In a £50m project, the award-winning architect Richard Rogers has been drafted in to design the new structure.
It will be 87 metres (285ft) tall - more than twice the height of the existing tower - and will provide a vantage point for Heathrow's air traffic controllers to manage operations once Terminal 5 has been completed.
Mick Temple, Heathrow's managing director, said: "We are investing huge amounts in developing better facilities across the airport and the new control tower will be a landmark feature. It will become an icon for a modernised Heathrow, better equipped to serve its airlines and passengers in the 21st century."
Steve James, the general manager of National Air Traffic Services at Heathrow, said: "We have provided a first-class air traffic control service from the old tower for nearly 50 years. But it is in the wrong place and too small to meet the needs of air traffic control with Terminal 5.
"The capacity and service improvements the new terminal will bring to Heathrow are only achievable with a new visual control room."
The tower, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and the engineering company Arup, will comprise a glazed visual control room supported by a 4.6-metre wide steel mast and three pairs of cable-stays anchored to the ground.
The steel mast provides access to the control room complex via two lifts, plus an enclosed staircase. The base of the mast is encircled by a three-storey building with technical and administrative functions.
The structure will be located close to the western edge of the existing central terminal area.
To avoid disrupting the existing control tower arrangements, the top section will be prefabricated on a remote site on the airport boundary. Once completed the 862-tonne structure will be transported, during the night, in one piece across the airfield to its permanent location. This will be one of the heaviest transportation operations ever undertaken at a UK airport.
For the final installation, the control room portion will be progressively jacked-up from its base to enable the mast sections, in 12-metre lengths, to be installed. The operation is due to be completed by next autumn.
Mike Davies of the Richard Rogers Partnership said: "The new control tower will provide a state-of-the-art platform for air traffic control at Heathrow. This exciting, technically challenging and unique visual landmark, along with the new Terminal 5 development currently under construction, underlines BAA's commitment to Heathrow's world hub status in the 21st century."
The partnership is also designing a new terminal building at Madrid airport.
