Power Station from Pink Floyd's 'Animals' to Become Luxury Development

BY Alex HudsonPublished Sep 3, 2014

The iconic cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals depicts the Battersea Power Station, a massive coal-fired facility in London. The building has been unused for the last 30 years, but new plans will see it become home to retail space, offices and high-end villas.

CNN reports [via Consequence of Sound] that, under these plans, the building's distinctive shell will be preserved. The four chimneys will be taken down due to degrading concrete, but they will be rebuilt; two of them will be energy flues, another will be hollow with a glass roof, and the remaining one will have a glass elevator and a viewing platform at the top.

The project is funded by Malaysian developers, while London architects Wilkinson Eyre have been commissioned to oversea it. Living spaces will sell for a pricy £2,000 ($3,593.56 Canadian) per square foot, and there will be a rooftop garden. The control room will be a venue for public events.

Care is being taken to preserve the building's appearance, since graffiti and signs of age will be left in tact. On the other hand, the new high-rise buildings will go up around the power station, meaning that won't be quite what it once was.

The Battersea Power Station also appeared in the Beatles' 1965 film Help! and in music videos for Judas Priest and Take That.

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