Devonshire Square
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An alternative to the standard masonry-clad and glazed office facades
Peter Cook/VIEW (website) Download Original
City centre office development with an exposed structural steel frame and glazed facade designed to be in sympathy with the surrounding Victorian warehouses
Bennett's Associates won a limited competition in 1996 to design an office building on the site of the redundant Houndsditch Telephone Exchange.
Within this rugged, load-bearing steel and glass façade is the incorporation of the client’s floor space requirements. With respect to the proximity of a conservation area and rights of light limitations, the building steps back from Devonshire Square on the sixth floor, rising up to nine storeys along the Houndsditch elevation.
Other adjustments the designers made at the request of the client, Royal Bank of Scotland, were: developing an appropriate language of steelwork detailing and finishes, addressing potential cold bridging problems, vapour and condensation control, fire engineering issues, corrosion protection issues, all while understanding the movements, deflections and tolerances of exposed steelwork.
Data
- Begun: Aug 1999
- Completed: Dec 2001
- Floor area: 31,500m2
- Sector: Office
- Total cost: £41.7M
- Tender date: May 1999
- Procurement: Civils JCT lump sum. Main contract JCT 2 stage design and build
- Address: Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4BA, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Bennetts Associates
- Project architects: Alex Philip, Alison Darvill, Andy Kirk, Bjork Haraldsdottir, Denise Bennetts, Doric Wells, Gregory Chapman, Jon Matthews, Nick Dodd, Nicola Chambers, Polly Waterworth, Rab Bennetts, Richard Castor Jeffrey, Richard Cohen, Richard Warwick, Scott Wardlaw, Sophie Skoug, Susanne Garrod
- Client: Axa Real Estate Investment Managers
- Structural engineer: Whitby Bird and Partners
- Services engineer: Cundall Johnston & Partners
- Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon & Everest
- Quantity surveyor: Mott Green and Wall
- Facade engineer: Arup Facades
- Fire engineer: Jeremy Gardiner
- Main contractor: Carillion Building
- Project manager: Buro Four
Suppliers
- Lifts: Thyssen Lifts & Escalators
- Curtain wall contractor: Focchi
- Steel frame: Wescol
- Atrium glazing: Fendor Hansen
- External atrium cladding: Emprose
- Sundry metalwork: Kimber Engineering
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