The views of DLG Architects
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22 A flexible approach to office design
Inside: Project updates Flexible is sustainable DLG Succession Path
General News Update May 2006
DLG Succession Path
Anthony Walker (above) is stepping down, Julian Monaghan (left) takes over as senior partner.
A new management structure was announced at the beginning of the year that will help the Practice to drive a business development strategy focusing on core areas where it has achieved recognition and award winning status. Julian Monaghan now takes overall responsibility for both the Leeds and London offices succeeding Anthony Walker as senior partner. Within the Leeds office he is supported by fellow partner Andrew Gardner along with Martin Cranage who is promoted to director and 3 associate directors, Neil Swift, Ian Collins and Grahame White. In the London office Jill Rayson becomes managing partner and is supported by Matthew Borowiecki and Gareth Gerner. Paul Bradley is promoted to director and James Beadnell and Tim Chandler to associate directors, joining Andrew Richardson, David Jackson and Jeff Tombs. Gillian Lane joins the London office to fill the role of finance manager, left vacant when Peter Brown retired earlier this year. Nationally, Julian now leads a team of eighty along with the other equity partners who are working together to ensure continuity and organic growth within the practice. Anthony Walker will continue his involvement as a consultant whilst other internal roles for team members have evolved to reflect DLG’s peoplefocused culture, and encourage involvement in the business decision making process at all levels.
London Office 11-29 Fashion Street London E1 6PZ
Leeds Office Marshall Mill, Marshall Street Leeds LS11 9YJ
t +44 (0)20 7426 3630 f +44 (0)20 7426 3631 london@dlgarchitects.com
t +44 (0)113 394 6900 f +44 (0)113 394 6901 leeds@dlgarchitects.com
dlgarchitects.com
By Royal Appointment Astley Towne Ltd and DLG Architects have been awarded the Birmingham Civic Society’s Renaissance Award for 2005 for St James’s Church, Edgbaston. The award is made annually to a completed restoration project that is particularly commendable. The award recognizes the high quality of the restoration and conversion project and will be presented on 11th May by HRH The Earl of Wessex at a ceremony at St James’s. DLG converted the Grade II Listed former church in 2004, into twelve duplex apartments. The overgrown site and derelict building has been transformed to provide a diverse range of individual contemporary flats, juxtaposed with the restored original features and stonework.
Sustainability success In February DLG co-hosted a seminar entitled ‘Creating Value with Sustainable Buildings’ at Buro Happolds offices in Leeds. The event sold out with over 100 delegates from the Leeds development community attending. DLG considered what conflicts may arise between different stakeholders and the need to take a more holistic approach. As a result of the seminar DLG associate director Neil Swift is being co-opted on to the Leeds Sustainable Group headed by Councillor Stewart Golton who gave the first paper of the evening setting out the council’s interest in developing sustainability through partnerships with the commercial community.
From Top: The new palque to be displayed, external view of St James, one of the open plan lounge-dining areas, retained architectural detail.
DLG has pledged to support the global charity Emmaus. Located in 44 countries Emmaus communities offer homeless men and women a home, work and the chance to rebuild their self-respect in a supportive, community environment. Companions, as residents are known, work full time refurbishing donated furniture and household goods and selling them in the community shop. Through this activity the community aims to become self-sufficient. If you would like to support Emmaus by donating furniture or by becoming a corporate sponsor, contact Beth Frankland t. 0113 248 4288, e. info@ Emmausleeds.co.uk Emmaus@Home, St Mary’s Street Leeds, LS9 7DP. Shop Opening Hours: Monday through to Saturday 9.30am - 5.00pm
Feature Article May 2006
Flexible is Sustainable The word sustainability is currently on everyone’s lips, and provokes a mixed reaction across the construction industry. Legislation is starting to force everyone’s hand and introduce onorus requirements for completed building projects, that will have a significant effect on the provision of office space. As demand for office space looks set to continue in both London and the Regions, it makes sense to examine alternative ways of delivering both short and longer term occupier requirements. Achieving high standards of space is becoming increasingly important as new benchmarking approaches are set to label offices in terms of environmental performance and design quality. Simple BREEAM ratings and ‘Grade A’ descriptions will no longer be sufficient. Flexible Spaces To meet both the immediate and long term needs of occupiers and developers, flexibility is key. Design of adaptable space, both in terms of specific office layout and alternative long term uses, can help to protect the initial investment, and make the building work for longer. For example the new build offices at The Courtyard in Tewkesbury were designed to be split easily for 1,2 or 4 occupiers without significant additional cost up-front. The developers are therefore able to retain the flexibility of mixing short, medium and long-term leases for each of the buildings. The spaces are also naturally ventilated, but floor to floor heights allow for future installation of air conditioning if required.
