Office building at 200 Queen Victoria Street, City of London 1988-90

One of five buildings commissioned in 1988 by Stuart Lipton & Godfrey Bradman of Rosehaugh Stanhope Developments for Ludgate Hill, on sites created by demolishing the existing railway viaduct and submerging the railway lines below ground. Lipton had turned fast track development into an art form of his own, one with a strong underlying ideology of American descent. There was the added problem of constructing an office block in the air rights of an operating railway, which was in a tunnel sloping downwards by two stories along the full length of the site. Despite these constraints, JOA were ahead of SOM in submitting a Planning Application, which received plaudits from the Royal Fine Arts Commission and the Ancient Monuments Society, who believed "that it will prove a masterpiece of late 20th century design". Building magazine wrote: "The rich textures and colours and robust sculptural forms of the buildings have an immediate impact and unmistakable presence. Outram's buildings allow interpretation and appreciation at many levels and from many angles simultaneously...Outram's style is not only spiritually rooted in the classics: its precursors are all around us and gladden our hearts." Being on the most difficult site of the five, it was the most expensive to build per sq.m. of floorspace created and became another victim of the recession at the tender stage.   * JOA can be reached by E-Mail at anthony@johnoutram.com , by telephone on +44 (0)207 262 4862 or by fax on +44 (0)207 706 3804. We also have an ISDN number : +44 (0)207 262 6294.