Riverlight progress...

Forgoing The Tower at St George Wharf, which benefits from being a stones through from Vauxhall's highly accessible tube network, this is the first scheme to come forward. And fair play to St James for taking the leap as at the moment the site is fairly isolated. Development Director of St James, Matthew Townend was quick to highlight this point by stating theirs was the first detailed application within VNEB and therefore arguably passed through more scrutiny of the emerging planning policy. It also comes way before key infrastructure is in place and the certainty that will bring. 

With that, here's progress as of Friday with the first two phases racing up (first phase on the right at 6 storeys, second phase on the left at 4 storeys). These two blocks will complete in August 2014, with full completion of the whole site in 2017. Apparently sales have been going extremely well with average price per sq ft values across the board a little over £1,000.

The third and fourth phases are also well under way. This shot was taken from within the marketing suite, with the second phase on the far right. Foundations and basement levels look complete, with these probably rising above the hoardings in not too long a time from now.

And from road level.

Below is a model of the completed scheme, which is very similar to both NEO Bankside and One Hyde Park. Architect of all these schemes, Richard Rogers, has been at the forefront of design that puts structural support on the outside of the building, so that it frees up more space to sell within. This form of design follows on from some of his previous work including the Lloyds building and famously the Pompidou in Paris. Speaking of the Pompidou did you know it inspired Nike Air Max trainers and specifically the bubble of air found in the sole? No? Link here.