Urbanest King’s Cross
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Paul Miller Download Original
Student residence tower block at the northern end of the King’s Cross development
The 27-floor tower consists of units let on the private market with the adjoining 14-storey end-of-terrace ‘shoulder’ block leased to the London School of Economics
The building, which features a retail store at ground level and a landscaped courtyard contains 669 student bedrooms on the upper floors. These include a range of accommodation types, including luxury penthouse studios with self-contained kitchens and clusters of eight bedrooms in the tower, with escape-route distances measured from their shared front doors, minimising staircase and lift requirement.
There is a rigorous fabric first logic, backed up by King’s Cross Central’s district heating system, with a range of three facade depths which respond to orientation requirements and help to balance solar heat gain reduction with high daylight penetration.
Data
- Begun: Jun 2011
- Completed: Jul 2013
- Floor area: 19,900m2
- Sectors: Education, Residential
- Total cost: £38M
- Procurement: Two-stage design and build procurement with novation
- Address: Canal Reach, London, N1C 4BE, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: Glenn Howells Architects
- Client: Urbanest Student Accommodation
- Structural engineer: Ramboll UK
- M&E consultant: URS Corporation
- Quantity surveyor: Sense Cost Consultancy
- Facade consultant: Wintech
- Planning consultant: Gerald Eve
- Project manager: Urbanest Student Accommodation
- Fire consultant: AECOM
- Landscape architect: Townshend Landscape Architects
- Acoustic consultant: Sandy Brown Associates
- Access consultant: All Clear Designs
- CDM coordinator: David Eagle
- Main contractor: Mansell Balfour Beatty
