5 Broadgate is a

groundscraper A groundscraper is a large building that has relatively few stories but which greatly extends horizontally. Definition MSN Encarta defines ''groundscraper'' as "a large low or medium-rise building, typically containing offices, that spreads hori ...

in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. It was designed by Ken Shuttleworth of

Make Architects Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in London that also has offices in offices in Hong Kong and Sydney. Founded in 2004 by former Foster + Partners architect Ken Shuttleworth. The practice has a variety of proj ...

for Swiss bank

UBS UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...

, the world's largest private bank. It is notable for the horizontal, diagonal and vertical strips of windows on its steel exterior.

Design

5 Broadgate contains of office space over 13 storeys adjacent to

Liverpool Street station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...

. Its

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

is made of stainless steel. The building is high at its corners, as tall as the other buildings on the

Broadgate Broadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC and managed by Savills. The estate is in part of the eastern City fringe, outside the line of the no ...

estate. Only about 35 per cent of the façade contains glazing for heat insulation. The exterior contains horizontal, diagonal and vertical strips of windows. The horizontal windows generally overlook the offices, the vertical windows are near the lift shafts, and the diagonal windows are adjacent to the exit stairs. 5 Broadgate features open terraces on higher stories, and it has a large 5 carved into its exterior on the ground floor. The two lowest storeys contain a 200-seat auditorium, restaurants, a gym and a dry cleaner. Above those are four trading floors which can fit 3,000 people each, as well as seven storeys of offices above. The

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

is divided into a grid of sections, arranged around the trading floors. Three of the building's four utility cores are placed along the site perimeter to increase the amount of space on each trading floor. The slab-to-slab distance, or the height between different storeys' floor slabs, is on the trading floors. This provides space for an underfloor

plenum Plenum may refer to: * Plenum chamber, a chamber intended to contain air, gas, or liquid at positive pressure * Plenism, or ''Horror vacui'' (physics) the concept that "nature abhors a vacuum" * Plenum (meeting), a meeting of a deliberative assem ...

system, which contains pipes that provide

chilled water Chilled water is a commodity often used to cool a building's air and equipment, especially in situations where many individual rooms must be controlled separately, such as a hotel. The chilled water can be supplied by a vendor, such as a public util ...

to the workstations. Directly above the highest trading floor is a service floor. The next two storeys are used for client meetings and contain terraces and atriums. The top four storeys are used as conventional offices. The building occupies the site of two former buildings. As part of the agreement with the City of London, the former pedestrian path between the two buildings has been closed for security reasons, and businesses at the base of the building have been banned. About 5,400 people work at 5 Broadgate, 3,000 of which are UBS employees, while the remainder are support staff. According to ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', the UBS Cleaning Academy ensured that the washrooms were durable enough to withstand emotional outbursts by traders. 5 Broadgate was designed to be environmentally friendly and has received a

BREEAM BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), first published by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in 1990, is the world's longest established method of assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of ...

Excellent rating, placing it in the "top 10% of UK new non-domestic buildings". The building was built of 39% recycled materials, and 99% of construction waste was "diverted from landfill". In addition to 7,500 square feet of green roof space, 5 Broadgate also claims to have the largest array of solar panels in the City of London on its roof. It is also said to have 65% lower carbon emissions than the two buildings it replaced.

Ownership

5 Broadgate was developed by the

British Land Company The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

and completed in 2015, upon which UBS moved into its offices. UBS reportedly paid almost £500 million for the building, and is committed to leasing the property until at least 2035. The building was purchased by Hong Kong-based CK Asset Holdings Ltd. in 2018 for £1 billion. As of December 2021, 5 Broadgate will be sold to the National Pension Service of Korea and

LaSalle Investment Management LaSalle Investment Management ("LaSalle") is a real estate investment management firm. It is an independent subsidiary of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a real estate financial and professional services company. LaSalle manages capital for institut ...

for about £1.25 billion, amid rising demand for office space in London.

Reception

In a 2011 review for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'',

Rowan Moore Rowan Moore is an architecture critic. Rowan William Gillachrist Moore was born on 22 March 1961. His brother is the journalist, newspaper editor and Margaret Thatcher's official biographer Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham, and his gr ...

criticised the design of 5 Broadgate for failing to blend in with its surroundings, calling it "an aloof fortress that ignores its responsibilities to the wider community". A 2015 article in ''The Independent'' by Jay Merrick was less critical, saying "The City, more than anywhere else in London, craves striking new buildings". However, it acknowledges that the demolition of two existing buildings their replacement with the proposed metal facade of 5 Broadgate was controversial. Potential opposition to the design prompted City Planning Officer for the City of London Peter Rees to keep the designs confidential until they were submitted for planning approval.

References

{{coord, 51.5194, -0.0830, display=title Buildings and structures in the City of London Buildings and structures completed in 2015 UBS