They were an essential centrepiece of any new City trophy headquarters in the Noughties, designed to wow visitors and provide a soothing backdrop for staff in equal measure.
But now the spectacular water features in the atriums of office buildings in the Square Mile that provided architectural bragging rights for top businesses are being ditched on environmental, cost, and even health and safety grounds.
Magic Circle law firm Slaughter & May has become the latest major occupier to follow the trend by deciding not to keep the eye-catching pool in its reception area when it refurbishes its 1 Bunhill Row headquarters.
Planning documents filed to the local council and seen by the Lawyer legal news website shows that the proposed does not include an atrium water feature.
The Lawyer reports that “the news may come as a relief to reception staff, who were known to keep spare socks to offer to visitors who wandered through the shallow pool.”
Slaughters’ decision follows that of another major firm with a stand-out water feature – Hogan Lovells – which has decided not to replicate its suspended metal “Scales of Justice” fountain in its Atlantic House headquarters when it move to a new office in 21 Holborn Viaduct.
A spokesperson for Slaughters said: “Following the renewal of our lease, we took a focused look at our space to ensure One Bunhill Row remains a great place to work. We are pleased that refurbishment works, which include removing our water feature, have now commenced.”
Impressive water features were totemic “must haves” for architects and interior designers and their wealthy corporate clients during the Noughties.
However the larger ones are expensive and energy consuming to run at a time when most firms - including Slaughters and Hogan Lovells - have adopted net zero targets. Slaughters has gove further and pledged to reduce direct scope one and indirect two and three greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent by 2040,
Mike Tillett, co-founder of bespoke water feature design firm Tills Innovations, which has created installations for Sony, Expedia and Selfridges, explains: “We’ve done a lot of corporate and commercial water features and high-end residential designs too.
“But clients are asking more and more for something that is more cost effective and for products that require minimal coordination. So, after 23 years of doing these products, we’ve recently introduced standalone products as these are much simpler to develop and install.”
