{"id":16444,"date":"2002-07-01T17:32:59","date_gmt":"2002-07-01T17:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/?p=16444"},"modified":"2013-03-21T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T17:45:08","slug":"premier-place-devonshire-square-london-ec2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsteelconstruction.com\/wp\/premier-place-devonshire-square-london-ec2\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier Place, Devonshire Square, London EC2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Following a limited competition in 1996, Bennetts Associates was appointed by BT Properties to design an office building on the site of its redundant Houndsditch Telephone Exchange.<\/h4>\n

<\/span>FACT FILE: Premier Place, Devonshire Square, London EC2<\/h5>
Architect:<\/strong>\u00a0Bennetts Associates Architects
\nStructural Engineer:<\/strong>\u00a0Waterman Partnership
\nSteelwork Contractor:<\/strong>\u00a0Wescol Glosford
\nMain Contractor:<\/strong>\u00a0Carillion
\nClient:<\/strong>\u00a0AXA Sun Life Properties
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Having gained planning permission, the site was bought by AXA Sun Life who commissioned Bennetts Associates to develop the project to completion, which was achieved within its \u00a345 million budget in October 2001. The building has been pre-let to the Royal Bank of Scotland.<\/p>\n

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In sympathy with the industrial Victorian warehouses nearby, 2 1\/2 Devonshire Square expresses its structure within a rugged, loadbearing steel and glass fa\u00e7ade. The design orientates the building away from Houndsditch and places the main entrance on the corner of Devonshire Square.<\/p>\n

Incorporating the client\u2019s floor space requirements, respecting 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.<\/p>\n

Lifts and staircases in the glazed service cores animate the exterior of the building and provide a series of minor landmarks at critical points in the townscape. These vertical elements, accentuated by towers of meeting rooms framed by shear walls clad in granite, act as “bookends” for the principal steel elevations. Solar shading adds to the textural qualities of the southern fa\u00e7ade. The decision to expose the structural steel frame of the Devonshire Square building created a number of inherent technical challenges:<\/p>\n