The City of London has granted planning permission to the Heron Plaza, a 135m tower on Bishopsgate just a stone's throw from its skyscraping namesake.
The 44-storey building is designed to complement its bigger sibling, with a stepped northeastern profile that echoes the latter's form, but it will be clad in copper ("applied patinated copper", to be precise, which should prevent it gradually turning as green as a Ratner timepiece). The tower will incorporate a pricey restaurant, apartments, and a Four Seasons, which the developers, Heron International, are describing as the "first purpose-built luxury hotel" in central London for 30 years.
The building will be the third named Heron to rise in the City over the coming years. Aside from the pair of towers on Bishopsgate, there is also an all-residential Heron currently under construction near the Barbican. So, lest their be any confusion: the tallest is called the Heron Tower, the one next door is (to give it the full name) Four Seasons Hotel and Residences London at Heron Plaza, and the shortest is just The Heron. Couldn't be simpler. Londoners will have to conjure up a few new nicknames lest we start showing up at some bigwig's boardroom expecting a housewarming party.
