Bartholomew Lane

After other architects had fought unsucessfully for over 4 years to achieve planning consent, the clients held a design competition which Sidell Gibson won - and consent was duly achieved.

The project is situated adjacent to the Bank of England in the heart of the City of London. The facade of a former bank built around 1930 is retained in the two principal frontages up to the 6th floor. Behind this, and extending above it in four further floors is a highly efficient modern office, offering multi-tenanted lettable space for twelve floors.  New facades at high level are faced in Portland Stone. A striking Reception room with a new spiral stair rising three floors forms part of the design. BREEAM rating: Excellent.

Photographs by Paul Riddle.

Location: Bartholomew Lane, City of London, EC2

Client: F&C Asset Management

Size: 10,800m² gross, 7,400m² net

Contract Value: £32m

Sidell Gibson in Top 10 for Built London Office Space

The Top 10 Architects for office space built over the last 10 years have created about 3.3m sq m (36m sq ft) of new buildings according to City Offices - a web-based construction news, analysis and tender opportunities service.
 

Top Architects (London) 2000 - 2010 (Built Office Space)

1 Foster + Partners (24%)
2 Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) (14%)
3 Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) (11%)
4 Sheppard Robson (11%)
5 Pelli Clarke Pelli (10%)
6 HOK (8%)
7 Sidell Gibson (6%)
8 Rolfe Judd (6%)
9 EPR (5%)
10 Fletcher Priest (5%)

The Map above shows Sidell Gibson Architects' built office projects in the City of London.

Special Mention for One Snow Hill, Birmingham

On Wednesday, 12 May 2010, at the British Council for Offices Regional Awards evening for the Midlands and East Anglia, Sidell Gibson Architects' One Snow Hill received a Special Mention from the awards judges, nominating it to go forward from the Midlands and East Anglia region to compete for a National Innovation Award.

Sidell Gibson have masterplanned a significant city centre site at Snowhill Station in Birmingham to provide approximately 52,000m² net area of high quality offices, up to 5,000m² of retail and leisure space, 330 residential units and a 170-bed hotel with associated conference facilities.

The site presents a complex 3-dimensional planning problem, involving the realignment of the surrounding roads and junctions giving significant increases in area, connection to the station concourse and new transport interchange, and the incorporation of a new tram line on its own viaduct. The development will form a strategic link between the business centre of Birmingham and the historic Gun and Jewellery quarters. To this end, the design will group the new buildings around a series of landscaped public spaces encouraging pedestrian movement between the areas.

We have also completed the detailed design of the two office buildings on the site, incorporating retail use at ground level. Detailed planning consent was obtained for these buildings in June 2006 and May 2007. One Snow Hill is now complete and in use with interior fit-out for Barclays by Sidell Gibson Interiors.

 

BREEAM 'Excellent' rating for One New Change

Sidell Gibson Architects' One New Change project has been awarded a top BREEAM (Offices) rating of 'Excellent' with 71.43% by the BRE under the Code for Sustainable Buildings.

Sidell Gibson Architects believe that each building should respond to its location not only architecturally, but also in terms of its environmental performance. We make every effort to ensure that our buildings are as sustainable in their use and construction as possible, and our numerous ‘Very Good’ and ‘Excellent’ BREEAM ratings attest to this commitment.

Sidell Gibson Architects are proud members of the UK Green Building Council, The Green Register and the Association of Environment Conscious Builders.
 

One New Change is the largest and most innovative project currently on site in the City of London and includes a very large retail component.

Sidell Gibson Architects have worked on the design from the outset in collaboration and support to Jean Nouvel's concept design and now take the lead role in delivering what is, in technical terms, a hugely complex scheme.

The route to New Change is open to the sky and orientated to create a new view of St Paul’s Cathedral framed by the building. This 'slot' extends to the crossing at the centre of the site which forms an atrium running through the building.

The central atrium also provides access to the roof where there is a restaurant and café facilities and an extensive public terrace providing extensive views of the cathedral and London skyline.
 

Above the retail accommodation, the building has five floors of offices, arranged around four cores with an atria punctuating the floorpates. The building is serviced at basement level with vehicular access via a ramp off Bread Street. 

The design will be based on achieving 10% of the energy needs, from renewable sources in line with the Mayor of London guidelines for major developments.

Kingsway: Steelwork for Rooftop Apartments

These photographs show the new steelwork structure for the residential rooftop apartments currently being installed at Sidell Gibson Architects' Crown House No. 1-5 Kingsway project in London's West End:

It is a mixed development of 8 floors of modern open plan office accommodation, street level retail units & seven high quality duplex apartments at the 9th & 10th floors, which have their own landscaped courtyard. Each apartment has a panoramic view of the skyline of central London, particularly the principal apartment which is housed within the rebuilt roof-level Rotunda (red arrow on image below) above the building's main entrance on Kingsway.

The site is bounded by Kingsway, Aldwych, Drury Lane and Kean Street in the Theatreland area of the West End in London and is within the Covent Garden Conservation Area in the City of Westminster.

Part of the office and retail areas have retained façades to Kingsway and Aldwych (see image below from demolition/façade retention stage). The existing retained facades are predominantly natural Portland Stone with period metal windows incorporating large decorative spandrel panels.

The remainder of the development has a new external envelope of metal-framed windows in a red brick façade dressed in reconstructed stone window surrounds which match the surrounding architectural theme of original elevations and allow the building to fit within the urban character of the area.

The seven residential apartments are served by shared fire escape cores including fire lifts and stairs. Four of the seven apartments have been designed as duplex units and have a separate entrance on Kean St with an alternative access at ground floor level on to Aldwych.

The office building will be designed to be capable of meeting the requirements of a single or two tenants on a floor-by-floor basis.

Medina Tower

Mediterranean Investments holding (MIH), in which Malta's Corinthia Group has a 50% stake, has signed an agreement with the Economic Development Real Estate Company of Libya for the development of a 40-storey tower on the Tripoli seafront in Libya. Medina Tower, will be constructed on 12,500 square metres of land adjacent to other high-rise developments. The project will comprise 180,000 square metres of floor space spread over 40 floors above ground level and four levels of underground parking. Medina Tower will feature 336 apartments for sale, 26,000 square metres of office space for rent, 22,000 square metres of commercial, conference and food and beverage facilities, and 24,000 square metres of underground parking that will cater for up to 850 car parking spaces. At 40 storeys, the €300m (£269m) scheme will be taller than the 28-storey Al Fateh Tower, which is the tallest building in the city at present. Medina Tower is designed and planned by Sidell Gibson Architects (London) and Paul Camilleri & Associates (Malta) who have formed SidellGibsonCamilleri for this project.

The uses envisaged for this building, when operational, are various ranging from retail, financial services, professional services, restaurants and the hospitality industry. Such uses will provide employment for approximately 3000 persons. The types of employment will range from cleaners, maintenance personnel, security guards, sales staff, waiters, cooks, professionals (lawyers, architects, etc.), banking staff, financial services personnel, hospitality related staff (chambermaids, etc.) and others.

The type of building and its mixed uses will enhance Tripoli, and especially this important central part of Tripoli, as a commercial and financial services hub, not only in Libya itself but also in the region.

The shape of the building is in the form of the letter “S” on plan, and which also rises spirally from one of this “S” to the other end.

Such a footprint for this site emanated from considerations given to both the existing Al-Fateh Tower as well as, the still to be constructed, Al-Ghetthafi Tower. Both buildings are oriented into the two concave curves of the “S” shape. Furthermore such a shape attempts to enhance, as much as possible, the views of the sea, considering that the rectangular site has short side facing the sea – the curves of the “S” shape give a much longer portion of the building façade which have views towards the sea both directly opposite as well as diagonally over other buildings.

The orientation of the building starts off as being perpendicular to the “Organization of African Unity Road” in the front, but shifts, towards the middle of the site, to be oriented in line with the Mosque at the rear, and Makkah. This latter orientation, which is carried though the shopping mall, gives the required focus to this building, which otherwise could be sited anywhere in the world.

The building shape and orientation is acknowledging the culture, the features and history of Tripoli, despite the fact that very little remains in this area. As a result these acknowledgements have a strong bearing on the design of the building.

The ‘window’ in the rear part of the “S” symbolically opens up the hinterland of Tripoli; portraying the message that the high buildings being constructed on the coast are not barriers between the prime sites and the rest of Tripoli.

Medina Tower gets Planning Consent

Sidell Gibson Architects have recently achieved Planning Consent for this major property, Medina Tower in Tripoli, Libya containing 350 flats, a health club, offices and 8,000 square feet of retail space. The building is being designed for a Maltese-Libyan consortium.