London's airport rules chopped five floors off Canary Wharf's tower
One Canada Square was drawn at 55 storeys and 263 metres. That would have poked into the flight path for nearby London City Airport, so the architects removed five floors. Even trimmed, it stood as Britain's tallest building for 21 years.
The Canary Wharf business district began as a plan by G Ware Travelstead for three 260-metre towers. When he could not pay for it, Olympia & York bought the scheme in 1987, and the main tower, known during planning as DS7, sat in a square renamed twice before settling on Canada Square. César Pelli's team shaped it like a building he had designed for the same developer in New York, with a nod to Big Ben. Olympia & York wanted stone cladding, but Pelli chose stainless steel with a linen finish because it suited London's atmosphere.
Building started in 1988. The original contractors were slow, partly because of a strike in summer 1989, and another firm took over, farming much of the difficult work out to Balfour Beatty. Around 27,500 tonnes of British steel and 500,000 bolts went into it. By June 1990 it had overtaken the NatWest Tower, and on 8 November that year a crane placed the tip of the pyramid roof. Margaret Thatcher attended the celebration and predicted a national landmark, though she had called the design not quite stunning; Prince Charles said on television he would go mad working in a place like that.
Completed in 1991 at 235 metres and 50 floors, it held the height record until the Shard, at 310 metres, overtook it in 2012; it now ranks third in Britain. Its pyramid roof carries a flashing aircraft warning light, unusual for British buildings, and its tip reaches 240 metres above sea level.
It is mostly offices and was fully let by October 2017, with shops and transport links below. There is no viewing gallery. The single exception came in late 1992, when administrators for the bankrupt developer opened the 50th floor to keep interest alive, until an attempted IRA bombing ended the scheme on 15 December.
Source: One Canada Square
