A 15-story corten steel-clad residential building is slated to begin works in London, following a refinancing of the project. Designed by a Stirling Prize-winning architect, the project will rise over an existing structure on the site.
A characteristically offbeat luxury apartment tower designed by Will Alsop is due to start on site construction in Fall 2018 after a refinancing deal for the south London project, which is likely to be the late architect’s last big scheme in the capital.
Alsop, who died in May at the age of 70, originally won planning permission for Heliport Heights, on a site next the London Heliport in Battersea in 2014.
His aLL Design practice’s corten steel-clad scheme features 14 apartments in a 15-story building that straddles an existing structure on the site– creating a block that will effectively be 20 stories tall.
While preparatory work on the project has seen the completion of some piling at the Lombard Road site, work subsequently stalled after developer Damsonetti UK entered administration in 2017, owing some £14.12 million ($18 million) to secured creditor Pramerica Real Estate Capital.
A report published in May 2018 states that a range of options were being considered to move the project forward, following the completion of some on-site work, including an outright sale.
A refinancing of the project is expected to allow Damsonetti UK to continue as developer of the scheme, with previous main contractor Henry Construction and consultant McBains Cooper also continuing in their roles.
aLL director Marcos Rosello said work on Heliport Heights was due to commence “in a couple of months”.
The late Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize in 2000 for Peckham Library in south London, designed with then-partner Jan Störmer. Work is currently under way on his “Neron Pod” at Queen Mary University of London’s Blizard Institute, in Whitechapel.
News via CTBUH
