The 43-storey tower will house a business center, an apart-hotel, a fitness center, and an observation deck and a bar on its top floor. But its main function is various types of warehouses for rent, occupying from the 3rd to the 18th floor. Such premises do not require windows, which made it possible to use this part of the building as a giant canvas for the artist Bruce McLean.
McLean's bright and expressive painting is perfectly combined with the architectural style of Alsop: above the huge panel, the walls of the tower will liven up with multicolored pipes through which the building will naturally ventilate. As the height increases, the floor area of the building will decrease so that sunlight can reach street level. Also, to make the tower at 151 City Road more open to pedestrians, its two first floors will be glazed, and shops and restaurants will be opened there.
Thus, the new skyscraper will be a work of three arts at the same time: architecture, sculpture - thanks to its unusual form, and painting, and will revive the faded landscape of London's Hackney district.
