City Hall,in theLondon Borough of NewhamineastLondon,is the headquarters of theGreater London Authority(GLA), the regional government forGreater London.It replaced theprevious City Hall,inSouthwarkin 2022. The building opened in 2012 and was previously an exhibition centre for sustainable architecture, known asThe Crystal.Built and opened bySiemens,it was the first building in the world to reach the highest sustainability award level (seeLEEDandBREEAM). It was bought by the GLA in 2019 for thedocklandsredevelopment project.[4]
| City Hall | |
|---|---|
 City Hall seen across Royal Victoria Dock | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Status | Completed |
| Architectural style | Neo-futurism |
| Location | Kamal ChunchieWay, London, E16 1ZE[1] |
| Coordinates | 51°30′25″N0°00′58″E/ 51.507021°N 0.016111°E |
| Construction started | March 2011[2] |
| Completed | July 2012[2] |
| Opening | September 2012 (repurposed as Greater London City Hall January 2022) |
| Cost | £30 million[2] |
| Owner | Greater London Authority[3] |
| Technical details | |
| Floor area | 7,000 m2(75,000 sq ft)[2] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | WilkinsonEyre[2] |
| Structural engineer | Arup Group[2] |
| Services engineer | Arup Group[2] |
| Main contractor | ISG[2] |
The building is situated next to the redevelopedRoyal Victoria DockinCanning Town.The northern terminus of theLondon cable car,andRoyal Victoria station,theDocklands Light RailwayandCustom House railway stationon theElizabeth lineare within walking distance.[5]It is close toLondon City Airport.
History
editExhibition and conference centre
editThe Crystal was built as a key part of the Green Enterprise District policy of theLondon Development Agency.[6]
The building was designed byPerkins+Will(fit-out, design leader) andWilkinson Eyre Architects(shell and core), withArup Groupwho were the building and civil engineers, andTownshend Landscape Architectswho designed the public realm.[2]Event Communicationswere the exhibition designers,[2]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]andBREEAM.[9]
When it opened, the Crystal contained a permanent exhibition aboutsustainable development,and was owned and operated bySiemens.In 2016, Siemens sold the building to the GLA, who acquired it to use as a base for theMayor of London's £3.5bn project to regenerate theRoyal 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.[3][5][7]
City Hall
editIn June 2020, the Mayor of LondonSadiq Khanannounced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the GLA fromCity Hall in Southwarkto The Crystal in order to save £55 million for the GLA over the course of five years.[3]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
editThe entire site is 18,000 square metres (190,000 sq ft) 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 thebuilding management systemandKNXinfrastructure. 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]
Gallery
edit-
Close up of the building -
Aerial view -
View from theLondon cable car -
Glass panels
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ab"Contacting City Hall and the Mayor".London City Hall.22 May 2018.
- ^abcdefghij"Case Study: The Crystal, London".ISG Contractors.Archived fromthe originalon 7 October 2019.Retrieved7 October2019.
- ^abc"Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services".London City Hall.24 June 2020.
- ^"London Assembly moves into new Royal Docks headquarters".BBC News.22 March 2022.Retrieved11 November2022.
- ^ab"About The Crystal".2012. Archived fromthe originalon 16 September 2012.
- ^"Green Enterprise District: East London"(PDF).London Development Agency. 1 May 2010. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 28 July 2011.Retrieved17 November2010.
- ^ab"The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens".Event Communications.Archived fromthe originalon 6 March 2019.Retrieved11 October2016.
- ^"Press".press.siemens.com.Siemens.
- ^"GreenBook Live".greenbooklive.com.
- ^"City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End".BBC. 3 November 2020.
- ^King, Jonathan (11 December 2020)."City Hall move to The Crystal given thumbs-up".Newham Recorder.
- ^Lydall, Ross (24 November 2021)."Sadiq Khan's plans to move City Hall to east London delayed".www.standard.co.uk.
- ^"Khan approves GLA move from Foster's City Hall to WilkinsonEyre's Crystal".4 November 2020.
- ^"The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine".
- ^"Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday".