Your new name from Heron-in is going to be…
LAST week’s renaming of Heron Tower (or the artist formerly known as Heron Tower to you and I) to Salesforce Tower London is causing some kerfuffle in the City.
Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff is pretty chuffed with his eponymous high-rise, and Heron is actually to be joined by another Salesforce Tower in Silicon Valley when its latest skyscraper is finished in 2017, so the CRM giant is on a roll – but Heron’s incumbent tenants are not so pleased, according to The Times.
One of said tenants, Landmark, has lodged its displeasure. “I’ve never come across such a commercially driven name-change, from my perspective, it does nothing to elevate the stature of the building,” Landmark chairman David Todd told The Capitalist.
But surely we’d get used to it, wouldn’t we? Just look at the other buildings once named after lodgers or sponsors – we’ve accepted BT Tower, Sea Containers House, The O2, Michelin House, The Lloyd’s Building and The Emirates Stadium. That said, we really don’t fancy London’s other possible name-changes, as based on residents: South Hook Gas Heights (The Shard), Murdoch Mansions (Baby Shard), or Servcorp Tower (Leadenhall Building). *Shudders*