Generic Construction Methods This approach can also be extended to enable more drastic changes of use from office to residential and vice-versa, or even allow uses to be decided after the construction of a building has started. Some careful initial design work can pay off in this way, for example by using generic floor to floor heights and structural grids. Soffit heights for office space lower than the perceived ideal can still provide high quality space with careful use of uplighting, raised floors, chilled beams and passive heating and cooling considerations. Re-use of existing buildings This approach to dealing with low soffit heights within office space can be applied to a large amount of existing building stock, such as 60’s and 70’s office buildings found commonly in city centres throughout the UK. These buildings are re-usable with some lateral thinking applied to the design approach. For example perimeter extract and minimised ceiling and floor voids, with flat ducting where required for air distribution if needed. These buildings also typically have a high mass concrete construction which can assist with a passive cooling approach, in combination with re-cladding, solar shading and night time ventilation. Recent projects by DLG involving re-use of 1970’s multi-storey office buildings include West Riding House in Leeds where lettable modern office space was achieved by using a narrow plenum ceiling for ventilation through light fittings, and minimal raised floor for cabling, all within a 3m floor to floor height. At Cavendish House in Leeds DLG have more recently used a different approach, converting the old office space into residential use, and adding new office storeys to the top of the building to achieve modern floor to floor height requirements. To discuss flexible office solutions further contact: Andrew Gardner (Leeds, 0113 394 6900) Gareth Gerner (London, 0207 426 3630) Or see them at BCO 2006, Dublin.
Bottom left: The Collection, Fashion Street. Top right: A section through Cavendish House showing additional office storeys.
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Project News Update May 2006
Waterfront Quarter, Huddersfield “ DLG exceeded our aspirations with a solution that showed creativity and total flexibility.” Chris Gilman, Landmark Developments
Cavendish House, Leeds
The development of this prominent central site, which has been renamed the Waterfront Quarter, represents a major transformation opportunity for the town of Huddersfield. The environmental demands of today’s commercial market will differ to the requirements of the residential, office and leisure markets of tomorrow. As a result consideration is being given to a wide range of innovative sustainable solutions. These include water heat pumps where the heat from the canal and the river can be used to pre heat or cool water, and water turbines to produce electricity for the external lighting of the public square and other outside areas. RCD, the developer is in early discussion with several potential occupier’s for the first of the major office blocks within the masterplan. As part of these negotiations DLG is developing concepts for natural passive stack ventilation solutions with a biomass heat source. These ideas can reduce the building’s Co2 emissions by 30-50% and will go far beyond the current renewables targets being suggested by the government. This will not only produce a flagship environmental building on the site but will also set a benchmark in office design for the rest of the site. In early March 2006 an outline planning application was submitted and a decision is expected later in the summer. Early signs from the public consultation process have been very positive with 98% of responses giving support for the proposals, and many saying “this is the best thing to happen to Huddersfield for years”.
DLG has recently completed the office fit out at Cavendish House. A high profile city centre development that delivers 95 apartments (marketed as Basilica), 50,000 sq ft of high quality retail and office space, and 34 basement car parking spaces. The original 1970’s concrete tower and podium style building, has been stripped back to structure and reclad using Portland Stone, brick, slate, bronze and aluminium panels to match the quality of the three adjacent buildings. The addition of new lightweight steel extensions at both tower and podium levels, addresses the earlier structures significant drop in scale with the surrounding townscape. The new office accommodation is aligned along the Headrow façade with panoramic views across Leeds and is fitted with a demountable partitioning system for future flexibility. In the penthouse office suite a raking feature ceiling with recessed cold cathode lighting, and a state-of-theart AV system combine to make a contemporary main conference room. The south facing roof terrace provides amenity space for the office staff.
Cover image: Cavendish House. From top: The main meeting room, the lobby area, one of the offices, the central corridor with admin area to the right and reception to the left.
