With 10 Exchange Square, SOM developed more than just a new office building—the project also fulfilled an important urban mission of clarifying and enhancing pedestrian connections between the City and Broadgate. The project’s success is accomplished through the clarity of its public space and the quality of its design, both which reinforce the status of Broadgate as the premier business development within Europe.
The site’s redevelopment allowed the creation of a new gateway on the western edge of the Estate. A series of textured, cast glass walls define the space, visually conducting pedestrians through the new urban space. A generous cascading stair mitigates the level changes between the street and Exchange Square.
The new urban space extends into a lobby that provides an alternative indoor and outdoor route, which also allows the external space to appear more expansive. At night, light is cast on the base of the walls, providing a subtle glow that frames the space and lends further ambiguity to the definition between inside and outside spaces.
The newly created public space is further accentuated by the building’s gracious, curving south façade, which opens the Estate to pedestrians. The façade of 10 Exchange Square creates a direct visual link from the surrounding streets into the center of Exchange Square while maintaining a referential massing to Exchange House.
10 Exchange Square terraces back in order to mediate the scale of the neighboring buildings, allowing the building to reach the heights beginning to emerge in developments to the north.
The northern side of the building appropriately emphasizes the terminus to Pindar Street, and also conceals service functions.
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