New Providence Wharf was designed by SOM (founded in 1936 as Skidmore Owings & Merrill) on an 8.3 acre site. The stated aim was to create an 'urban village' with over 1000 apartments, a luxury hotel and half a million sq ft of offices, retail, leisure etc. The river facing appartments are arranged to define and create open space - a great oval lawn with a river terrace and a perimeter canal giving privacy to the ground floor balconies. Water from the canal flows down water steps, beside the pedestrian steps, towards the River Thames walkway. Stainless steel, which can often be a chill material in gardens, is successfully used to make the scheme sparkle. Even the granite block seats are sufficiently warm to escape their too-common association with graveyards. The appartment buildings have (private) green roofs with swimming pools and a reservoir system to hold rainwater at roof level.
