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Photograph © James Oxford
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
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Built:
1992
Cost: £800,000,000
Designed by: Cesar Pelli & Associates
Type: Skyscraper
Stories: 50
Location: Isle of Dogs
City: London
State: England
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W
hile ordinary in appearance, at 50 stories, this was the tallest office building in Europe at the time this photo was taken. The building's signature is a 130-foot stainless steel pyramid cap weighing 11 tons. Canada Square managed to rise in spite of overwhelming odds. The Canadian company that commissioned it went bankrupt, bomb threats closed the observation deck, and a real IRA bomb attack shattered the lower floors. It exists as a symbol of the area's rebirth. In 1981 the region consisted of block after block of abandoned industrial sites. The government set up the London Dockland Development Corporation to revitalize the area. It offered incentives for new construction and reuse of urban land. The Docklands got its own automated rail system (Docklands Light Railway), and businesses began moving back in. Some of them high-profile newspapers like the Daily Telegraph. One Canada Square is now the jewel in the Corporation's crown. It was sold in 1995 to new owners (A Canadian-Saudi joint venture) who have kept the building alive, and continued breathing life into the local economy. Once just an industrial wasteland, the Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs Docklands are becoming fashionable once again.
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