Waterman is delighted that both Gresham St. Paul’s and The Post Building have been shortlisted in the ‘Workplace £10 million and over’ category at the upcoming AJ Retrofit Awards.
The Awards, organised by the Architects’ Journal, celebrate the design expertise behind the renewal and repurposing of existing buildings and champions those schemes which cut the industry’s carbon footprint across nine categories, including healthcare, housing, offices, higher education and listed buildings.
Gresham St. Paul’s
Following the low carbon retrofit of the original nineties’ office building, Gresham St. Paul’s now provides 165,000 sq. ft. of Grade-A office set across ten floors including a basement level as well as retail space on the ground floor. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre for AFIAA and Stanhope Plc, the scheme creates a new corporate headquarters building in one of the City’s most prestigious locations close to the Bank of England. As part of the project’s drive to enhance wellbeing, large terraces have been created on the top three floors to provide access to expansive views, allowing tenants to look out over St. Paul’s Cathedral and the City of London. Wealth and asset managers Numis, and financial and professional services firm Smith and Williamson, have taken advantage of the new state-of-the-art facilities at Gresham St. Paul’s with Numis taking the top three floors and Smith and Williamson occupying the first five.
Waterman provided multidisciplinary design services on the commercial led mixed-use scheme, including building services, structural engineering, environmental and acoustics. The design was focused on creating a sustainable building for the future, and our structural engineers prioritised the retention of as much of the existing structure as possible. Our building services team provided the new MEP design which replaced the original outdated building services systems entirely, cutting carbon emissions by 25%. The building’s exceptional performance is reflected in its WiredScore ‘Platinum’ and BREEAM ‘Excellent’ ratings.
The Post Building
Forming part of the Post Building, formerly a Royal Mail sorting office, the fit-out for McKinsey & Company’s offices across the upper half of the building was completed in summer 2019 and comprises 126,000 sq. ft. of premium LEED-Gold standard space. Designed by architect Morey Smith, this stunning fit out is based around three core principles: encouraging greater collaboration with clients by providing space for co-working and collaborative events, smart use of technology to allow seamless secure virtual collaboration, and employee wellbeing to facilitate both creativity and peak performance.
Waterman’s specialists provided the structural design for the fit out, incorporating several highly aesthetic features including a unique feature ‘zig-zag’ staircase linking McKinsey & Company’s main floors with their client meeting floor. Our involvement with the Post Building also extends to its lower half, where we undertook the fit out of Nationwide Building Society’s new digital and technology innovation centre.
You can view the full list of shortlisted projects by clicking here.
