British Columbia House
London

The refurbishment and extension of 1-3 Regent Street with the Crown Estate under their St James framework.

The original building was constructed c.1905-1910 as a brick and concrete encased early steel frame. The floor slabs were formed using a proprietary floor system called “Truscon” imported from North America. The system was an early form of reinforced concrete using a ribbed metal tray to form a coffered slab with mild steel square twisted bars in each trough.

We were involved in the construction of a new stair and lift core, extension into the rear light well, reconstruction of the mansard roof level and the removal of the internal masonry walls – all within a tight city centre site, bounded by historic neighbouring buildings on all sides.

We were involved in the construction of a new stair and lift core, extension into the rear light well, reconstruction of the mansard roof level and the removal of the internal masonry walls – all within a tight city centre site, bounded by historic neighbouring buildings on all sides.

The building was originally served by a number of large fire places with substantial chimney breasts running up through the building. To provide an open office environment the chimney breasts were removed from first floor, through to the underside of the roof level. Above roof level the chimney breasts where reconstructed, supported on new steel framing spanning the full width of the floor plate down onto the original building structure. Detailed testing and assessment of the existing historic steel structure was under taken to confirm its ability to support these alternative load paths.

Completed 2015.

Project Information

Client

The Crown Estate

Architect

JM Architects

Value

Undisclosed

Photography

Simon Lee

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