Hong Kong developer Knight Dragon is helping to raise the Greenwich Peninsula in London to a new level with a £1 bn (€1.1 bn) landmark mixed-use project designed by Zurich-based architect Santiago Calatrava.
Peninsula Place is the third phase of the regeneration of the 150 acre site on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Canary Wharf. The site is being developed jointly by Knight Dragon - which is owned by Hong Kong billionaire entrepreneur Henry Cheng and which was set up in 2012 with a view to developing the Greenwich Peninsula – alongside the Greater London Authority and local government body, Transport for London (TfL).
‘Peninsula Place is hugely ambitious – it needs to look brilliant but also to fulfill a lot of functions,’ Richard Margree, chief executive of Knight Dragon, told PropertyEU. ‘It is unashamedly the heart of the Greenwich Peninsula development and will be the biggest single building. We spend a lot of time on the details, we want to get it right because we’re building a small town. I think that some people think post-Brexit that there’s no call to focus on the architecture but we see a big opportunity to do something really exciting.’
Margree is hoping to break ground on Peninsula Place by the end of the year and estimates it will take about three and a half years to build.
Arboreal structure
Unveiled earlier this year, the 130,000 m2 building known as Peninsula Place, will be located next to the O2 Arena, formerly known as the Millennium Dome. The glazed curtain wall façade of the building will be ‘striated with slender metal fins’, according to Benjamin Molpeceres, an architect at Calatrava Architects. Residents and visitors will arrive from the North Greenwich underground station in the building into an 80 ft high winter garden and glass galleria.
The 500 ft long galleria will feature a repetitive arboreal structure, whereby slender columns form an ‘avenue of trees’ whose branch-like crowns support the glass canopy. It will be topped by three towers of more than 30 storeys that gradually step back to reveal a series of green terraces above the station. The towers will feature up to 300,000 sq. ft. of offices, 200,000 sq. ft. of retail space, up to 340,000 sq. ft of hotel accommodation and up to 400,000 sq. ft. of residential space.
‘It is an honour to be designing such a piece of the fabric of London, a city I love’, said Santiago Calatrava in a statement. ‘In designing this scheme, I have been inspired by London’s rich architectural heritage and the very special geography of the Peninsula.’
More liveable
‘It’s an interesting part of town,’ said Nick Parr, a residential development partner in Knight Frank’s City & East London team. ‘The Greenwich Peninsula area used to be quite barren but it is becoming more livable now. Transport links have also improved. In addition to locals, I think the housing element of Peninsula Place could also appeal to Chinese buyers who are familiar with Knight Dragon via their Hong Kong connections.’
Knight Frank has not advised on Peninsula Place.
Spanish-born Calatrava, who also designed the Athens Olympic Park and The Oculus at Ground Zero, the new World Trade Center transportation hub in New York, is renowned for his neo-futurist designs but also notorious for cost overruns on some of his projects. Peninsula Place marks his first project in the UK.
The Greenwich Peninsula was given the green light by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in September 2015. It is the largest single regeneration project to date in the city and is expected to create 15,720 homes, 13,000 jobs, and an entire new district for London on Greenwich Peninsula.
The area – which is twice the size of Soho – sits in the distinctive loop of the River Thames, wrapped by a public river frontage 1.6 miles long. It will also be home to almost 4,000 affordable homes. The scheme will include two schools, independent shops, bars and restaurants, public squares and parkland, all serviced by the Jubilee Line.
The scheme has a gross development value of £8.4 bn and is expected to take 20 to 25 years to develop. Other architectural firms employed by Knight Dragon to develop the area include SOM, Alison Brooks Architects and Duggan Morris.
