Opening of new publicly-accessible roof garden marks completion of Eric Parry Architects’ Fen Court development for Generali Real Estate.
427,000 sq ft development in the City of London defines a new scale and standard for the City’s eastern district.
Generali Real Estate has announced the public opening of The Garden at 120: a new publicly-accessible roof garden in the heart of the City of London’s eastern district. Designed by Eric Parry Architects, Fen Court is a major new 427,000 sq ft, 16 storey office and retail development that includes 10 Fenchurch Avenue, One Fen Court and 120 Fenchurch Street. Eric Parry, Founder and Principal of Eric Parry Architects. said:
“Fen Court is a building that represents a sustained dialogue between the planning authority, the client and the architect to create a building that is more than the sum of its architectural parts. It is a civic as well as a commercial building and it creates a new convivial horizon within the emerging taller buildings of the Eastern cluster.”
Tina Paillet, Senior Executive at Generali Real Estate, said:
“It is a pleasure for Generali Real Estate to welcome the public to The Garden at 120. The garden is the crowning achievement of Fen Court, an innovative development where new technologies blend with tradition and nature to create a unique office and retail environment that will benefit both occupiers and visitors.
“The building is recognisable at a glance and is destined to become a City of London landmark. We hope that this peaceful garden, with its canopy of Wisteria provides a new refuge in the City, providing a place of calming respite for City workers as well as habitat for the city’s birds and insects.”
Chris Hayward, Planning and Transportation Committee Chairman at the City of London Corporation said: “Fen Court is an exemplar of the type of developments that the City of London’s draft local plan proposes for the future of the Square Mile. With a free public space, a pedestrian route between Fenchurch Street and Fenchurch Avenue creating more space at ground level, and the garden, which goes above and beyond proposals for all new developments to include an element of urban greening.
“Developments such as this are key to revitalising the Square Mile, not only for workers, but for school children, residents and tourists who are all welcome to come and enjoy exceptional views at The Garden at 120.”
Located at 120 Fenchurch Street in the heart of the City of London’s financial district, Fen Court provides modern office space, with retail use at the lower levels, a fourteenth floor restaurant and a public undercroft that creates a new pedestrian route between Fenchurch Street and Fenchurch Avenue. The building is topped with a publicly-accessible roof garden designed by Eric Parry Architects with German landscape architects Latz + Partner.
Designed in three distinct sections, the iconic building has a two-storey base and a new public passageway lined with retail frontages; a main body with nine storeys of offices, and an additional fully glazed “crown” element providing four floors of offices and a restaurant which has been let to D&D London. The attractiveness of Fen Court’s state of the art office accommodation was proven well before delivery, with a pre-let of 325,000 sqft to M&G Investments and another 33,000 sqft to Argo Global.
Fen Court has been conceived as a development of the tradition of the European city block and sets a new scale for the surrounding streets in the City of London’s eastern cluster. The building’s finely-crafted facade of glazed ceramic and glass combines subtle changes of colour with crisp geometries to present a crystalline appearance that constantly changes as it is activated by daylight and the weather conditions.
This is particularly true of the upper storeys, a crown of glazing striped with bands of dichroic glass that reflects a changing spectrum of colour as passers-by move around the building. On the rooftop of Fen Court, Eric Parry Architects has worked with German Architects Latz + Partner to design The Garden at 120: the City of London’s largest roof top space open to the public. This exceptional 2,800 sq m roof garden includes planting inspired by English country gardens, with espaliered fruit trees, a water feature and a perimeter walk that gives vistas of London’s skyline. Mature Italian wisteria climbs a canopy softening the structure designed to give shelter to visitors.
Visitors will be able to enjoy a perimeter walk that gives vistas of London’s skyline At ground level, a public undercroft creates a new pedestrian route between Fenchurch Street and Fenchurch Avenue. The centre of the undercroft is the site of a new public artwork created for the ceiling-mounted display screen by award-winning artists Vong Phaophanit and Claire Oboussier. Generali Real Estate was supported by development managers CORE & Greycoat Fen Court pursued the highest standards of environmental sustainability for a major office development, achieving a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ for shell and core construction.
