Shell Seeks London Development Partner

With the renovation of Shell's famous Upstream Building overlooking the River Thames in London now nearing completion, the oil giant is looking at options to redevelop the rest of property it owns there that still constitutes one of the largest office complexes in Europe.

Originally built in 1962, the Shell Centre as it was then called, was modeled on the ideas Rockerfeller Center in New York with an entire estate of buildings that had a monolithic design with a particularly large tower and public plaza as the centre-piece. It was in every way an architectural first in the United Kingdom, and one that could have a good argument made for listing it.

The plan is to move the remaining half of the Shell Employees to 40 Bank Street, a skyscraper in Canary Wharf which will see the three 10-storey wings that flank the Upstream Building emptied allowing them to be developed. There are no designs yet on just what the project will consist nor an architect hired as Shell is first seeking a joint partner in the project who can help them advance the plans together.

No matter what happens, there will be no building built between the tower and the River Thames, this has been legally prevented since late 1950s.

Although demolition could be on the cards, another possible option may be the regeneration of the public realm which is somewhat windswept and tired into something more attractive with a similar formula to what has happened in the past.

This isn't the first time that Shell has planned to redevelop part of their valuable estate. Back in 2004 the White House, then known as the Downstream Building, was converted into an apartment block with 359 flats that thanks to its fashionable South Bank location has been particularly commercially successful.

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