WORK IN PROGRESS 2006

www.jra.co.uk Issue 1

GREENWICH WINS EXCELLENT RATING

The latest phase of Greenwich Millennium Village has been awarded the Building Research Establishments Eco-Homes Excellent standard the highest level of environmental sustainability in housing design.
The scheme has been developed as a joint venture between housebuilders Taylor Woodrow and Countryside Properties with national regeneration agency English Partnerships and represents the cutting edge of housing design in the UK. John Robertson Architects commission includes five blocks of 424 apartments and was masterplanned by Swedish practice Tovatt Architects and Planners (founded by English architect Ralph Erskine who worked in Scandinavia most of his life). JRA was appointed to develop the design to Stage D, and implement the scheme with contractor Laing ORourke Were delighted to have achieved an Excellent rating for Block E, says JRA director Derek Davis. It reflects the whole approach to the scheme which includes a central heat and power plant, public transport arrangements, the use of previously contaminated ground, materials with low embodied energy and high levels of insulation. Block E, which is composed of two elements Holly Court and Becquerel Court and includes 196 one, two and three bedroom apartments, is due for completion in September this year. Blocks C and D will be completed in 2008 and are also targetting an Eco-Homes Excellent Award. The scheme is seen by government as a model for high density, mixed tenure urban communities and for rationalised procurement and construction. Its design, which refers to that of earlier GMV phases, makes a feature of coloured balconies, coloured panels, a crenellated roofline with iconic red curved eyebrow features, set around a generous village square. Continued on page 2

Union at GMV

JRA ADDS VALUE AND FLEXIBILITY TO A 1980s DEALING FLOOR BUILDING FULL STORY SEE PAGE 3
CONTENTS

NEW PHASE OF GMV COMPLETED

GROUNDSCRAPER FACELIFT

CAPITAL DEVELOPMENTS

DANISH DELIGHT

GOING GREEN IN GREENWICH

The red eyebrow feature from earlier phases of Greenwich Millennium Village is also featured together with a red picture frame variation as seen here on the main elevations to the scheme, while the massing of the blocks is broken down into smaller forms by shape and colour, and by brightly coloured balconies overlooking the phases landscaped Squares.

10 QUEEN STREET PLACE EC4

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John Robertson Architects remodelling of 10 Queen Street Place for The Blackstone Group International has turned an obsolete building designed for the dealing floors of the late 1980s into an effective workplace for a leading law firm.
After buying the building for 78m in summer 2000, receiving a surrender premium of 30m in 2002 and total construction costs of 40m, Blackstone sold the 20,000sqm building to Morley for 148m with an initial yield of 4.5 per cent, the lowest ever yield achieved in the City. The deal has worked out well. From the outset we identified the upside potential of this asset. With the help of JRA and other team members we were able to reposition the building and secure one of the largest pre-lets in 2003, says Blackstones Stuart Grant, ascribing its success to JRAs design as well as market trends. JRAs due diligence studies for Blackstone showed how new technology and targeted structural interventions could add space, improve efficiency and flexibility of the existing floors, and enhance the buildings amenities. The key was to infill perimeter atria and cut two new ones into strategic positions in the centre of the floorplates of almost 5,000sqm, among the largest in the City. What was deep space now has daylight. Remodelling the entrance gives the building a stronger identity and clarifies circulation for staff and visitors leading to a remodelled central atrium with scenic lifts. Finally eliminating plant and smoke vents from the roof meant top floor office space could expand from a narrow strip on the northern edge isolated from the main lift core to about half the total footprint integrated with vertical circulation, adding space and increasing its value. St Pauls heights meant the new floor could not cover the whole roof, but JRA proposed turning the residual space into the Citys largest and wi-fi enabled roof garden with wide south facing views across the river, giving the building a unique amenity. Two technological innovations freed up the roof.Covering the atria with lightwight ETFE pillows, which disintegrate in fire, cuts out the need for smoke vents. With less structure the atria also let more light in than if their roofs were glazed panels. Secondly the new scenic lifts have motors in their shafts rather than rooftop plant rooms. All these features attracted law firm SJ Berwin who were looking to move into a single building to rationalise their working practices and generate a stronger identity than they had when split across three buildings. They agreed a pre-let in early 2003, ten months after HSBC left and at a time when plenty of other buildings were available. Their design team of HOK with Seth Stein worked with JRA to refine the design concept to their needs for cellular offices, meeting rooms, easily accessible libraries, break out spaces and grab and go catering. On taking occupation in January 2006, they moved 900 people in, and have capacity for another 300.

