Holding up the bank

摘要

Anyone familiar with the detr's smart new Eland House offices near Victoria Station in central London can be forgiven a double-take when they walk out of Liverpool Street Station in east London. For, across the road from Broadgate, a strangely familiar building has emerged from its scaffolding shroud. The 25 740 m~2 glass box that is the headquarters of Dutch bank ABN-Amro features lateral planks of dotted curtain walling, acute external angles and aerofoil brises-soleil - just like Eland House. It even has a similar signature mast. But there is one significant difference between the two epr-designed buildings. The £53m ABN-Amro headquarters on Bishopsgate features a series of external pipes running from top to bottom at 9 m intervals.