Colmore Gate is a landmark development in the heart of Birmingham. The existing building consists of 16 floors with two basement floors over a podium and tower section constructed in the mid-1990s.
We have been working with the design team to extend and refurbish the building to provide 23 floors of office accommodation in the tower and 9 floors in the podium section, totalling approx. 315,000ft2 NIA. As part of the refurbishment, the existing VAV air handling system will be removed and replaced with an air source heat pump system with on-floor heat recovery units to provide comfort cooling, heating, and ventilation. Additionally the building will benefit from a building and energy management systems, high-efficiency LED lighting and controls.
The project ethos revolves around a core carbon principle of retaining existing structure and foundations and working within that constraint to provide new and exciting office space.
As the Sustainability Consultant on the project we are targeting BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Core Platinum, ActiveScore Platinum and RESET certified to maximise the scheme’s sustainability credentials. We are also completing a whole life carbon and circular economy assessment to see that we are maximising re-use and aiming to identify further reductions in carbon where possible.
In addition the building is subject to the Design for Performance approach with the aim to achieve a 5 Star NABERS UK rating. The building is projected to deliver an ‘A’ EPC rating.
The building’s planning application was submitted to Birmingham City Council in August 2023, and we provided all the necessary supporting documentation, including the sustainability statement and energy strategy.
We are looking forward to our continued involvement in the project, pending positive planning feedback.
The building at 1 New Burlington Place has been redeveloped to offer 183,000ft² of high quality office and retail accommodation, for which Watkins Payne supplied building services engineering, vertical transportation engineering and energy consultancy to achieve an EPC A rating. We also supplied BREEAM services and achieved a BREEAM Excellent rating for the development.
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.
32 Duke Street in the heart of St James’s, the contemporary development known as The Marq comprises mixed use accommodation, with A1 and A3 retail units across ground and basement floors and 35,460ft2 of office space on six upper levels.
The Practice was responsible for designing the complete refurbishment of the mechanical, electrical and public health services to all of the guest rooms, together with the penthouse units in The Claridge’s Hotel.
The project involved the refurbishment and extension of the existing building to deliver over 260,000sq ft of office space, achieving BREEAM ‘Outstanding’.