In 1997 the Deputy Prime Minister challenged the development industry to create a model for urban living, which encompassed the issues of social cohesiveness, transport and communication, environment and ecology, technology and innovation. The derelict Greenwich Peninsula was chosen as the site and a competition was launched by English Partnerships to find a development team to create a community that should be a tangible living model of best practice. Countryside Properties and Taylor Woodrow won and GMV is the first phase of plans for development across the whole of the peninsula. The whole design and construction process benefits from JRAs ability to bring its knowledge of the latest procurement methods in the commercial property sector and apply them to housebuilding. The masterplan for Greenwich Millennium Village, which occupies 60 acres, is the work of the late Ralph Erskine, one of architectures great innovators and a champion of sustainable communities, who stated

The village should not only be a showpiece of brilliant design and technical solutions but a true expression of the ideals about respect for human dignity, equality and freedom we foster in our democratic society.

16-18 FINSBURY CIRCUS, EC2

Remodelling the Grade II listed 16-18 Finsbury Circus for Prudential gives John Robertson Architects a rare opportunity to combine historical character with high quality modern office space. Behind Gordon and Guntons impressive Edwardian classical faade on the circus will be large unified floorplates totalling almost 27,000sqm, an increase of more than 4,000sqm on the existing building. The key to this uplift was at the rear of the site fronting Eldon Street, which was occupied by a row of obsolete Victorian office buildings. JRA argued that these were out of scale with their neighbours, and a more successful townscape would result if they were replaced by a larger building. That in turn generated enough value to create entirely new floorplates, rationalising and re-aligning existing levels which are configured around a central atrium with scenic lifts from first floor to roof level. Fully serviced, they are large enough to allow a wide range of space plan layouts. The design also incorporates listed features like a banking hall and grand staircase to complete the synthesis of historic character with the optimum working environment for contemporary offices. The project is under construction.

Strategic insertions transform the quality and flexibility of space: a spiral staircase connects floors in the new atria (top left); scenic lifts in the main atrium (top centre); exploded axonometric (top right); central atrium and entrance (main); panoramic view (above) and remodelled corner on Upper Thames Street (left).

CAPITAL DEVELOPMENTS: 21 BUILDINGS,13 YEARS

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In its first 13 years John Robertson Architects has contributed to commercial, residential and street life across London. This spread highlights 21 of some recently completed projects, showing how JRA* (offices located at Bankside near Tate Modern) has found ways of designing new buildings and reconfiguring old ones to optimise value in a variety of urban situations.
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Kensington Green, W8 Conversion of the former St Mary Abbots hospital, a handsome Tudor style block, into apartments.
Client: Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments

50 Cannon Street, EC4 Refacing a drab 1970s office in a contemporary idiom within a conservation area gives it a new image and marks the greatly upgraded space within.
Client: Guardian Assurance

40 Strand, WC2 Adding a new floor, remodelling the entrance and replacing services repositioned this obsolete 1950s building in the 1990s marketplace.
Client: Land Securities

One Great St Helens, EC3 This neat addition to the urban realm was an early demonstration of the BCOs generic specification.
Client: Greycoat plc

City Quay, St Katharines Dock, E1 JRAs expertise in producing and scheduling information facilitated construction of this large, complex housing scheme.
Client: Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments

The Daily Express Building, EC4 The art deco jewel of the Daily Express makes a focus for the vast new headquarters building complex around it.
Client: The Itochu Corporation

120 Fleet Street, EC4 The second phase of a major North American investment banks European headquarters comprising 500,000sqft of dealing and office floor space.
Client: The Itochu Corporation

10 Throgmorton Avenue, EC2 Rationalised efficient floorplates lie behind this refurbished historic faade. Client: The Worshipful
Company of Carpenters

Montevetro, SW11 Working in collaboration with Richard Rogers Partnership JRA developed the detailed design and construction methods for one of Londons most striking residential buildings.
Client: Taylor Woodrow Capital Developments

190 High Holborn, WC1 A strong new entrance hall concept shows how targeted interventions can transform identity.
Client: Land Securities

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One Knightsbridge Green, SW1 Remodelling the base of a 1950s rent slab meets modern retail needs and creates an appropriate office entrance.
Client: Prudential Assurance Company Ltd

2-5 Old Bond Street, W1 Two high profile retailers recognised the qualities of this 1930s building which JRAs refurbishment unlocked.
Client: Prudential Assurance Company Ltd

