TREASURY HOLDINGS-led Real Estate Opportunities (REO) has unveiled a revised master plan for the Battersea power station site in London, omitting a controversial 250-metre “eco-tower” that had incurred the ire of London mayor Boris Johnson.
This element of the huge ecologically branded scheme generated strong opposition, mainly because of its impact on views of Westminster, and it would have been unlikely to get planning permission from Wandsworth Borough Council.
Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly’s revised plan ensures that no building on the 38-acre site will be taller than the shoulder-height of the iconic power station, so that it “remains a dramatic centrepiece of the scheme”.
The plan includes 3,700 new homes, 139,340sq m of offices, 46,450sq m of retail, restaurants, hotel, leisure space and community facilities – a mix of uses seen as “essential to delivering an active place that will bring life to the area”.
REO bought the site in November 2006 for £400 million (€465 million). It said the latest plan would bring the “historic and much-loved” art deco power station building back to life a quarter of a century after it stopped generating electricity.
Describing the revised scheme as a “21st century contribution to London”, it said the station’s “powerful presence on the site” would be “accentuated by reflecting pools” around the building.
It had been in close consultation with Wandsworth Borough Council, the local community, the mayor of London and Greater London Authority, English Heritage, Transport for London and other organisations.