- Environment Minister outlined vision for ‘landmark’ building in town
- Campaigners Save Jersey Heritage outraged at the plans
- Members of the Island’s architectural community believe it could work well
- What do you think? See comments and the results of our online poll
A PROPOSED ‘landmark’ office block three times higher than most St Helier buildings has divided heritage lobbyists and architects.
Campaigners Save Jersey’s Heritage have expressed their outrage following Environment Minister Steve Luce’s vision for a ‘statement’ town-centre office block that would be taller than most buildings in the capital.
But the suggestion, announced by Deputy Luce at a Chamber of Commerce lunchtime talk on Thursday, has been welcomed by members of the Island’s architectural community, who say it could work if it was designed well and was in an appropriate location.
Save Jersey’s Heritage chairman Advocate Christopher Scholefield said: ‘It would probably be an unmitigated disaster.
‘These prestige projects are generally incredibly expensive to build.
‘The Qataris had to step in to bail out The Shard, and it took for ever to find tenants for The Gherkin.
‘These buildings really only work in big-city contexts.
‘I also think we already have an iconic structure in town. It’s called Fort Regent. We just haven’t worked out how to make use of it yet.’
Advocate Scholefield added that other highly respected finance centres, like Geneva, Zurich, Georgetown in Grand Cayman and Hamilton in Bermuda, had all avoided building stand-out structures.
‘I think it would be a profound shame if Jersey alone, among the leading offshore finance centres, felt it had to go and make this mistake,’ he added.
Fellow Save Jersey’s Heritage member and architectural historian Marcus Binney, who has written about architecture for The Times, added his scepticism about Deputy Luce’s suggestion.
He said: ‘The idea that one can just call up an iconic masterpiece is so far from reality.
‘It is very difficult to get right.
‘In London, OK, you’ve got the big players wanting to build these prestige buildings, but if you look around provincial English towns that have tried something similar, the projects are not happy affairs.
‘They are generally considered to be the biggest eyesore in town.’
However, the prospect of an eye-catching office tower has attracted the approval of several architects.
Derek Mason, president of the Association of Jersey Architects, said: ‘I’ve always been a supporter of tall buildings in the right place.
‘People shouldn’t be frightened of towers, they are a part of life now. Ground-floor space is so valuable, why not use the free space above?’
Former president Carlo Riva said that St Helier could house such a building if the design and quality were right.
‘It would have to be world-class,’ he said.
‘There are countless examples around the world where large buildings have been used to symbolise a place, given it a new lease of life and given an area a world setting.
‘Look at Portsmouth with its towering sails – there are examples where it has worked.’
renouj21: It feels like there is a relentless campaign in some business quarters to try and edge Jersey towards a mini Hong Kong. It’s the wrong option for so many reasons. Economic prosperity does NOT depend on building ever bigger buildings, or turning St Helier into a high rise town.
yorkie22: Will it stop at one tall building? I think not.
Claude: I can only assume that the purpose of this ‘vision’ is a decoy/diversion.
C Le Verdic: Just build it in the form of a giant tombstone, inscribed with ‘Here lies Jersey, once beautiful island before it was ruined by power crazed men’. Oh, and an easily impressed woman.
Patricia Le Ruez: The man has lost his marbles, and those who support this ridiculous idea. Jersey is Not a city, Nor Dubai. It is a small beautiful island, which is being transformed to compete with major offshore countries – more decimation. There is more to Jersey than finance.
Buildings can be classified in different ways according to their use.
Because of this engineers and designers have created a list of 49 categories that commemorate the tallest structures in the world.
Here are ten from that list:
- Skyscraper: Dubais 830-metre Burj Khalifa (right). Before that Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, was officially classified as the world’s tallest skyscraper in 2004, and held the record until the opening of Burj Khalifa in 2010.
- Twin towers: The 452-metre Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
- Dam: The Jinping-I Dam in Liangshan in China stands at 305 metres.
- Water Tower: The main tower of Kuwait Towers is 187 metres tall.
- Wooden structure: ATLAS-I at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico is 180 metres tall.
- Sculpture: The Spire of Dublin stands at 121.2 metres.
- Freestanding flagpole: The Jeddah Flagpole in Saudi Arabia in 171 metres tall.
- Ferris Wheel: In Las Vegas the High Roller Ferris Wheel is 173 metres tall.
- Wind Turbine: Denmark has the tallest wind turbine, which is called Vestas V164-8.0 and is 222 metres tall
- Radar: Israels Dimona Radar Facility stands at 400 metres.
ST Helier is at the heart of political debate – and rightly so.
The Council of Ministers have made revitalising town one of their four key priorities and Senator Philip Ozouf narrowly secured another term in the States with his promise of a new deal for St Helier in the run-up to last year’s elections.
Jersey needs to be proud of its capital, a place where tens of thousands of people live, work, shop and play every day.
With the population at 100,000 and rising, demand for more affordable housing shows no sign of abating. Time and again Islanders have voiced their strong support for preserving Jersey’s beautiful countryside and coastline, which means St Helier is likely to be asked, yet again, to accommodate more homes.
Environment Minister Steve Luce and the team at Planning understand that and want to find creative, forward-thinking solutions to provide modern urban homes which foster communities where people actually want to live.
For the time being, however, focus has been diverted by the argument still raging over the Jersey International Finance Centre – the aesthetics of its design, the impact on the rest of St Helier and, most significantly, whether there is anyone to rent the much vaunted ‘grade-A office space’.
Levels of popular engagement with the multi-faceted debate about the future of St Helier demonstrate how much Islanders care and reflect the direct democracy which exists in a small Island.
But after hundreds of column inches devoted to the subject on the letters pages of the JEP, on internet forums and after numerous conversations in pubs and around kitchen tables, one thing that has been absent from the debate is a call for a statement office tower, a Shard or Petronas Towers for Jersey, albeit on a smaller scale.
Yesterday, however, Deputy Luce used a speech to the Chamber of Commerce to outline his vision for a new office block in St Helier which would dwarf existing towers.
He made the comments moments after Chamber president James Filleul introduced him saying that his election marked a step away from the more eccentric-sounding ideas of his predecessor. Some left the lunch feeling not so sure.
Jersey needs visionary leaders, but with so many pressing challenges, the Island must also have people with their feet firmly on the ground. This is a time of need, not want.