The Exchange, N8 JRA successfully converted this 1950s telephone exchange to residential by giving it an image which consciously reflects its status as an urban building.
Client: Berkeley Homes

One Seething Lane, EC3 A sensitive piece of urban infill, making a contextual and contemporary new office building in a conservation area.
Client: Land Securities

City Law Offices, EC2 JRA achieved a sophisticated and contemporary interior for a variety of facilities, using a family of components to control expenditure.
Client: Linklaters

10 Queen Street Place, EC4 New technology and targeted structural interventions make efficient and flexible modern offices for SJ Berwin out of a dealing floor groundscaper.
Client: The Blackstone Group International

Greenwich Millennium Village, SE10 A new vision for high density, sustainable urban housing.
Client: GMV Ltd

20 Cursitor Street, EC4 A carefully considered faade gives identity and brings amenity to this office building within in a tight urban grain.
Client: Morley Fund Management

107 Cheapside, EC2 A JRA hallmark is to bring a new life to outmoded buildings through targeted and innovatively designed interventions and additions. This design extends and refurbishes a 1950s building to increase the quantity, quality and flexibility of space. Rational floorplates are easy to layout and divide, while up to eight retail units help to animate the street and contribute to the overall transformation of Cheapside.
Client: The Carlyle Group

Park House, Finsbury Circus, EC2 Two Grade II listed buildings will be subsumed within a new development. A huge uplift in floor area comes from a rear extension, making large floorplates around a central atrium.
Client: Prudential Assurance Company Ltd

16 Great Queen Street, WC2 Remodelling the facade, reorganising the interiors and improving the surrounding public realm means this 1958 office block will provide high quality contemporary interiors with the added benefits of an attractive setting.
Client: Henderson Global Investors

COPENHAGEN SOUTH HARBOUR REGENERATION

An invitation from Nordkranen and The Carlyle Group in June 2005 to participate in a competition for a prominent waterside site in Copenhagens South Harbour gave John Robertson Architects an opportunity to explore ideas for high density urban living.
Spurred by an existing 40m high grain silo on it, the site is scheduled for a group of high rise buildings to make a deliberate contrast with low rise terraces in a finely textured urban grain in the local masterplan, by Dutch landscape designers West 8 and Danish architects Plot. Nordkranen and The Carlyle Group asked JRA and three other architects to suggest ideas for the entire site with the intention that each would be given one building to design. JRAs proposal suggested how the development could create a congenial locality within the masterplan and its broader urban context, as well as a variety of desirable apartments, each orientated to catch sunlight and a view either west over the water or east over the large open space of Amager Common. It used the masterplans boulevard as a logical divider of the site into waterside and landside halves of the site, each with its own distinct character based on earth and water. The landside introduced an undulating base, hinting at a mountainous landscape but in practical terms creating two ground levels, one for public use and the other private for residents. In keeping with its earthy, solid character, the buildings were stone-clad. Towards the water the character becomes more urban. Two long thin finger buildings flank an open space running from the water to the undulating mound which could be lined by shops or public amenities. The massing, scale and detail acknowledges the sites visibility from long distances across the sound of water. Here landscaping is harder and the materials on the buildings more refined, such as metal and glass. This proposal met the requirement to keep the option of retaining or demolishing the silo; if demolished it could be replaced by a third finger building. All four architects, John Robertson Architects, CF Moller, Arkitema and Goring and Straja are collaborating to develop a detailed vision for the site, for Copenhagens local plan approval. JRA are set to design a replacement for the silo, which will be the largest single building on the site. The development is being built in phases from 2007 to 2010.

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The design proposes a cluster of tall buildings to give a focus to the regenerated waterfront. Site plan (top); sketch (above); model showing the massing of buildings on the front and back sites, with remodelled silo (above right); aerial view showing the South Harbour (far left); massing study (left); panoramic view (right) and waterfront with site highlighted (bottom).

MODERN METHODS
The service John Robertson Architects provides has evolved from the way UK architecture practice has developed in the last 25 years.
This came under close scrutiny when Big Bang deregulated the ownership of City stock broking firms in the early 80s. UK developers, notably Stanhope, imported more commercially rigorous US architecture practices to meet demand for major new buildings. From the 1940s to the 1980s US architects had been perfecting their delivery of major office buildings, in collaboration with contractors. The advent of computer-driven management enhanced this performance and they were able to carve significant amounts of time out of construction, reducing risk and expense. UK practice, even among the commercial elite, was by comparison underdeveloped and technologically primitive. British practices had to adapt or die. JRA has its roots in that period and a service delivery package and ethos was developed which provides the service clients want, focusing on timely production of a standardised and carefully analysed package of drawings designed to keep the contractor busy and to maximise buildability. As barriers in the British supply chain have broken down, the practice also works much more closely with contractors and suppliers to optimise delivery and quality. A design studio works alongside a production studio, and emphasis is placed on using standard products so that design skills can be focused where they add the

