One Canada Square

Original plans

The original plans for a business district on Canary Wharf came from G Ware Travelstead. He proposed three 260 m (850 ft) towers. Travelstead was unable to fund the project, so the plans were sold to Olympia & York in 1987.^[11] Olympia & York grouped all three towers into an area^[11] known as Docklands Square, and the main tower was designated DS7^[21] during planning. Docklands Square was later renamed Winston Square before finally being renamed as Canada Square.

Architects/design

The architects chosen to design One Canada Square were César Pelli & Associates, Adamson Associates, and Frederick Gibberd Coombes & Partners.^[9][11] They designed the tower with a similar shape to 200 Vesey Street (formerly Three World Financial Center), New York City, which was also developed by Olympia & York and designed by Argentine architect César Pelli. The shape was also made reminiscent of "Big Ben".^[22] Olympia & York wanted to clad One Canada Square in stone, just like Peli's World Financial Center towers constructed in 1986, but the architects first wanted to use aluminium for its low density, before insisting on steel^[11] to reflect Britain's heritage as an industrial nation.^[22] The final steel clad chosen was Patten Hyclad Cambric-finish stainless-steel.^[23]

Commenting on the reason for choosing steel for the clad:

"We studied the cladding material carefully and chose stainless steel with a linen finish because it seemed to fit the atmosphere of London."

—César Pelli, architect (2016)^[23]

One Canada Square was originally designed to be 864 feet (263 m) high at 55 storeys, but that penetrated the permitted projection height of the flight obstruction area of the airport approach district to London City Airport, but this was extended to a height of 30 feet (9.1 m) above kerb level in consideration of the fact that One Canada Square was on the external zone of the airport approach. To comply with air traffic safety regulations, the architects took five floors^[11][22] off the tower. The final height of 824 feet (251 m) was permitted, otherwise, the developers would have had to dismantle what was necessary to fit the height restriction. After losing five floors, Olympia & York insisted the other floors had to make up the lost floor space^[11][22] by increasing mass to the remaining floor space which created a tower that was not as slim as Pelli desired. Pelli and the other architects proposed alternatives, such as building more floors below ground and creating an extension of the tower into Docklands Square, which were similar ideas based upon previous Olympia & York buildings, though the ideas were rejected as it did not fit the basis of prime office space.

The design of the tower received a fair share of criticism. According to César Pelli, the most damaging criticism came from Prince Charles, who said on national television, "I personally would go mad if I had to work in a place like that".^[24] Other criticisms came from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said that the building was "not quite stunning".

Construction

Construction on the tower began in 1988.^[11] Construction was given to Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons in association with EllisDon of Toronto,^[11] but they were slow at building the tower, partly due to building workers going on strike in the summer of 1989,^[25] so Lehrer McGovern took over.^[11] Lehrer McGovern contracted out most of the work to Balfour Beatty because the Canary Wharf Tower was a difficult building to build. In total, about 27,500 metric tonnes of British steel and 500,000 bolts were used during construction.^[6] Construction also involved building a huge cofferdam to seal construction from water. It also involved driving 222 piles into the ground at 23 metres deep.^[23] Also, a 4-metre thick concrete raft was sunk into the dock to act as anchor.^[23]

By June 1990, the tower had overtaken Tower 42 (previously known as the NatWest Tower), becoming the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

On 8 November 1990, the tower was topped out when the top piece of the pyramid roof was put in place by crane.

The celebration was attended by many famous architects, recognised engineers and political leaders. Amongst them were César Pelli, Brian Mulroney, Peter Rice, Man-Chung Tang, and Margaret Thatcher. Paul Reichmann, the owner of Olympia & York gave credit to Pelli for his building design as "this inauguration symbolises the spirit with which buildings can be achieved". Margaret Thatcher told the distinguished audience that the tower can become a "national recognised landmark".

Opening

In August 1991, One Canada Square was completed^[11] and open for business. His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh officially opened One Canada Square on the morning of 26 August 1991,^[26] and unveiled a commemorative plaque at the entrance to the building. Hundreds of construction workers attended the opening ceremony. The Duke of Edinburgh addressed some 800 invited guests, many of whom had been involved in the project. He spoke of the "large, airy space and clean, efficient office layout", as he declared the building ready for business. The attendees heard a specially-commissioned piece of music performed by a 30-strong choir. Paul Reichmann, Chairman of Olympia & York said:

"The Canary Wharf Tower marks the start of a new beginning for Canary Wharf, for London, and for the United Kingdom. It is by any standard a triumph of ambition, commitment and collaboration. It will breathe life into Canary Wharf, allowing us to continue our transformation of the rest of the wharf, and will put Canary Wharf at the leading edge of real estate."

—Paul Reichmann, Chairman, Olympia & York (1991)

Post-completion

The majority of the tower was empty after opening because most tenants had not moved in yet and there was a global recession. To brighten up the tower, lights and lasers^[27] were installed during the Christmas celebrations of 1991.

Building name

The name given to the building by the developers is 'One Canada Square', but it is often incorrectly called 'Canary Wharf Tower' or simply 'Canary Wharf'.

Building height

The Civil Aviation Authority shows the building at 235 metres (771 ft) above ground level, or 245.8 metres (806 ft) above sea level.

Pyramid roof

The pyramid roof is an important feature of the building, enclosing a maintenance plant and housing facilities for water supply and window washing, and an aircraft warning beacon. The pyramid itself is 40 metres high^[28] and 30 metres square at the base.^[28] It is made from stainless steel^[28] and is held together by 100,000 nuts and bolts,^[28] with a weight of over 100 tons.^[28] A louvre access door opens to allow a shining beacon to identify the building to passing aircraft.^[28]

The pyramid is metal louvres that are self-cleaning with rainwater.

Architect César Pelli commented on his pyramid design:

"The pyramidal form makes a three-dimensional building of what would otherwise be just folded planes. It also strengthens the Axis Mundi, the vertical line that goes through skyscrapers and connects Heaven with Earth. This connection has been recognised in many cultures for several centuries now."

—César Pelli, architect (2016)^[23]

Window washing machines

The building maintenance units for washing the building windows are stored on the roof. There are two BMUs on the roof, both of these machines for cleaning the windows are supported by rails that run around the outside of the pyramid roof and that are bolted down into the maintenance floor itself.

HVAC

At the peak cooling times, the HVAC (climate control) system requires cooling equivalent to that provided by 2,000 t of melting ice in one day. The building has a condensate collection system, which uses the hot and humid outside air, combined with the cooling requirements of the building and results in a significant amount of condensation of moisture from the air. The condensed water is collected and drained into a holding tank located in the basement car park.

Windows

One Canada Square has 3,960 windows^[6] and was one of the first buildings to incorporate metallicised windows and other advanced window technologies, to assist with the building's energy efficiency plans. The tower uses super-insulated windows at triple-pane glazing (with a high solar heat-gain coefficient), low-emissivity (low-e) coatings to prevent heat loss in winter months, UV coatings, scratch resistant outer layers, sealed argon / krypton gas filled inter-pane voids, 'warm edge' insulating glass spacers, air-seals and specially developed thermally designed window frames. The windows were manufactured with high R-values [low U-values, 0.90 W/(m².K)] for the time, thereby the thermal resistance is one of the highest rated in the world for the entire window including the frame.

External lighting

The tower uses low energy consumption external lighting through intelligent lighting controls systems. This computer controlled system generates the visually interesting lighting displays on the exterior of the building. The uplighters that are usually seen on the exterior of the building are inductive fluorescent lamps that can be colour rendered and dimmed. The floodlights use compact fluorescent lamps used to provide controlled lighting at the base of the tower. The lighting control system has photocells that will automatically switch on the display when it is dark.

The tower also has a synchronised building exterior decorative light and laser multimedia display. The technology was developed by Australian firm Laservision and cost approximately £2 million.

Fire system

In the event of a fire, One Canada Square is not fully evacuated. The floor that has the fire and all other floors above are evacuated. The air conditioning is set to work in reverse to extract smoke and fresh air is blown into the fire escape staircases to increase air pressure and therefore slow the entry of smoke into these areas. The sprinkler system will not operate unless there is sufficient heat acting on any sprinkler head (which are independent of each other and do not operate in unison).

The only time when One Canada Square was fully evacuated was on 30 October 2001,^[30] during a test drill in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks. The test drill was unsuccessful as tenants were notified beforehand, hence evacuation was much quicker than expected by Canary Wharf Security.

Tuned mass damper

One Canada Square has a steel pendulum that serves as a tuned mass damper. The pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts of wind. The building can sway 33.02 centimetres (13 inches) in the strongest winds.^[6]

Lobby

The lobby is 36 feet (11 m) high, clad in 90,000 square feet (8,000 m²) Italian Rosso Levanto and Verde Imperial Guatemalan^[23] marbles imported from Italy,^[6] Guatemala^[6] and Turkey.^[11]

The marble clad under steel ceilings gives the impression of:

"Rather than entering a corporate reception, you feel as if you're entering a hushed antespace of timeless power."

—Herbert Wright, Johnny Tucker, Journalist [architecture] (2016)^[23]

Lifts

The tower has thirty two lifts for tenants to use, where 8 lifts serve roughly ten floors of the building. All tenant passenger lifts serve the ground floor and the following groups of floors – floors 5–17, floors 18–28, floors 28–39 and floors 39–50 (note that level 5 is the first office floor and there is no level 13). In addition there are 2 firemen's lifts which serve all floors in the building. These have colour designations with blue being in the northeast core of the building and green being in the southwest. From the building's initial construction until late 2009 there were 2 large freight lifts at which point another was added. This lift was built inside a vacant lift shaft and has the designation GL37 (GL for goods lift and 37 as it is the 37th lift in the building).^[6] The tower uses 'Gearless Traction Elevators' by Otis. These lifts were installed in 1990 (aside from GL37 – 2009) using a gearless traction machine. They have woven steel cables called hoisting ropes that are attached to the top of the lift cabin and wrapped around the drive sheave in special grooves. The other ends of the cables are attached to a counterweight that moves up and down in the hoistway on its own guiderails. It takes 40 seconds by lift from lobby to top floor^[6] (The Canary Wharf website has not been updated to include the new goods lift GL37).

Observation floor

There is currently no public observation floor. However, there was an exception from 12 October 1992 to 15 December 1992, when bankruptcy administrators for Olympia & York Canary Wharf Limited opened the 50th floor to the public, to maintain interest in Canary Wharf. The scheme was stopped on 15 December 1992 when the IRA attempted to bomb the tower^[34] (see Terrorism section).

Environmental rating

The international BREEAM standard has awarded One Canada Square for best practice in sustainable design and environmental performance for buildings. To achieve the rating, the building had to meet or exceed a challenging score of 85% against strict criteria, and included environmental innovations such as the use of 80% recycled aggregate within the concrete used, and the recycling of waste heat to cool and warm the building. Aggregates used in the office build were from predominantly recycled sources, part of a strategy to integrate sustainable products and materials throughout the site, delivering both affordable and sustainable environmentally friendly features to the building.

One Canada Square energy performance has improved by decreasing 30% from 2007 to 2016 by initiatives such as installing LEDs and upgrading HVAC and water services.^[23]

General figures

• 28,000 square feet (2,600 m²) average floor size^[6]
• 4,388 internal steps^[6]
• 130,000 deliveries to the loading bay each year^[6]
• 9,975 people working in the tower^[23]

Public access

The ground floor, foyer area and basement levels of One Canada Square are open to the general public, having an underground retail area and a transport interchange from Canary Wharf tube and Docklands Light Railway stations. Access from the basement also links to Canada Square shopping mall.^[35] The floors above the lobby are not open to the public, as they contain offices.

