One Canada Square

One Canada Square is a skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. It is the third tallest building in the United Kingdom at above ground level, and contains 50 floors. It achieved the title of the tallest building in the UK upon completion in 1991 and held the title for 21 years until the completion of The Shard (310m) in 2012.

Background

One Canada Square was designed by César Pelli with Adamson Associates and Frederick Gibberd Coombes. The building is clad with stainless steel. One of the predominant features of the building is the pyramid roof, which contains a flashing aircraft warning light, a rare feature for buildings in the United Kingdom. The distinctive pyramid pinnacle is above sea level. The building is recognised as a London landmark, and it has gained much attention through film, television, and other media as one of the tallest buildings in the United Kingdom.

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

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.thumbnail|right|A view from the top floor, May 2000

History

1987–1990: Design and construction

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. Olympia & York grouped all three towers into an area during planning. Docklands Square was later renamed Winston Square before finally being renamed as Canada Square.

The architects chosen to design One Canada Square were César Pelli & Associates, Adamson Associates, and Frederick Gibberd Coombes & Partners. The final steel clad chosen was Patten Hyclad Cambric-finish stainless-steel.

Commenting on the reason for choosing steel for the clad:

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

:::—César Pelli, architect (2016) Other criticisms came from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who said that the building was "not quite stunning".

Construction on the tower began in 1988. so Lehrer McGovern took over. 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:

<blockquote>"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."</blockquote>

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

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 were installed during the Christmas celebrations of 1991.

On 15 November 1992, the Provisional Irish Republican Army attempted to place a large improvised explosive device 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.

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".

2000–present: Park Pavilion

In 2009, the building was extended with Park Pavilion, a two-story glass structure built on the east side of the building, designed by César Pelli and Koetter Kim. The extension replaced the stainless steel columns, car parking spaces and road leading to Canada Square. The extension was made to create more retail space at street level, where five tenants were chosen to occupy the space: four restaurants and Lloyds Bank. The extension's roof terrace is open to diners and contains a green roof having sedum moss.

Technical details

Pyramid roof

thumb|right|The pyramid roof at night

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

and 30 metres square at the base.

Windows

One Canada Square has 3,960 windows 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; therefore, the thermal resistance is one of the highest rated in the world for the entire window including the frame. 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 in the strongest winds.

Lifts

The tower has thirty-two lifts for tenants to use, where eight 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 two 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). Around 2014, one of the tondi was removed to make room for a restaurant. The other three remain in situ.

Other art works on display included Sergio Germariello's Guerrieri (Warriors) 2013, which is displayed in the lobby. The work is an aluminium laser cut out that has been painted.

Blade of Venus 1985, by William Turnbull, is on display, part of a series of bronzes that originated in the shape of Japanese swords and Chinese chopping knives. This was followed by an exhibition of bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin.

Canary Wharf Winter Lights usually are on display during January.

During 16 April – 1 June 2018, the lobby hosted a photography exhibition known as AOP50 (Association of Photographers 50 years celebration). Large photographs were on display by famous photographers. Notable works included:

Jullian Edelstein, Nelson Mandela, 1997
Article 25
Euler Hermes
Telegraph Media Group

| 2015–present

| Canary Wharf Group plc (public company, 69 percent controlled by Songbird Estates {which have major shareholders being Qatar Investment Authority [QIA], Simon Glick family, China Investment Corporation, Morgan Stanley, Third Avenue, Madison International Realty, EMS} and 22 percent controlled by Brookfield Properties.)

Light usage

One Canada Square has been "named and shamed" for being the top building to leave the lights on unnecessarily. 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. the House of Lords concluded there is no legal right to receive good television reception. Patricia Hunter and others lost the case because of a variety of reasons that included:

the BBC built a new relay station so there was no long-term television interference
it was interference with a purely recreational facility, as opposed to interference with the health or physical comfort or well-being of the plaintiffs
nothing was emitted from the defendants' land

In Spring 2001, the BBC received some television interference complaints from residents in the Poplar area (north of Canary Wharf). A possible cause for the interference are the other Canary Wharf towers being built. One Canada Square was used by the Central Intelligence Agency as its London listening station.

In the 2007 post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Weeks Later, 235m

| after=The Shard