61 Whitehall is the long term home since 1895 of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) that needed a complete refurbishment and upgrade to suit its current day needs and operational requirements. The works to the Grade II* listed building included the addition of a new floor, fully refreshed library and function rooms, plus creation of a south facing dome that will be used for multiple different events using electrochromic glazing.
The MEP services were all replaced with a focus on energy efficiency using air source heat pumps, LED lighting and natural ventilation where possible. The services were designed to suit the bespoke fit out requirements of RUSI all integrated into the architectural features within the listed building.
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 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 project also involved the refurbishment of the reception space and improvement of the cycle store entrance and wayfinding at basement level.
The Adventure Park covers 1.2 acres and is created using sustainably-sourced wood from the Windsor Estate, providing an extensive playground for families to explore together.
Sustainability is incredibly important for the Client and as such the building is targeting BREEAM ‘Outstanding’, WELL ‘enabled’ Gold, alongside WiredScore Platinum. In addition, the Design for Performance approach is being adopted in order to minimise operational energy and hence carbon emissions.
The office building has achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating with ‘Very Good’ ratings for the retail units.
