Tall Buildings Consultancy

We have advised on more tall building applications than any other practice in the UK, working on major schemes across Greater London and other UK cities.

This service range often starts at the plan-making stage, where we help clients secure tall building allocations in local plans, producing evidence-based analysis and then defending this at local plan examinations. Securing favourable allocations for this form of development is increasingly important in response to new policies and emerging legislative changes.

Approach

• At project inception, we work with the design team to refine briefs and explore different options, identifying risk profiles and strategies to address those.
• We undertake initial visual testing and brief visualisation companies, working closely with them on image production and innovative digital techniques to quantify impacts.
• We then present this analysis at pre-app stages and work closely with architects on design development to remove or mitigate impacts and ensure that proposals are of the highest quality. We have worked with all the country’s leading design practices, and our advice is highly respected.

Experience

• We are experts in advising on the variation of consents through Sections 73 and 96, and our planning expertise also means we are particularly skilled in navigating the complexities that tall building proposals encounter when presented in outline or hybrid applications. We assist architects in design coding and parameter definition.
• Most tall buildings of any consequence will require environmental impact assessment, and we have unmatched experience in preparing these documents, which are often subject to legal scrutiny.
• Our team are experts in development that interact with strategic views in London, and one of our lead partners advised the GLA on the London View Management Framework. We also work with other authorities which operate view management frameworks (Edinburgh, Oxford).