The Aviva Building is an office building in the city centre of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

, in England. The building lies by the River Ouse, on a prominent site in the centre of the historic city. It was designed by the Hurd Rolland Partnership, led by Brian Paul. Paul initially proposed a modern building, based around "tumble down masonry cubes" which would create a traditional skyline. The

York Civic Trust York Civic Trust is a membership organisation and a registered charity based in York, UK. Its primary function is to "preserve, protect and advise on the historic fabric of York". It is based in Fairfax House. Foundation York Civic Trust was f ...

successfully argued for a more traditional design, including

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aest ...

s and windows with

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

s and transoms. The building is six storeys high along the river, and four storeys along

Tanner Row Tanner Row is a street in the city centre of York, in England. History The area covered by the street was part of the civilian settlement associated with Roman Eboracum. Archaeological investigations have uncovered remains of a bathhouse, and a ...

. It has an octagonal tower. The river and Tanners Moat facades are faced in

Magnesian Limestone The Magnesian Limestone is a suite of carbonate rocks in north-east England dating from the Permian period. The outcrop stretches from Nottingham northwards through Yorkshire and into County Durham where it is exposed along the coast between ...

, and John Brooke Fieldhouse describes it as the city's only post-World War II building to be faced largely with quarried stone. The Tanner Row and rear facades are of brick. The ground floor is rusticated, and there are

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the f ...

s at the first- and third-floor levels. At the rear, there is a rooftop car park. The building was completed in 1993.

Patrick Nuttgens Patrick John Nuttgens CBE (2 March 1930 – 15 March 2004) was an influential English architect and academic. Early life Nuttgens was born in Whiteleaf, Buckinghamshire, the fourth of five children to Kathleen Mary (''née'' Clarke) an Iris ...

wrote approvingly of the design as fitting in with the city's heritage, but Peter Davey writing in the ''

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

'' criticised its

facadism Facadism, façadism, or façadomy is the architectural and construction practice where the facade of a building is designed or constructed separately from the rest of a building, or when only the facade of a building is preserved with new buil ...

. The building originally housed the regional headquarters of the

General Accident General Accident plc was a large insurance business based in Perth, Scotland. It merged with Commercial Union in 1998 to form CGU plc. History The Norie-Miller years The Employers' liability act of 1880 opened a new area of insurance and one ...

insurance company. Following a series of mergers, it became the headquarters of

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

. In 2018, the stonework was cleaned.

References

{{coord, 53.9592, -1.0871, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in York Buildings and structures completed in 1993 Office buildings in England