Whilst a director at ORMS, Richard Warwick led the design and delivery of a major refurbishment of a dilapidated 1970s building in the centre of London’s tech city. Built in the 1970s the brown cladding and lack of engagement with the public realm, together with a large basement car park, and ground floor mainly given over to servicing, is typical of its time.
A decision was taken early on to retain the existing structural frame but to remove the cladding and replace it with new, contextual elevations. The design of the elevations took inspiration from the surrounding buildings, whose elevations are predominately masonry and lighter in tone than the existing brown glass.
Before
After
The proposals included removing all 60 car park spaces and creating over 200 on-site bicycle spaces together with associated showers and storage. The scheme importantly re-connected the building with the public realm by building over the open basement car park and creating a new entrance on Bunhill Row, replacing offices along Old Street with retail units and by improving the service entrance along Banner Street.
The proposals increased the net area by over 50% with an uplift of only 20% of gross area.
