Foster and Partners proposes ‘Tulip’ observation tower to bloom on London skyline

Since the millennium, the skyline of London – particularly in and near to the City financial district and to the east, in the former docks – has changed markedly, with clusters of skyscrapers taking advantage of modern civil engineering techniques to assume a variety of shapes and reach great heights. The Tulip is planned as an observation platform, next to and echoing one of the most notable buildings in the City cluster, the curvaceous St Mary Axe, universally known as the Gherkin. It will be the district’s tallest structure, though not quite reaching the elevation of the Shard, which stands in isolation across the river at London Bridge.

The Tulip, for which planning permission was sought this week, will be a 12-storey glass-clad ‘bud’ perched on top of a buttressed concrete stem. The design comes courtesy of Foster and Partners, the architecture practice responsible for the Gherkin, and will be financed by the J Safra Group, the banking and finance company owned by Brazilian billionaire Joseph Safra which bought St Mary Axe from its original owner, insurance group Swiss Re, in 2014. Primarily a tourist attraction, it will include a ‘classroom in the sky’ – an educational facility aimed at state schools, which will host lessons on the history, architecture and other aspects of the city, and will host some 20,000 children from 5-16 each year, the Safra Group claims.