The planning intention seeks to return Cheapside to something of its former glory when, in the mid-nineteenth century, it was London's premier shopping street. But the real impetus has been a recognition that the City needs to be less mono-dimensional and more like its satellite in the former Docklands: Canary Wharf, where the underground shopping mall has been a great success.
The height controls are the clue to the building's overall form. Nouvel rather cleverly generated a volume that filled the possible space for any building to its maximum, sliced it up horizontally into ground and first floor shopping, offices, and a roof-top area that includes a public viewing deck accessible from the shopping area (thus avoiding the kinds of security issues suffered by buildings such as the Gherkin and Tower 42, whose upper-level reaturant and bar area face the difficulty of no direct access from the street.
Nouvel's next move was to slice a chunk out of the plan as a dramatic orientation to London's most significant building: the dome of the Cathedral.
That, in essence is what this building is all about. It seeks to be of a strong diagrammatic nature given the kinds of sophistication one would expect in this location. This includes a cladding system of 6500 panels, of which some 4500 are unique. Conceptually, this wraps the whole building volume. The cladding is undoubtedly a success, its complications deriving, in part, a clever 'stealth' geometry and from a 'spraying' of coloured ceramic fritting across the facades.
Does One New Change work? Is it exciting? It certainly commands respect and has divided architectural opinion. If one is to pay respects to Wren's work, then why not also pay respects to the nearby Bow Bells church? Why not have layers of such acknowledgements? Some people have also expressed doubts about the three floors of shopping set around a central light-well, so that two principal arms are dead-ends. Overall, this is a valuable addition to the City's architecture, not only commanding respect but prompting debate. However, there is an inner regret there: that, yet again, the old, tight grain of the City has been subject to the developer's rationalisation. Another large lump has obtruded itself into the City fabric, prompting one to retreat to nearby alleys and small scale streets where there remains a thin semblance of the character the City once had, that once occupied the perimeter of the Royal Exchange and now pops up only in planning vacuums of the kind we saw at Spitalfileds, London bridge and similar locations.
Go to the top of St Paul's and look down. And then go to the top of One New Change and look back. It's an intriguing dialogue.
The project was completed in late 2011, although fit-outs are still ongoing and the roof-top restaurant is not yet open (Feb. 2011).