A US property investor has appointed Foster & Partners as the architect for a 1.8-acre site which it has acquired on London’s South Bank.

Hines, which announced the off-market purchase of 18 Blackfriars yesterday but did not disclose the price tag, has also brought in Lipton Rogers, the developer behind PLP’s 22 Bishopsgate which was founded by Stuart Lipton and Peter Rogers. Rogers is the brother of RSHP founder Richard Rogers who set up Team 4 with Norman Foster and their future wives in 1963.

The appointment of Fosters spells the end for Wilkinson Eyre and Brisac Gonzalez which designed two consented schemes for previous owners of the long-empty site, most recently in July 2017 for Malaysia’s Black Pearl.

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