St George Wharf Tower

St George Wharf Tower, also known as the Vauxhall Tower, is a residential skyscraper in Vauxhall, London, and part of the St George Wharf development. At 181 m tall with 50 storeys, it is the 20th-tallest building in London and was the tallest residential building in the United Kingdom on its completion.

Whilst under construction, in 2013 a helicopter collided with a crane on the building and crashed to the ground, causing two deaths.

Design features
The tower's floor-plan design is based on the shape of a Catherine wheel and is typically divided into five apartments per floor with separating walls radiating out from the central core.

Sky gardens provide residents with a semi-external space stepped forward from the pure circular plan, creating steps in the façade that accentuate the building's height and provide variety and interest in the detailing of the otherwise minimal cladding.

The building is divided into three distinct parts—a base that houses the communal facilities of the building including a lobby, business lounge, gym, spa and swimming pool; a middle section containing most of the apartments; and an upper section where the façade reduces in diameter to provide 360-degree terraces and a wind turbine that tops the structure.

The wind turbine, manufactured by British green-technology company Matilda's Planet, powers the tower's common lighting, whilst creating virtually no noise or vibration. At the base of the tower, water is drawn from the London Aquifer and heat pump technology is used to extract warmth from the water in the winter to heat the apartments. In comparison to similar buildings, the tower requires one third of the energy, and produces between one half and two thirds of typical carbon dioxide emissions. It is triple-glazed to minimise heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer, with low-e glazing and ventilated blinds between the glazing to further reduce heat gain from direct sunlight.

Special stairs for the luxury lower penthouse apartments are supplied. These apartments and stairs are a mirror of each other. In one of these apartments there is a 360-degree view across London. The highest swimming pool in the city is located in this apartment.

Planning
Following ongoing advice from the government architectural body, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, two revised planning applications were submitted and subsequently withdrawn. A final decision was made by the then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 2005 and the tower was approved, against the decision of the planning inspector and despite warnings from Prescott's own advisers that it "could set a precedent for the indiscriminate scattering of very tall buildings across London".

Construction
As of October 2011 the concrete core had reached level 22. Glass curtain wall construction began in September 2011, with floors one and two completed by October. As of March 2012 the core had risen beyond the 44th floor. By October 2012, the steel and the core had reached full height, and the installation of the wind turbine began with the glass a few floors below the top of the tower.

Helicopter crash


On 16 January 2013, at approximately 08:00, two people were killed when an AgustaWestland AW109 helicopter struck a construction crane attached to the near-complete building and then crashed onto Wandsworth Road, hitting two cars and igniting two nearby buildings. One of those killed was the pilot, who was flying alone; the other was a pedestrian. The crane was seriously damaged in the incident, but its operator was late for work so was not in the cab at the time of the collision.

Carbuncle Cup nomination
In August 2014 the tower was nominated and made the Building Design short-list for that year's Carbuncle Cup, which was ultimately awarded to Woolwich Central with St George Wharf Tower being named runner-up.

Flat ownership
The Guardian reported in May 2016 that 131 out of 210 apartments for which title deeds were available were in foreign ownership. The owner of the five-storey penthouse was the family of Andrei Guriev, who was believed to be installing a Russian Orthodox chapel. Other owners included Ebitimi Banigo and Vitaly Orlov (who had purchased the entire 39th floor). In 184 of the tower's apartments, no resident was registered to vote in the UK.