China firm to build London's tallest residential tower, Brexit or no

New York

IN 2013, architecture firm HOK was approached by a representative of the Greenland Group, China's third-largest developer. "They said they were investing in London and that they'd made an offer on a parcel," said HOK senior vice-president Larry Malcic, who sat, on a recent afternoon, holding a cup of tea in his firm's London office. "They'd done their homework."

The land in question was a run-down warehouse adjacent to Canary Wharf, an area in the far eastern end of the city that grew popular in recent decades for its proximity to London's financial centre. Nothing in the area, however, would match what the Greenland Group hoped to build: an £800 million (S$1.38 billion), 67-storey tower, which, when completed, would be the tallest residential tower in Western Europe.