The brief requires a reduced area for the High Commission served by a dedicated entrance and lifts, and for remaining areas for third-party office users to be accessed by a new lobby. The underused Grade l Royal Opera Arcade to the west of the building is also to be comprehensively improved.
The scheme consolidates the High Commission, formerly distributed throughout the building, into the three-storey podium and top two tower floors. Third-party offices will occupy the tower’s remaining twelve floors. The ground-floor reconfiguration retains the High Commission’s historic lobby alongside a new lobby and lifts for third-party users and increases the retail frontage onto the arcade by 25%. Our scheme restores the arcade’s timber shopfronts and plasterwork and adds new contemporary shopfronts to the blank southeast NZH elevation.
Tower floorplates are increased by 15% to 4,000sqft nett by reducing the core area and removing perimeter upstands. Two new lifts are being added to four existing lifts by cutting new shafts into the oversized lobbies. On-floor chiller/heating plant is consolidated into air-source heat pumps on the podium roof. Clear external glazing that mimics the original building’s transparency is provided by a clear double-glazed mechanically ventilated system with interstitial blinds to control solar gain and glare. The heat within the system is removed mechanically. The 80 mm-thick Portland stone faces to the concrete spandrels will be cleaned and restored.
