Top UK Architects

A projection of the planned tower in Paddington, west London. Photograph: Handout

When you submit a planning application for a big new building you can expect a few letters of objection from annoyed residents – but not perhaps a detailed condemnation of your plan from one of Britain’s most celebrated architects.

That is what has happened to the Paddington Place scheme – a huge development around the eponymous London station intended to include a 72-storey tower designed by Renzo Piano, the Italian architect who created the Shard.

While the tower – popularly known as the Paddington Pole – will be 56 metres shorter than the 310-metre Shard, it is still sufficiently ostentatious to have drawn the ire of Sir Terry Farrell, the famous architect and local resident who was also, slightly awkwardly, previously in charge of the developers’ masterplan for the area.

Farrell, known for designing the MI6 building on the Thames and Charing Cross station, made his views known in a dense, 1, 500-word objection, southern China – he condemns the Piano design as inappropriate for the area.

In the letter, he notes he backed the plans for the Shard. “However, ” he adds, “I consider the circumstances are very significantly different here at Paddington. It is a much more sensitive site, given the proximity to Royal Parks, domestic scale squares and terraces and houses in conservation areas, and the closeness of listed buildings.”

The Paddington Place project is intended to comprise three new buildings, including the tower, several hundred homes, office and retail space, and a new public plaza and entrance to the underground station.

Farrell said the overall proposals were “too piecemeal and opportunistic”. He wrote: “There is a real need for a comprehensive scheme that doesn’t miss this opportunity to make a greater difference, both to the station and to the run-down area around this part of Praed Street.”

He added: “I have been a local resident for 15 years and have had my office here at the same local address for over 30 years. I feel passionately about improving our local mainline station and its environment in a much more comprehensive way than is shown in these proposals.”

Farrell notes that he spent two years working for the developers, Sellar, to create the masterplan for the area and came up with proposals that won broad support and limited building height to 18 storeys, as well as better integrating transport links into the new development while creating more useable space.

He writes that the plans eventually submitted to the council “have no masterplan of convincing thoughtfulness” and concludes: “I have always been committed to thoughtful urban design and planning as the basis for good architecture, which this planning application is not.”

Piano has argued that the public plaza forms a main element of the scheme, and that it will greatly improve the area around Paddington, as well as links to the station.

“The current public realm in Paddington is poor, with congestion in and around the entrance to the Bakerloo line leading to frequent closures, ” he said when the plans were announced in October. “This scheme looks to remedy those issues, while creating a wonderful sense of place which Paddington greatly needs.”

Many of the nearly 300 comments on the planning application website agree with Farrell. One posted shortly after his letter condemns the rash of “dull towers” sprouting in London, saying: “It wouldn’t be so terrible if they looked remarkable and were set to be a landmark, but frankly, they have all been eyesores and look like they were designed by committee.”