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Project News Update May 2006
14 Cornhill, London 14 Cornhill occupies a key site in the city of London, immediately opposite the Royal Exchange. The challenge has been to reinvigorate this historic city building and provide office accommodation to the highest standard. Incorporating lower floor, retail and restaurant uses it will be a true mixed use development within the confines of this Grade II * city building. Reconciling the requirements for modern office accommodation whilst retaining and enhancing of the elements of historic interest was at the heart of this challenge. One such example is the Imperial staircase, where the introduction of a new atrium along its height has given it continued relevance in the development. Clearly visible from each office floor, it is not merely preserved but also provides a positive contribution to the function and character of the completed scheme. Additional floors are added without loading the existing structure. The new slab loads are carried up the building to long span, storey deep, roof trusses before they are taken back down the 6 mega columns that cut through all floors down to thickened basement raft foundations. The north and south wings of the building are on a structural grid of 5.5m by 7m, small by modern standards, but given that the heritage of the building would not allow alterations to the façade and floor slab levels, effort needed to be placed on clearing the floor plate. This was done by introducing transfer beams to allow the removal of 2 columns per floor and by replacing 48 existing 475mm square brick encased columns, with 200mm diameter solid steel billet columns to create more open space. To enable this a system of temporary works was devised allowing the existing floors to be supported on jacks while the columns were cut away and replaced.
Ferry Quays, Brentford Planning has now been submitted for residential moorings and a landmark waterside administration building at Ferry Quays, on the River Thames. The development will bring to life the waterside potential of the area and provide activity and management of the boats via the marine shop, office and ancillary residential building. The feature administrative building marks the entrance to the Grand Union Canal and will provide a history wall and viewing platform for visitors to the area. The fragmented form reduces the buildings mass and provides an ever-changing series of views echoing reflections in the rivers surface. At night the facades appear permeable with light spilling out between the gaps of the weatherboard rain-screen.
Ringmore Rise, London Partner Matthew Borowiecki’s newly completed five bedroom 3,000 sq ft house stands in an elevated location near the Horniman Museum, London. The house has exemplary credentials in energy use and has been developed using a flexible building sytem, with a Lithuanian contractor. The house is a prototype and uses factory made panels enabling the erection of a bespoke designed building at a significantly reduced cost and time over conventional construction and rival frame systems. For further information contact: Matthew on 0207 426 3630.
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Project News Update May 2006
Becketts Arms, Leeds Proposals for the re-development of the Beckett’s Arms in Meanwood have been prepared after extensive consultation with representatives of the City Councils development department and local interest groups including Leeds Civic Trust and nearby residents. Located on an important junction the design has been informed by the surrounding buildings and with references to the current art deco building. The scheme accommodates a mixed use ground floor of retail/leisure, providing additional retail units to strengthen and enhance the district Centre. To the upper levels, 3 residential floors contain 24 one and two bedroom apartments, with parking accommodated for the units in the basement.
Union Street, Aberdeen A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of the Union Green development, on Union Street, Aberdeen. The scheme consists of 500,000 sq ft of retail and leisure uses and incorporates the existing bus and train stations. Arranged over two storeys it will include leading fashion stores, a multiplex cinema, indoor and outdoor civic squares and additional parking.
Atrium, Halifax
Sainsbury’s The Leeds office is currently working on a planning application for a new 50,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s supermarket in Buxton. The application will be made in June and follows the offices’ recent completion of Sainsbury’s White Rose, extension in Leeds which opened just before christmas. The London office are also developing plans for an extension to Sainsbury’s Hornchurch store.
DLG are refurbishing the headquarters of HBOS in Halifax, which includes reforming and re-glazing the atrium to form a new break out area. Start on site is scheduled for early summer with completion anticipated by the autumn.
NHS Walk in Centre, Leeds DLG has been retained by HBOS and Clerical Medical Investment Group to complete the UK’s first NHS walk-in centre for commuters in a city centre shopping facility. The centre within The Light in Leeds, for which DLG was also lead consultant, will provide shoppers, city centre residents and office workers with basic health services such as examinations, blood checks and contraceptive advice without the need for an appointment. The 8000 sq ft clinic will also handle minor ailments and injuries to relieve pressure from Leeds’ hospital casualty departments. Whilst the building façade will see minimal alterations, more than quarter of a million will be spent on internal building alterations to facilitate public access. DLG has worked closely with the local Primary Care Trust so that work can commence on the internal fit out ready for the scheduled opening this summer.