Post-war commercial architecture rarely gets the acclaim it deserves, but some steps have been taken with the decision by English Heritage to award Grade 2 listed status to 14 office blocks in the UK. The organisation is currently examining post-war offices built between 1964 and 1984 to assess which have made a telling contribution to design and architecture and deserve to be protected.
The process of looking at offices from the period started after UBS chose to demolish their Broadgate office in 2011. English Heritage fought to protect the building, praising it as an “achievement of urbanism” but they lost the fight and it was demolished to be replaced by something more modern. The loss pushed the organisation into action to protect other important buildings before their owners decided it was time to modernise them.
The 14 newly listed buildings have several things in common. They were all built at a time when the role of the architect was changing slightly, moving more towards designing the exterior and key internal spaces and leaving the rest for the client or an interior specialist to decide on. There are also obvious indications of the environmental concerns of the time, particularly when you look at the wide use of large windows and low energy designs.
The listed offices include Gateway House, 30 Cannon Street, 1 Finsbury Avenue and IBM Pilot Head Office. Each building is an accomplishment and a great representation of the time when it was built. The move to start listing commercial properties from this period has been met with a positive response, particularly in London where the push for space and modernisation means many buildings can be lost very quickly.
Unfortunately, the selection criteria for listing has meant some well known buildings have missed out. One of the most notable of these is the Natwest Tower. It was refused status because its exterior is deemed to have been too heavily altered over the years, particularly as a response to an IRA bomb in 1993. The Aviva Tower met a similar fate even though it is regarded as one of the best examples of commercial architecture from its period.