ABSTRACT
The Wood Street frontage pretends to be eight storeys, as others in the street, but the building rapidly climbs upward to 18 storeys. The language is familiar: simple rectangular floor plates, with peripheral elevator and escape stair towers articulating the building. Office buildings are much the same: shell, core and fit-out a peculiar sartorial presentation, at best tastefully characterfully branded design that developer can present and promote. Another work from the prolific Foster team and the fourth in this immediate area. Two things are most interesting about this 19,000 sqm building. First, the minor oddity of the built-in Guild House that sits at ground level, adjacent to the old Roman and medieval wall. Second, the problem of the front door: is it at ground level or at first-floor level? It's on the first because design had to accommodate itself to the Barbican deck left-over from a 1950s dream of a pedway system that was to weave its way through City.
