London

As one of the most recognizable edifices on the London skyline, the quadruple-chimneyed Battersea Power Station offers the unique opportunity to reside inside a true icon. Originally envisaged by Giles Gilbert Scott (the same architect who designed the British red phone box), the former power station is sensationally reborn as a set of supremely covetable riverside residences, courtesy of WilkinsonEyre. The majestic industrial chutzpah of a building that once gave power to a swathe of the UK capital is more glorious than ever, now elevated with contemporary flourishes, including a private roof garden and an indoor lap pool. Perhaps summing up the sheer joyous ambition of it all: one of the chimneys is fitted with a glass elevator that shoots up to the crown, becoming a viewing platform over the city.

The 43-story One Bishopsgate Plaza, designed by two leading London-based architectural firms—PLP Architecture and MSMR Architects—brings high-life, high-rise living to a traditionally low-rise city. Its 160 one- to three-bedroom Sky Residences measure between 580 and 1,612 square feet on levels 21 to 41, offering the relative rarity of living in the City of London itself. A five-star Pan Pacific Hotel occupies the lower portion of the building, and condominium residents are afforded the hotel’s à la carte services, not to mention a private terrace on the 34th floor from which they can drink in vistas of London’s historical and financial heart.