Comprising six levels of office space topped by two storeys of residential demise, 106-110 Kentish Town Road was in need of a transformation. The communal layout was very dated and a security risk with three entrances at different corners of the building.
Refurbishing the office space over the lower ground and ground floors would give the opportunity to rejuvenate the building’s access and security while allowing the design team to pay homage to its historical past as Dunn’s Hat Factory.
The refurbishment provides office space, along with the ground floor being granted A1 retail use. High-level exposed services were designed to give an industrial warehouse feel. The offices are heated and cooled by independent variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air source heat pump systems and illuminated by suspended linear LED fittings.
Dedicated office reception and lower ground break-out space have all been finished to high specification with feature LED lighting throughout. Services are exposed with electrical conduit finished in yellow to provide a splash of colour against the industrial style finishes. New shower and toilet facilities have been provided and the existing duplex lift installations have been refurbished.
The speculative office space is fitted out to a Category A standard and will be British Council of Offices (BCO) Guide to Specification 2019 compliant. The refurbishment has adjusted the temperature control zones to pull them better in line with the BCO recommendations than currently provided.
The building services use a 4-pipe fan coil unit arrangement with various ventilation systems to suit the different use areas. Full building power back-up standby generation, UPS, security and access control and automatic blinds all formed part of the fit-out.
The Bower office development in Stockley Park, near Heathrow, has been recognised as the best Refurbishment/Regeneration Outside Central London in the Office Agents Society Development Awards 2017.
The project also involved the refurbishment of the reception space and improvement of the cycle store entrance and wayfinding at basement level.
The building at 20 St James’ Street has been refurbished to offer 53,295ft² 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 ‘Very Good’ and EPC B rating.
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.