LLOYD'S OF LONDON.

Abstract

The completion of Lloyd's of London headquarters not only houses one of Britain's most internationally prestigious and venerable institutions, but marks a significant new design direction. A mere glance at the dizzying network of gleaming ductwork and service towers that crowds its glass and concrete exterior is enough to convey the message that Lloyd's stands as a far cry from the simple, well-serviced sheds of Richard Rogers Partnership's past. Lloyd's virtuoso display of structure and services is remarkable testimony to the potential richness and variation of late Modernism. It is the adaptable nature of this work that won Rogers the chance to design Lloyd's, a commission that began in 1977 as a limited competition among six architectural firms. Rather than proposing a finely tuned solution for the expansion of Lloyd's from its 1958 headquarters to an underwriting marketplace three times the size, the architect presented four alternative schemes. Each analyzed the insurance company's potential for growth on a small, awkwardly shaped site seemingly carved out from the City of London's cheek-by-jowl assortment of stone buildings.