London’s iconic BT Tower, once the center for telecommunications throughout Britain, will soon become one of the world’s highest hotels, created by the company that turned the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA terminal at New York’s JFK into a hotel.
The company, MCR, also owns or operates a number of other high-concept unique hotels. It’s paying £275 million for the building, which belongs to BT Group, a major telecom company. The hotel won’t open for several years; BT must first relocated its technology and offices before construction can start.
The 620-foot tower, not universally loved when it was built—it has occasionally landed on ‘most-hated buildings’ lists—was originally called the Post Office Tower, and was built in the 1960s to support an array of microwave antennas that beamed telecommunications traffic between London and the rest of the country. When built, it was London’s tallest, but has been surpassed since.
Image: Paolo Margari/Wikimedia Commons