Misplaced Pages

City Hall
City Hall seen across Royal Victoria Dock
General information
Status	Completed
Architectural style	Neo-futurism
Location	Kamal Chunchie Way, London, E16 1ZE
Coordinates	51°30′25″N 0°00′58″E / 51.507021°N 0.016111°E / 51.507021; 0.016111
Construction started	March 2011
Completed	July 2012
Opening	September 2012 (repurposed as Greater London City Hall January 2022)
Cost	£30 million
Owner	Greater London Authority
Technical details
Floor area	7,000 m (75,000 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	WilkinsonEyre
Structural engineer	Arup Group
Services engineer	Arup Group
Main contractor	ISG

City Hall, in the London Borough of Newham in east London, is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), the regional government for Greater London. It replaced the previous City Hall, in Southwark in 2022. The building opened in 2012 and was previously an exhibition centre for sustainable architecture, known as The Crystal. Built and opened by Siemens, it was the first building in the world to reach the highest sustainability award level (see LEED and BREEAM). It was bought by the GLA in 2019 for the docklands redevelopment project.

The building is situated next to the redeveloped Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town. The northern terminus of the London cable car, and Royal Victoria station, the Docklands Light Railway and Custom House railway station on the Elizabeth line are within walking distance. It is close to London City Airport.

History

Exhibition and conference centre

The Crystal was built as a key part of the Green Enterprise District policy of the London Development Agency.

The building was designed by Perkins+Will (fit-out, design leader) and Wilkinson Eyre Architects (shell and core), with Arup Group who were the building and civil engineers, and Townshend Landscape Architects who designed the public realm. Event Communications were the exhibition designers, responsible for the interpretive planning, exhibition design and creative direction, graphic design, media direction and construction management for the exhibition spaces. The building was the first to achieve the highest sustainable building accolades, platinum and outstanding respectively, from the world's two leading accreditation bodies, LEED and BREEAM.

When it opened, the Crystal contained a permanent exhibition about sustainable development, and was owned and operated by Siemens. In 2016, Siemens sold the building to the GLA, who acquired it to use as a base for the Mayor of London's £3.5bn project to regenerate the Royal Docks. After Siemens vacated the building in 2019, it was used by the Royal Docks regeneration team but large parts of the building remained empty.

City Hall

In June 2020, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the GLA from City Hall in Southwark to The Crystal in order to save £55 million for the GLA over the course of five years. The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020; Newham Borough Council gave permission for a change of use for the building in December 2020. The move was completed in the third week of January 2022, delayed from the previous planned opening date in December 2021. The building was renamed "City Hall" in December 2021.

Architecture

The entire site is 18,000 square metres (190,000 sq ft) in size and the surrounding landscape was designed to be a sustainable urban landscape to help encourage a shift in the social ideology, making 'sustainability' more attractive and allowing people to participate in social activities within the site, which includes local food programmes and community gardens to help foster this principle.

The building contains a number of sustainable technologies, including the building management system and KNX infrastructure. The building control devices, such as lighting, windows, blinds and heating, are connected using the KNX protocol. The building has over 2,500 KNX connected devices.

Gallery

• Close up of the building
• Aerial view
• View from the London cable car
• Glass panels

See also

• Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)
• Scottish Parliament Building
• Palace of Westminster
• Senedd building

References

1. ^ "Contacting City Hall and the Mayor". London City Hall. 22 May 2018.
2. ^ "Case Study: The Crystal, London". ISG Contractors. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
3. ^ "Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services". London City Hall. 24 June 2020.
4. "London Assembly moves into new Royal Docks headquarters". BBC News. 22 March 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
5. ^ "About The Crystal". 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012.
6. "Green Enterprise District: East London" (PDF). London Development Agency. 1 May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
7. ^ "The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens". Event Communications. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
8. "Press". press.siemens.com. Siemens.
9. "GreenBook Live". greenbooklive.com.
10. "City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End". BBC. 3 November 2020.
11. King, Jonathan (11 December 2020). "City Hall move to The Crystal given thumbs-up". Newham Recorder.
12. Lydall, Ross (24 November 2021). "Sadiq Khan's plans to move City Hall to east London delayed". www.standard.co.uk.
13. "Khan approves GLA move from Foster's City Hall to WilkinsonEyre's Crystal". 4 November 2020.
14. "The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine".
15. "Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday".

External links

• The Crystal
• Crystal Clear – The Technology Inside One of the World's Greenest Buildings
• Case Study: The First LEED Platinum & BREEAM Outstanding Building

v t e London Borough of Newham
Districts	Beckton (including Cyprus) Canning Town (including Limmo Peninsula) Custom House East Ham (including Plashet and Wall End) Forest Gate Manor Park (including Little Ilford) Plaistow (including Greengate) Silvertown Stratford (including East Village, Maryland, Mill Meads) Stratford Cross Temple Mills Upton Park West Ham North Woolwich
Attractions	Brick Lane Music Hall City Hall ExCeL Green Street House Mill London City Airport Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park ArcelorMittal Orbit Royal Docks Stratford Circus Thames Barrier Theatre Royal Woolwich foot tunnel World Cup Sculpture
Sports	Boleyn Ground Clapton F.C. Lee Valley VeloPark London Aquatics Centre London Stadium The Old Spotted Dog Ground Riverbank Arena Upton Park F.C. West Ham United F.C.
Shopping centres and markets	Gallions Reach Shopping Park Queen's Market Rathbone Market Stratford Centre Westfield Stratford City
Parks and open spaces	Abbey Gardens Beckton District Park Bow Creek Ecology Park Central Park Epping Forest Forest Lane Park King George V Park Little Ilford Park Memorial Recreation Ground New Beckton Park Plashet Park Star Park Thames Barrier Park Three Mills Green Wanstead Flats West Ham Park
Constituencies	East Ham West Ham
Tube, railway and DLR stations	Abbey Road Beckton Beckton Park Canning Town Custom House for ExCel Cyprus East Ham Forest Gate Gallions Reach King George V London City Airport Manor Park Maryland Plaistow Pontoon Dock Prince Regent Pudding Mill Lane Royal Albert Royal Victoria Star Lane Stratford Stratford High Street  Stratford International Upton Park Wanstead Park West Ham West Silvertown Woodgrange Park
Other topics	Council Grade I and II* listed buildings People Public art Schools
Category Commons

• 2012 establishments in England
• Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Newham
• Exhibition and conference centres in London
• Silvertown
• City and town halls in London
• Greater London Authority