HSBC Tower

HSBC Tower is a 45 floor skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London. The building is the global headquarters of HSBC Holdings. It houses around 8,000 people, including staff and officials. The tower was designed by the architectural team Sir Norman Foster. Construction began in 1999 and was completed in 2002. There are 42 floors in the 200 meters (656 ft) tall tower, the third largest in the United Kingdom (along with the Citigroup Centre) after the neighboring One Canada Square (popularly known as the Canary Wharf Tower) and The Shard. In April 2007, it became the first building in Britain to be sold for more than £1 billion. The tower was sold to the Spanish property company Metrovacesa. On December 5, 2008, HSBC Holdings took back ownership of its headquarters in Canary Wharf from Metrovacesa for £838 million, with a loss of £250 million for the Spanish company. Floors Renovations In early 2013, the tower underwent significant renovation work relating to the installation of new signage, replacing both the embedded lettering and hexagons within the glass panels across all four sides. This work was carried out by contractors Tara Signs, who engineered and installed the new signage. The project was finished in late 2014.[1][2] The now current signage uses a specially formulated LED enhancing Polycarbonate, giving the appearance of black lettering during the day, and illuminated white during the night. Lighting behind the tiles were also replaced from fluorescent tube lighting to LED, although rarely used. As of 2018, the HSBC logo installed on the tower is now out-of-date, displaying the previously used font and positioning of the hexagon.[3] The signage will probably not be updated, as HSBC will leave the building in 2027. References