most value. Inspiration is taken from the oil, car and aviation industries where tried and tested suppliers are relied on. The aim is to get as close to the real building as possible on paper before building work starts, by utilising advanced 3D CAD technology to create a Virtual Building Model. The highest cost in construction is labour so a focus on pre-fabrication reduces this component while adding value for the client and improves quality. In addition to its work on major office schemes, JRA has begun to transfer the efficiencies learnt in the office market to housing. The practices work on Modern Methods of Construction (the Governments initiative to modernise the way we build things) and its involvement in several major residential schemes in London, have recently resulted in a commission from cutting-edge housing developer First Base. One of JRAs ambitions is to see UK housebuilding standards match those of Scandinavia and Holland where there is much more sophisticated and successful use of modern methods. The front page story about JRAs collaboration with Swedish practice Tovatt Architects and Planners at Taylor Woodrow and Countryside Properties Greenwich Millennium Village one of the UKs exemplar housing developments and the achievement of the Excellent rating under the BREs Eco-Homes standards, is a project which embodies this ambition.

107 CHEAPSIDE, EC2

By adding almost 30% to both the office and retail space for The Carlyle Group at 107 Cheapside, John Robertson Architects demonstrate their ability to find commercial value in outdated buildings. Designed by William Curtis Green RA and completed in 1956, it has some character but low ceilings and a short span concrete frame. If demolished, St Pauls heights would preclude replacing it with a building of similar size, but by building out to the site boundary at the rear and adding a set back top storey JRA are taking its net office space from 15,466 to 19,765sqm, and its retail space from 2,214 to 2,828sqm in eight units. The extension and internal remodelling results in very rational fully serviced floorplates, organised around an atrium and a couple of cores. They have great flexibility either for single users or subdivided between up to four separate tenants. With selective structural alterations, such as for instance strengthening beams so that their depth can be reduced, a floor to ceiling height of over 2.5m is provided. Tight contract management means it will come to the market just as a whole series of developments are transforming Cheapside from a drab stone canyon to a dynamic City high street. Demolition of parts of the existing building is underway and the project is due for completion in Spring 2008.

FIRST BASE
JRAs experience with innovative housing developments have led First Base to bring them in to work on a large North London housing project. Lead architect for the scheme is Porphyrios Associates and it is supported by the Princes Foundation.

LTA
JRA are working on a new tennis academy and headquarters for the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) at the Bank of England Sports Ground in Roehampton. The academy will be a national focus for the sport and support LTAs commitment to growing the sport of tennis. The building is designed by Hopkins Architects and JRA are acting as executive architects working for ISG InteriorExterior.

ROYAL ACADEMY
JRAs commitment to furthering the culture of architecture has led the practice to support the Architecture Programme and its Annual Architecture lecture at the Royal Academy of Arts. The Programme has established itself as a major forum for debate and discussion of architecture and its role in culture. This years lecture was given by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor who designed the legendary Thermal Baths in Vals.

ABOUT JOHN ROBERTSON ARCHITECTS

Design: Gavin Ambrose www.gavinambrose.co.uk

John Robertson and his partner John Hurley set up Hurley, Robertson and Associates in 1993. John Hurley retired in 2004 and, sadly, died shortly afterwards. By that time though they had built a medium-sized practice during a tough, long recession, focusing on complex new build and refurbishment projects, for a significant group of clients, including The Blackstone Group International, The Carlyle Group, Land Securities, Prudential Assurance Company Ltd and Taylor Woodrow. The practice is now 45-strong, based near Tate Modern on Londons booming South Bank of the Thames, and has a large portfolio of projects in central London. These include, for example sites that will integrate CrossRail stations, and complicated schemes in conservation areas, which the practice is well known for handling sensitively. JRA excels at buildings that are highly sensitive to issues of context, scale, proportion and detail. It does not set out to produce icons. As JRAs entry in the Copenhagen competition demonstrates it is also creative, not to to mention versatile, experienced, skilful and able to add value

John Robertson Architects, 111 Southwark Street, London SE1 0JF T: 020 7633 5100 F: 020 7620 0091 www.jra.co.uk
To register for information from John Robertson Architects visit www.jra.co.uk

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