5 Broadgate
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5 Broadgate is a
groundscraper A groundscraper is a large building that has relatively few stories but which greatly extends horizontally. Definition '' Encarta'' defines ''groundscraper'' as "a large low or medium-rise building, typically containing offices, that spreads hor ...
in the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
. It serves as the British headquarters of Swiss bank
UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...
, the world's largest private bank, and 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 Shanghai. Founded in 2004 by former Foster + Partners architect Ken Shuttleworth. The practice has a variety of pr ...
. It is notable for its unique smooth steel
façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
with horizontal, diagonal, and vertical strips of windows, designed to look like an
engine block In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...
. The building is currently owned by the National Pension Service of Korea, which purchased the building in March 2022 together with
LaSalle Investment Management LaSalle Investment Management ("LaSalle") is a real estate investment management firm. It is an independent subsidiary of JLL. History Jones Lang LaSalle was formed by the merger of Jones Lang Wootton and LaSalle Partners in 1999. The res ...
.


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 major 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 i ...
. Its
façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
is made of stainless steel. Built by Seele to resemble "a giant
engine block In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure that contains the cylinders and other components. The engine block in an early automotive engine consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attach ...
", the exterior is made up of 8,000 elements, including steel panels up to in size. 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 area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC (Singaporean sovereign wealth fund), GIC and managed by British Land. History The original developer was a joint ...
estate. Only about 35% 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 u ...
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 The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), first published by the Building Research Establishment in 1990, is touted as the world's longest established method of identifying the sustainability of buildings. Ar ...
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 and tenants

5 Broadgate was developed by the
British Land Company The British Land Company Public Limited Company is one of the largest real estate development, property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the ...
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 Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
-based CK Asset Holdings Ltd. in June 2018 for £1 billion, using funds from its sale of
The Center The Center () is the fifth tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after International Commerce Centre, Two International Finance Centre (88 storeys), Central Plaza and Bank of China Tower. With a height of , it comprises 73 storeys. The Cente ...
, a skyscraper in Hong Kong. In March 2022, CK Asset sold 5 Broadgate 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 JLL. History Jones Lang LaSalle was formed by the merger of Jones Lang Wootton and LaSalle Partners in 1999. The res ...
for about £1.21 billion, amid rising demand for office space in London. The deal was the most expensive non-tower real estate deal ever to take place in London, and the overall most expensive deal since the 2017 sale of
20 Fenchurch Street 20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed "The Walkie-Talkie" because of its distinctive shape, ...
to
Lee Kum Kee Lee Kum Kee Company Limited () is a Hong Kong–based food company which specializes in manufacturing a wide range of Chinese and Asian sauces. Founded by Lee Kum Sheung in 1888 in Nanshui, Guangdong, Lee Kum Kee produces over 300 Chinese-style s ...
for £1.3 billion, according to
Colliers Collier or colliers may refer to: Coal industry * Collier, coal miner or coal merchant * Colliery, coal mining and selling; or a coal mine *Collier (ship), a bulk cargo ship which carried coal *Charcoal maker, in colonial United States and also i ...
, a real-estate firm that advised CK Asset. When the deal was first reported by
Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
in December 2021, soon after it had been agreed, it allegedly valued 5 Broadgate at £1.25 billion, surpassing competing bids by Bright Ruby Resources, a company owned by Chinese billionaire Du Shuanghua, and
Mubadala Investment Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...
, a sovereign wealth fund of the
Emirate of Abu Dhabi The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is one of seven Emirates of the United Arab Emirates, emirates that constitute the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest emirate, accounting for 87% of the nation's total land area or . Abu Dhabi also has the second ...
. The sale of 5 Broadgate represented a total return on investment, including property appreciation and rent, of 45%, or HK$4.8 billion, for CK Asset; this reportedly represented a yield of 3.6%. In November 2022, accountancy firm
Grant Thornton Grant Thornton is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the seventh-largest in the world by revenue and the sixth-largest by number of employees. The network consists of independent accounting an ...
agreed to sublease two floors at 5 Broadgate from UBS, consisting of just under of office space, at £70 per square foot, a rate similar to the rent paid by UBS. UBS had initially announced their intention to sublet two floors at £75 per square foot in July 2022, as hybrid working policies had left large amounts of office space unused. Grant Thornton will move its UK headquarters from their current location at 30 Finsbury Square to 5 Broadgate, a distance of around 300 meters, "from mid to late 2024 onwards".


Reception

In a 2011 review for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'',
Rowan Moore Rowan William Gillachrist Moore (born 22 March 1961) is an architecture critic. Biography Moore was born on 22 March 1961. His brother is the journalist, newspaper editor and Margaret Thatcher's official biographer Charles Moore, Baron Moore ...
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", "defensive-aggressive", and an "expression of power". He criticized the use of a sheer metal façade, in contrast to the layered stone structures previously occupying the space. Moore speculated that the dependence of the British economy, and the City of London in particular, on large financial institutions helped UBS win concessions from City planners, such as the removal of a public walkway and businesses on the ground floor for security reasons. 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, Merrick acknowledges that the demolition of two existing buildings and their replacement with the massive steel 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 Office buildings completed in 2015