Dive Brief:

• Problem: 15-story rounded apartment tower with views needs to be built at the site of another building that would be nice to preserve. Solution: Stilts.
• A design by London architect Will Alsop of the firm ALL Design proposes that solution for a site with views of the River Thames and a neighboring heliport.
• Without displacing people who live in the three-story building that's there now, Alsop calls for renovations to create a ground-floor art gallery, parking space for tenants and a polished stainless steel pod that would hang at second-story level over public space and could be used as a meeting area.

Dive Insight:

The design is nothing if not creative. The site is in the city's South Bank area, and the new building would have the accurate, if not poetic, name of Helicopter Heights.