30 Crown Place

City of London

Client

Greycoat Estates

Principal Stakeholders

  • Horden Cherry Lee Architects
  • RHWL Architects

Summary

Plan was required to oversee the commission of an art work for the interior of Greycoat’s new office tower at 30 Crown Place;  as well as contribute to the overall sense of refinement and beauty within the interior its purpose was to mask an unsightly electricity substation facing the interior lobby.

Context

The brief to the shortlisted artists encouraged them to consider the architectural qualities of the building of which the commissioned work would become a part. The building itself possesses a rectangular floor plate, but this is obscured from the outside with prismatic flanking ‘sails’. These sails give a gentle, almost floating quality to the building.

Community

As part of the strategy we consulted widely within the community of organisations that have an interest in the future of the street because they occupy premises there or make use of the public open space along its length.

Vision

The project foresaw the commissioned work being a visually powerful form that would simultaneously conceal the view through the ground floor windows and develop a meaningful and intelligent relationship with the architecture of the tower itself, designed originally by Stephen Cherry of Horden Cherry Lee architects.

Concept

The commissioned artist, Nick Turvey, set out to ‘introduce ephemeral, transient phenomena into the hard fabric of the city.’ Drawing inspiration from the effect of rain falling on canals in Venice, he produced a design that he describes as a ‘cloud of giant lenses’.