  12. Web site: Sadiq Khan's plans to move City Hall to east London delayed. Ross. Lydall. 24 November 2021. www.standard.co.uk.
  13. Web site: Khan approves GLA move from Foster's City Hall to WilkinsonEyre's Crystal. 4 November 2020.
  14. Web site: The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine.
  15. Web site: Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday.