The Minerva Building

Identification

Map

Structure in general

Usage

Facts

• A revised planning application for the 53-storey (49 occupiable floors plus 4 plant floors) version was submitted during the week ending July 12th 2002.
• The original proposal for this site, known then as St. Botolph's House, was a 14-storey office block. In 2001 this was revised to a 36-storey, 159m (522ft) tall office tower. A post-September 11th revision brought structural and design changes and a further increase in height, to 53-storeys and 216.9m (712ft).
• If built, The Minerva Building would have been the first building in the City of London to contain more than 1,000,000sq ft of office space. It would have contained four 3,620sq m trading floors, 1,860sq m of retail and a 1,300sq m top-floor restaurant, as well as 33 parking spaces for cars and 355 for bicycles.
• The Minerva Building was designed to resemble four open books and would have been clad in aluminium and glass; a ventilated façade would have helped in the environmental sustainability of the building with a predicted energy reduction of around 50-60 percent.
• The building would have accommodated up to 10,000 people.
• The ground floor would have housed shopping facilities whilst double-decker lifts would have risen to the sky-lobby on the 12th and 13th floors; the building would have featured a panoramic roof terrace and the top floor would have featured a public restaurant, accessed by a dedicated street entrance and scenic lifts.
• St. Botolphs now occupies this site.