Lumiere (skyscraper) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Lumiere |
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| General information | |
| Status | Never built |
| Location | Wellington Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England |
| Height | |
| Roof | 172 metres (564 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 55 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | SimpsonHaugh and Partners |
| Developer | KW Linfoot |
| Main contractor | Carillion |
Lumiere was the name of a planned very tall building, also known as a skyscraper, in Leeds, England. It was going to have homes, offices, and shops all in one place. The plan was to finish it by 2010. However, work on Lumiere stopped in 2008 and the project was officially cancelled in 2010.
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What Was the Lumiere Project?
The Lumiere project was part of a bigger plan to rebuild an old Royal Mail sorting office. Another part of this plan had already turned a 65 metres (213 ft) tall Royal Mail building into apartments called West Point.
Design of the Lumiere Towers
The Lumiere plan included two tall towers. The taller tower was designed to be 54 storeys high, reaching about 171 m (561 ft). The smaller tower would have been 32 storeys high, about 112 m (367 ft). Both towers were meant to be covered in glass. The taller one would have been mostly blue, and the smaller one would have had a reddish color.
The companies behind the project were KW Linfoot and Scarborough Development Group. The buildings were designed by SimpsonHaugh and Partners. The company WSP Group handled the structural design, making sure the buildings would be strong. Carillion was the company that would build them.
What Would Be Inside Lumiere?
If Lumiere had been built, it would have had many different things inside. There would have been:
- Apartments for people to live in
- Offices for businesses
- Shops
- Cafés and restaurants
- A special indoor garden, called a winter garden
The plans included over 20,000 sq ft (2,000 m2) of space for shops and more than 10,000 sq ft (1,000 m2) for offices. There would also have been around 650 apartments.
Lumiere's Planned Height
If Lumiere had been completed as planned, it would have become the tallest building in Leeds. It was also expected to be the tallest residential skyscraper in Western Europe. It would have been taller than Beetham Tower Manchester. This would have made it the tallest building in the United Kingdom outside London, if it was finished before the Piccadilly Tower in Manchester.
On July 21, 2006, city councillors approved the plans for Lumiere. Construction was set to begin in 2007.
Construction Work Begins
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Work on the Lumiere site started in the spring of 2007 with boreholes, which are deep holes drilled into the ground to check the soil. Throughout the late summer of 2007, the site was cleared.
In September 2007, workers began to dig out and remove the old foundations and basement of the previous Royal Mail building. The main construction work on the underground parts of the building started in early 2008. The piling work, which involves putting strong pillars into the ground to support the building, was finished by June 2008.
Why Lumiere Was Stopped
On July 9, 2008, the developers, KW Linfoot, announced that the Lumiere project was being put on hold. This was because of a big economic problem known as the credit crunch. They said construction would not start again until the economy got better.
After the work was paused, the developers received approval from Leeds City Council to add one more floor to each tower. This meant the taller tower would have 55 storeys and the smaller one 33 storeys. This small change increased the planned height of each tower by about 1 m (3.3 ft).
In February 2009, KW Linfoot, one of the main developers for Lumiere, faced financial difficulties. The Lumiere development was a joint project, so other partners took over completely. In August 2010, the owners of the Lumiere development announced they would close their company. This meant the building would definitely not be built. The people who had invested money in the project got their money back because they had insurance.
Images for kids
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Central Square was built instead on the site (pictured here in February 2020).
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