History
20 Fenchurch Street was designed in 2004 by Rafael Viñoly, the world-renowned Uruguayan architect based in New York City. With his distinctive design, it is stunning on a purely aesthetic level. Without increasing the building’s footprint, Viñoly has successfully turned the idea that buildings having to be smaller at the top on its head.
The building is inspired by that of the Postmodernism movement which is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I feel that this building shares some of the characteristics that were inspired by the work of the influential architects of the 20th Century, yet it has aspects that are considered to be innovative in its design and with the feature of the Sky Gardens on the 34th floor, it features views which span across the city.
The previous building at 20 Fenchurch Street was 91 m (299 ft) tall with 25 storeys and was built in 1968 by Land Securities. The architect was William H. Rogers. This building was known to be one of the largest in the city towering over all of the buildings in which it surrounded.
The building was formerly occupied by Dresdner Kleinwort and was notable for being one of the first tall buildings in the City of London, and for its distinctive roof. It was one of the towers nearest to the River Thames when viewed from the southern end of London Bridge.
I feel that although there is not much history to the site, I think that the Sky Gardens and many of the other buildings that are being constructed within this part of the city show the direction in which the city is moving towards and this is similar to that of Canary Wharf which is seeing the development of both office blocks and residential blocks within this area of the city.
