New "Walkie Talkie" Tower Design Gets Planning Approval

Boris Johnson has agreed to back Rafael Vinoly’s design for the 38-storey "Walkie Talkie" tower, subject to a series of minor revisions. At 160-metres high, the scheme has come in for high profile criticism, and it was called in for a public inquiry in 2007.

Now a report by the mayor’s planning team says the proposal put forward by Land Securities is consistent with the London Plan’s urban design policies.The report said: “The proposed refinements to the building envelope result in slight changes to the silhouette of the building as seen from the front; it will appear in some views to be more 'curvaceous'.”

Most of the changes involve the replacement of plant floors to make a new floor of office space, but there are also changes to the external structural fins. These are the changes that the planning officers said would make the building more curvy in appearance.