Watkins Payne provided MEP systems and IT cabling design services for the fit-out of 186,000ft² of commercial offices in the eight storey 1 Forbury Place in Reading, which formed the focus of SSE Services plc’s relocation strategy to consolidate several buildings from across southern England and accommodate 1,500 employees in a single location.
The Cat B fit-out design supports agile working, collaboration and connectivity, optimising employee and visitor comfort. Facilities include a café with catering facilities on the ground floor, main and secondary plant equipment rooms, a sixth floor conference and meeting rooms suite, and agile open plan office areas on other floors consisting of collaboration spaces, meeting pods and booths with VC facilities.
The majority of the base build MEP systems were retained, adapted and modified with flexibility in mind, to ‘future proof’ and support the Client’s needs.
The base build air conditioning, which is provided by electric VRF systems was modified to suit the fit-out. A standby generator was installed for resilience, and a fully networked CCTV and security access control system was provided to meet the Client’s operational requirements.
The Practice also assisted the Client in the initial due diligence exercise as part of the lease negotiations.
10 Fetter Lane needed some freshening up for marketing, so the first floor offices were to be modernised as a show stopper with a contemporary exposed services design and improved floor to ceiling height.
The development is an 12 storey building comprising 13,475m2 (NIA) of office area over basement to eleventh floor and 141m2 of retail area located on ground floor.
The 7,600ft² area of 7 Bermondsey Street near London Bridge Station was refurbished to high quality office accommodation, for which Watkins Payne supplied building services engineering and vertical transportation engineering. The refurbished area is spread across basement and ground floor.
The carbon neutral status was achieved by exemplary as-built air tightness facade solar and thermal performance significantly in excess of the Building Regulations requirements, highly energy efficient M&E systems, LED lighting and photovoltaic panel arrays on the roof of the warehouse.
The building at 55 Colmore Row has been refurbished to offer 150,000ft² of high quality office accommodation, for which Watkins Payne supplied building services engineering, vertical transportation engineering, BREEAM duties and energy consultancy to achieve an BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and EPC B rating.
Premier Inn has recently invested in the redevelopment of its Uxbridge hotel to provide increased accommodation options and better facilities for guests.