The project is the brainchild of Harry Handelsman, founder of the Manhattan Loft Corporation, who claims it will start a revolution in high rise living.

The 42-storey Manhattan Loft Gardens scheme is set to become the tallest building in the area and will contain 248 apartments, a hotel, restaurants and a spa.

The 150-room hotel will be built across a lower pedestal structure with a 34-storey residential tower above, rising to 148m.

Architect SOM, which designed the Burj Dubai, drew up the striking building plan, which features three roof top gardens that slice into the main superstructure.

The double-cantilever design means it will, unusually for a residential building, be a steel-frame structure.

Balfour Beatty and Mace were also running the rule of the project, but sources say Kier and Bouygues are now in a straight head-to-head race to build the prestigious high-rise.

A winner is expected to be announced within the next few weeks and will be a coup for either contractor, which has yet to build such a tall structure for the mushrooming London high-rise market.

The Manhattan Loft Gardens will be built next to Stratford Station on land owned by London and Continental Railways, which is jointly developing the project with the Manhattan Loft Company.