Doon Street Tower Set For Public Inquiry
Published on 08-02-2008 by Skyscrapernews.com
The public inquiry into Coin Street Community Builders plans for a new tower and community facilities is due to kick off next week.
Designed by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, the project is a 140 metre tall largely residential tower standing above a new swimming pool plus other health and leisure facilities that Coin Street have been trying to secure funding for for years. There will also be new public landscaped areas outside the project.
Their aim is that the £25 million profits produced by the towers 329 flats will help pay for these community amenities and keep them affordable as various governmental bodies are simply unwilling to do so.
Unfortunately, English Heritage are not happy with the proposals that they argue will be visible from a private area near the top of the Grade 1 listed Somerset House on the northern bank of the Thames.
Somerset House has been used before by English Heritage to try and oppose a tower. They lost the Heron Tower public inquiry in spite of one of their key points against the skyscraper being it was visible from a public area of Somerset House. The Commission for Architecture and Built Environment has also criticised the project for being visible from here despite supporting the Heron Tower.
The tower has also produced opposition from many who have only recently discovered their love of the uber-concrete National Theatre complaining about how it will be overshadowed by a taller neighbour.
In the developers favour there is previous history in the planning system though of a tall building on this site with the early 70s having seen a building of a similar height approved despite a much more hostile environment to tall buildings at the time.
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