[2] The building and landscaping, which cost £200 million,[3] is on Harmondsworth Moor, northwest of Heathrow Airport, between the M4 and the M25 motorways in the linear Colne Valley regional park.

[4] Waterside is on the western edge of Greater London, near West Drayton and Uxbridge, in the Borough of Hillingdon[5][6] The building is likely to be demolished as part of the controversial construction of a third runway at Heathrow.

[7] British Airways originally submitted a planning application to the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1990 to build what was then called "Prospect Park" on Harmondsworth Moor.

The project also involved clearing and landscaping the site which was derelict to create a large public park and nature reserve, with a visitor centre.

As part of a cost reduction programme British Airways chose to keep the building unoccupied indefinitely, with its top level employees working at Technical Block C at Heathrow Airport.

"[13] Nonie Niesewand of The Independent wrote that the site is roughly as big as Regent's Park and that Waterside itself is "the size of a small town" and that it was an attempt by the airline to have a more international and less formal image.

[16] Jeremy Myerson, author of "After modernism: the contemporary office environment", wrote that the design of Waterside was intended to "both facilitate a change in the way BA staff behave at work and to support a more customer-led culture".