Editing Palace of Westminster (section)

==== Central Tower ====
[[File:Central Tower, Palace of Westminster.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|alt=Photograph|The Central Tower]]

The shortest of the palace's three principal towers (at {{Convert|91|m|ft}}<ref name="Factsheet G11" />), the octagonal Central Tower stands over the middle of the building, immediately above the Central Lobby. It was added to the plans on the insistence of Dr. [[David Boswell Reid]], who was in charge of the ventilation of the new Houses of Parliament: his plan called for a central chimney through which what he called "vitiated air" would be drawn out of the building with the heat and smoke of about four hundred fires around the palace.<ref>[[#Port|Port (1976)]], p. 221; [[#Jones|Jones (1983)]], p. 119.</ref> To accommodate the tower Barry was forced to lower the high ceiling he had planned for the Central Lobby and reduce the height of its windows;<ref>[[#Jones|Jones (1983)]], pp. 108–109; [[#Field|Field (2002)]], p. 189.</ref> however, the tower proved to be an opportunity to improve the palace's exterior design,<ref name="Riding, p. 120">[[#Riding|Riding and Riding (2000)]], p. 120.</ref> and Barry to make it a [[spire]] in order to balance the effect of the more massive lateral towers.<ref>[[#Port|Port (1976)]], p. 103.</ref> The Central Tower completely failed to fulfill its stated purpose, but it remains notable as "the first occasion when mechanical services had a real influence on architectural design,"<ref>{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Peter |title=Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture 1750–1950 |edition=1st |year=1965 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal, Quebec; Kingston, Ontario |page=[https://archive.org/details/changingidealsin00coll/page/238 238] |isbn=978-0-7735-0048-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/changingidealsin00coll/page/238}} cited in [[#Port|Port (1976)]], p. 206.</ref> withstanding certain climate-specific architectural elements such as [[windcatcher]]s.