Economist Plaza

A mini Manhattan sliced, diced and polished for the west end of London. The Economist Plaza (now renamed the Smithson Plaza) remains one of the most revered pieces of modernist architecture, with a dash of urbanism, in Britain. Celebrated at its completion for the manner in which the three separate buildings created the space between and its gift of intimate public space, the scheme ever so politely subverted development norms. Alison and Peter Smithson were invited to submit designs in a head to head with the little known ­­George Trew and Dunn after manager Robert Dallas-Smith had selected them from a batch of small creative firms that entered an earlier competition for Churchill College, Cambridge. The Smithsons are indebted to Maurice Bebb, architect to the contractors Robert McAlpine, who not only suggested the separation of the three buildings, but also worked on the design research with the pair. The almost familial group of buildings captured a microcosmic view of the prevailing zeitgeist – it played to ideas of Townscape and offered a nod to Buchanan’s ‘environmental areas’. The purportedly ‘radical’ approach was tempered by its classical references in the agora-like qualities of the podium and colonnade and the well-mannered use of Portland stone that set it in this wealthy part of town. Several minor alterations have been made to the fabric of the buildings and the exterior space since it was completed. The Smithsons made their own changes in the 1980s, SOM directed a refurbishment in 1990 and, most recently, husband and wife team DSDHA conducted a sensitive restoration completed in 2018. The buildings were Grade II* listed in 1998.