Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters

The Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters is an office building in Ipswich, England, designed by Norman Foster and Wendy Cheesman of Foster Associates for the insurance broker Willis Faber and Dumas and completed in 1975. Its plan follows the irregular curve of the surrounding streets, and a structure of concrete pillars spaced 14 meters apart, supporting cantilevered floor slabs, allowed the entire perimeter to be wrapped in a continuous skin of dark smoked glass with no visible frame. Inside, open-plan floors are linked by escalators around a full-height well, and the roof carries a garden and restaurant for staff. Grade I listed in 1991, when it was only sixteen years old and one of only two buildings under thirty to hold that status, it is regarded as an early landmark of high-tech architecture.