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Refurbished / Recycled Workplace

The National Winner of the Refurbished/Recycled Workplace Award is a project which has seen the refurbishment of a dilapidated department store into one of the city’s premier office buildings.

NATIONAL WINNER
NORTH OF ENGLAND, NORTH WALES AND NORTHERN IRELAND

BROAD GATE, 22-26 THE HEADROW, LEEDS

Against the challenging backdrop of a struggling local economy and few mobile occupiers, the judges were impressed with the delivery of a large office building through the refurbishment and redevelopment of this former department store. The final outcome displays few signs of the building’s former retail use and developer Capital & Counties Properties has delivered a building as good as most new builds.

Over recent years, the building’s role as a store had failed and the building had fallen into decline. Capital & Counties Properties and its team of architects The Fairhursts Design Group, surveyors Cyril Sweett and contractor Wates Construction have been exceptionally bold in finishing the original, but incomplete, 1930s building and creating, in the process, spectacular office floors wrapped around a truly impressive atrium.

Reconfigured retail space has been created at the ground floor level and the judges were please to note that the number of employees working in the newly created retail units was greater than in the entirety of the shops in the previous incarnation as a department store.

The final scheme provides 170,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation in suites from 2,000 sq ft to floors up to 40,000 sq ft, the largest available in the city. At the centre of the building is a generous full-height atrium, intersected by glazed walkways connecting the upper floors. All of this, allied to the restoration of the old building and the addition of the previously unbuilt elements, adds enormously to the city’s space offer.

Capital & Counties Properties has restored the external façade to its prime and has completed the original blueprint for the building using traditional Portland stone and brick. More than 80% of the existing building structure has been retained and two-thirds of the existing building façade.

The judges believe that the transformation from a tired department store to a quality city-centre office is inspirational. The quality of light and the abundance of space in the atrium, the flexibility and efficiency of the floor plates and the use of the existing windows and sill heights have worked to create a workspace of real quality. Equally, the views to the north over the old park creates a new perspective on the city.

REGIONAL WINNER
SOUTH WEST & SOUTH WALES

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL OFFICES, ELIZABETH II COURT, WINCHESTER

Hampshire County Council’s rationale for the project was clear: the challenging and increasingly common problem of how to creatively use its 1960s building stock. The judges agreed that the scheme was successful in implementing culture change, increasing space utilisation, creating a good working environment, and improving the external appearance of the building.

A technically challenging building services solution has led to a naturally ventilated building, which meets the Council’s sustainability objective, and has achieved notable reductions in CO2 emissions. Other initiatives, such as a significant reduction in onsite parking, the provision of a park-and-ride scheme, and a green travel plan, reinforces the Council’s commitment to sustainability. The local economic and social benefits of the project were also substantial, with over 2,000 staff moves and no loss of business continuity.

The building was constructed to a good quality and use of the site and building configuration was excellent. This has led to clear operational efficiencies, which, in turn, will enable the Council to reduce its central HQ estate by around 30%.

The regional judges were a little disappointed by the design of the exterior of the entrance to the building, which did not create a welcoming experience. However, the interiors of the building were spacious and stylish and it was clear that a dynamic workplace had been created.

REGIONAL WINNER
LONDON AND THE SOUTH EAST

50 QUEEN ANNE'S GATE, LONDON

The refurbishment of 50 Queen Anne’s Gate has provided a high-quality and fully flexible building, which compares well with many new developments while still remaining sympathetic to renowned architect Sir Basil Spence’s original design, speculatively developed by Land Securities in 1976.

The close collaboration between the occupier the Ministry of Justice, the landlord the Land Securities Group, the lead designer Aukett Fitzroy Robinson and the contractor Skanska, throughout the entire refurbishment process, very much impressed the judges. The outcome has resulted in an architecturally important building being retained and indeed improved upon.

The redevelopment of around 500,000 sq ft of space over 14 floors with views overlooking Buckingham Palace and St James’ Park, included stripping the original 1970s building back to its core façades and shell and refitting the building with modern services and finishes. 50 Queen Anne’s Gate became vacant in 2005 following the relocation of the Home Office, which had been housed there since 1978, to Marsham Street.

The widespread use of exposed soffits not only achieves environmental benefits, but also has provided much enhancement of the overall quality of the workplace. The newly created atrium also performs the important function of opening up a vital link between the previously separated three wings of the original building.

REGIONAL WINNER
THE MIDLANDS AND EAST ANGLIA

TWO COLMORE SQUARE, BIRMINGHAM

Nurton Developments, the West Midlands-based owners of this outmoded but, overall, structurally robust 1960s office building, took the decision to instigate a radical refurbishment rather than a straightforward wholesale demolition and rebuild project.

The refurbishment of this substantial central Birmingham office building has delivered a sustainable and practical solution, which efficiently maximises the available floor space and, in the process, creates clear and open floor plates. The building has also achieved a BREEAM “Excellent” Award.

While not the original strategy, there was a conscious move by the owner to undertake a high quality “level of refurbishment”, which would allow the team to successfully reposition the product into the upper tier of the Birmingham office development marketplace. The revived stone façades combined with panoramic glazing produce contemporary office space that is flooded with natural light. A projected glazed entrance leads into Two Colmore Square’s double-height reception within a bright contemporary interior.

The Grade A targeted transformation has been uplifting and the judges felt that the project team and the client must take enormous satisfaction from delivering clear objectives within a tight budget. The design-led approach clearly differentiates the building in what is a highly competitive regional office market.

REGIONAL WINNER
SCOTLAND

TANFIELD, 1 TANFIELD, EDINBURGH

Bellhouse Property Development and its architect BDP have repositioned one of Edinburgh’s great monoliths by creating 190,000 sq ft of contemporary office suites. Tanfield was originally built as an administrative centre for Standard Life, one of the City’s largest employers. Upon opening in 1991, the building boasted the largest floor plates of any office in Europe.

The building was originally set out on a giant honeycomb open-plan format, with almost unfeasibly deep floor plates (circa 50m) supported by muscular RC columns at 13.5m centres and punctured by three circular atria. The development team set out to carve a new street through the centre of the building employing an elongated lightwell to bring much needed natural light into the centre of the building and a generous galleried route to gain access to a range of office suites. A top floor of office space opens onto the building’s hidden gem, a restored rooftop garden.

A brave decision was taken to maintain the exposed waffled concrete slab, with great efforts made to improve the energy efficiency of the building by re-engineering the existing H&V plant and by introducing imaginative automatically controlled lighting systems – thus creating a space that offers flexibility within the confines of the deep-plan floor plates.

The judges were impressed by the vision of revitalising this substantial and redundant project.

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