Art works

Ground Floor Restaurant

The ground floor lobby has a restaurant and bar, the current tenant is Shutters.^[45]

Tenants

Ownership

The ownership of One Canada Square has changed since it was constructed. The table below shows who have previously owned One Canada Square, and also who are the current owners.

Any use of a holding company has been excluded from this list, as it is easier to trace the true owner.

Maintenance

Canary Wharf Management Ltd are responsible for the maintenance of the building. There are about 130 in-house and contract staff who maintain, manage, secure and clean the building. There are normally ten maintenance personnel on-site during working hours and three at night to attend to routine repairs and adjustments to the internal environment. Critical spare parts for the electricity, gas and water systems are kept within the building.

Light usage

One Canada Square has been 'named and shamed' for being the top building to leave the lights on unnecessarily.^[51] The research carried out by the BBC's Inside Out programme found that on midnight Sunday, One Canada Square left more lights on than any other building in London.^[51]

However, Canary Wharf Group said that some tenants have staff working around the clock,^[51] and 100% of the energy comes from renewable resources.^[51]

Charity abseil events

One Canada Square regularly holds charity abseiling events during weekends. Various charities are given permission to use the building for their abseil challenges to raise money. Participants abseil down from the pyramid roof to street level. Abseilers normally use only 2 ropes and have to put up with windy conditions at 800 feet, whilst enjoying the views of London as they abseil down the steel cladding.

The first abseil was on 21 July 2001, when a team of Royal Marines, and members of various companies including a team led by David Levy from HSBC, and this team, raised in excess of £45,000 for 5 different children's charities. The event earned a World Record and was covered by BBC Record Breakers.

Height ranking

Titles

One Canada Square achieved the title of tallest skyscraper in the UK in August 1991 upon building completion (as of CTBUH guidelines), or June 1990 (during construction when it overtook Nat West Tower). It held the record until 2012 when The Shard was completed. It became the third tallest building in the United Kingdom in 2019 upon completion of 22 Bishopsgate.

One Canada Square never achieved the title as tallest skyscraper in the European Union because in accordance to the CTBUH method, a building has to be completed before its receives its title, with Messeturm in Frankfurt being completed in 1990.

Terrorism

On 15 November 1992, the Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to place a large improvised explosive device^[34] near the tower. The IRA had already worked out that to cause maximum damage, the bomb had to be placed under the Docklands Light Railway bridge to disrupt infrastructure near the Canary Wharf Tower for a devastating effect. The bomb was in a van which was driven to the designated place. As the bombers were about to make their escape, security guards approached the van because it was parked illegally on double yellow lines. Two men got out of the vehicle and one pointed a revolver at one of the security guards. The gun failed to fire. The terrorists were then pursued as far as the boundary of the wharf, but they escaped. Armed police were on the scene within minutes and the army bomb squad discovered that the vehicle contained a bomb. The detonator failed to ignite the main charge,^[52] and the bomb did not go off, so there was no bomb damage to Canary Wharf. The wharf was sealed off for a couple of days whilst an intensive search took place for further devices. A few days later, the IRA described it as 'sheer ill luck' as the bomb failed to detonate. There was criticism that the intelligence services did not know about this massive bomb travelling through London. As a result of this attempted bombing, the observation floor was closed (see Public access section) and security was dramatically increased at Canary Wharf.

On 9 February 1996, the Provisional IRA successfully detonated a large bomb at South Quay, south of Canary Wharf (outside Canary Wharf), which killed two people and devastated several buildings. This explosion is commonly, but erroneously, referred to as the "Canary Wharf bomb".^[53][54]

The towers at Canary Wharf were evacuated as a precaution following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon in the United States.

There have been many news articles in recent years stating that the towers at Canary Wharf have been a target for terrorism.^[55][56] However, some of these plots have been denied by the government.^[57] One plot was confirmed on 4 April 2008, when a terror cell appeared at Woolwich Crown Court accused of targeting Canary Wharf. The men denied the charges,^[58][59] but were found guilty for planning attacks on the Canary Wharf skyscrapers.

Community relations

In popular culture