Norman Foster says the The Tulip will become a "symbol in it's own right" as the controversial 305.3-metre-high tourist attraction is approved by City of London.
Foster + Partner's design for The Tulip, a concrete shaft topped by glass viewing platforms complete with slides and rotating pods, has been waived through by the City of London's planning committee today.
The supertall visitor attraction was approved following a vote of 18 to seven in favour of the tower.
Norman Foster addresses "inevitable" controversy
The Tulip is planned to sit next to Foster + Partner's Stirling Prize-winning skyscraper 30 St Mary's Axe, also known as The Gherkin.
Norman Foster, who was unable to attend the planning committee personally, said The Tulip could become as iconic as the former building, in a statement seen by Dezeen. "Like the Gherkin nearly twenty years ago, it is inevitably controversial, like the Gherkin it has the possibility of being a symbol beyond its host city."
Foster + Partners plan for a viewing tower in London has been approved
Foster the three-time Stirling Prize winner who founded Foster + Partners in 1967 explained how the tower was designed for the public.
"The owner of The Gherkin approached me last year to ask how ? as a world symbol of London ? could we bring to it a public dimension," said Foster.

"It proved impossible to retrofit the tower, so we proposed a companion structure totally devoted to the public with a ...