No. 1 Kingsway

No. 1 Kinsgway on the lower right.

Sidell Gibson Architects No. 1 Kingsway for UK & European Properties is nearing completion with a new web site and video set up to sing its praises: www.onekingsway.com
Behind the retained listed facade No. 1 Kingsway features 105,00 sq. ft. of BREEAM 'Excellent' sustainable office space, seven exclusive luxury rooftop apartments and a brasserie-style restaurant.

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.

No. 1 Kingsway, London

Crown House or No.1 Kingsway has for various reasons been ‘around’ for quite a few years as a project at Sidell Gibson. It started life as a town planning exercise when we produced a scheme for the previous site owners, Aberdeen Property Investors, for a larger scheme including the present corner site, No.1 Kingsway plus nos. 5 – 9 & no.11 Kingsway obtaining planning consent in March 2004. The scheme proposals, which retained the principal elevations to Kingsway & the Aldwych, included a large central atrium space with ground level retail use & 8 to 9 stories of commercial office space above with the heights determined by the retained facades. Subsequently, the site was sold on to the present owners, UK & European Properties Ltd who commissioned Sidell Gibson to obtain a revised consent for a smaller scheme for the corner site known as Crown House, No.1 Kingsway. They also purchased the adjoining building, no’s 5 – 9 Kingsway which were refurbished
for house tenants from Crown House so that vacant possession could be obtained for the redevelopment of the main corner site.
Crown House, is part of a group of buildings that form part of the only ‘Boulevard’ in London centered on the ‘Bush House’ the BBC's overseas broadcasting centre and were built in the 1920’s with a series of grand buildings along the Aldwych & up Kingsway with names, detailing & statues featuring Imperial symbols. For these historic reasons Westminster Planning department welcomed retaining the principle façades & reconstructing the rear facades as facsimiles of the originals with an addition of more office floor space & 2 additional floors for 7 high quality residential units with the original rotunda tower above the Kingsway corner made into a large 300 sq m duplex with spectacular views of the London skyline.

Planning consent was granted in summer 2007 & the Architectural team had developed the detail design sufficient for the Design & Build contractor, ISG, to start work with the demolition of the internal structure in January 2008 at which point Sidell Gibson & the structural Engineer’s, Thornton Tomasetti Postawa deHoog were contractually novated to ISG to complete the detail design. The rumbles of the economic crisis in the city & the ‘credit crunch’ then hit the project & led the client to extend the whole project by 1 year & re-tender significant parts of the work , the M&E services, to achieve ‘best value’ & delay the entry of the building onto the commercial market to hopefully, a more favorable time. It is now due for completion in June 2010.

The current progress on site has the piling & main post-tensioned concrete superstructure complete to
roof level & the commencement of the new brick & stone rear façades. Next to start is the steelwork for the 2 storey residential element on the top floors followed by the roofing and slate work mansards so that by the summer the building will be partially water-tight.
Parallel to this exercise, a separate Sidell Gibson team are working hard to complete the fit-out interior design for the roof top apartments which will have not only the views but also their own private landscaped courtyard with a small woodland setting, well 9 ‘pleached’ 5 meter high Holm Oaks.