As is usual at this time of year we’ve been looking back at the last 12 months – which seem to have been busier, and gone by faster than ever! – and putting together some highlights in our review of 2016, which you can read here. These include some landmark planning permissions, award wins of which we’re very proud, and a look forward to some major projects reaching completion in the spring.
Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre and 10 New Burlington Street / 1 New Burlington Place have both been announced as recipients of Civic Trust National Awards. The Civic Trust scheme was established in 1959 to recognise outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment – winners also exhibit strong sustainability credentials, a high level of inclusive design, and demonstrate a positive civic contribution. The Library at Willesden Green was also a Civic Trust Regional Finalist. The awards will be presented in March 2017.
The new Barbican Centre shop, AHMM’s latest intervention at the Barbican Arts Centre, is now open. The two-storey shop, which includes an accessible lift and glazed stair, replaces the existing advanced ticket sales desk near the Silk Street entrance, extending out onto a new mezzanine level but preserving views through and giving a sense of ‘having always been there’. Brass detailing and the continuation of the AHMM-designed carpet introduced as part of our earlier reinvention of the public spaces further unite the new addition with the existing building. Read an interview with Peter Morris about the project on the Barbican blog.
This week’s BBC Question Time will be hosted by Burntwood School, AHMM’s RIBA Stirling Prize-winning school campus in south London. Question Time is a topical debate in which prominent political and media guests answer questions posed by members of the public, and takes place in a different venue each week. The programme will be shown live at 10.45 on BBC One and available on iPlayer - find out more on the BBC website.
Last night the team celebrated two of its phase one residential buildings reaching their highest point. The topping out ceremony was held on the roof of one of the existing buildings surrounding the famous Helios courtyard at the heart of the development. Celebrations continued at the Pergola on the Roof, a pop-up at the top of a neighbouring multi-storey car park. The event was attended by clients Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and Aimco, along with the design and construction team. Television Centre is Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’ largest masterplanning project, and will transform the former home of the BBC to create a new mixed use quarter – including 950 new homes - within the historic west London landmark.
No 1 Oxford Street (Future Commercial Mixed Use) and Weston Street (Future Residential) have both been highly commended at the World Architecture Festival Awards this week. The Library at Willesden Green, 119 Farringdon Road, Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre, 61 Oxford Street, and AEP Fitness Center were also shortlisted. Simon Allford has once again been a judge at the Festival, held this year in Berlin. Find out more about the shortlisted and winning projects here.
Hawley Primary School, the first phase of the Hawley Wharf Masterplan, has opened. The school in Camden, north London comprises a new-build three storey building and the conversion and integration of a Grade II listed building at 1 Hawley Road. The single-form entry school accommodates 236 children from nursery to year 6, with classrooms arranged around an intimate central courtyard, each with access to year group-specific learning terraces distributed across the terraced rooftops.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris has picked up four awards at this year’s AIA Central Oklahoma Design Excellence Awards. Jesus Saves, a former bible bindery converted into a two family dwelling, was awarded the Merit Award for Residential Architecture. Two AHMM projects were awarded a Merit Award for Commercial Architecture: OKSea, a collection of 17 shipping containers repurposed to house a corn dog bar, a donut shop, juice bar and office spaces; and AEP Fitness Centre, which involved the redevelopment of an unused basement structure in northern Oklahoma City into a new sports and leisure centre. The Honor Award for Historic Preservation/Adaptive Reuse was presented to the Plow Building, now the home of AHMM’s Oklahoma office.
This week has seen further awards recognition for AHMM’s work in the UK and the US. AEP Fitness Center and OKSea both won American Institute of Architects Central States Regional Design Excellence awards, which recognise outstanding architecture in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. On Wednesday evening Alconbury Club was awarded Commercial Project of the Year at the Structural Timber Awards, in recognition of its innovative use of cross-laminated timber. Finally this week, White Collar Factorywas named MIPIM UK/Estates Gazette Visionary Building of the Year at the MIPIM UK conference, where Simon Allford also chaired a panel discussion earlier in the day.
AHMM is currently featuring in two very different exhibitions in London, one focusing on the changing world of work, the other on modern homes. Highgate Modern Homes celebrates the Highgate Society’s 50th anniversary with an exhibition of modern houses and housing in the north London district, and features the homes of Paul Monaghan and associate director Susi le Good. Meanwhile, WRK/LDN – Shaping London’s Future Workspaces is an exhibition and series of events hosted by New London Architecture showcasing current exemplar schemes - including White Collar Factory, The Bower, and 240 Blackfriars Road - and exploring how, where and in what kinds of places we’ll be working in the future. Highgate Modern Homes is at Highgate School Museum, Southwood Lane, London N6 5EE until 30 October; WRK/LDN continues at the Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT until 17 December.
Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre was awarded the British Construction Industry Award for Building Project of the Year (up to £10m) at a ceremony in London last night. The award recognises Acts l and ll of an ongoing five-phase redevelopment of the Grade II listed theatre in the centre of Liverpool. Act I focused on the refurbishment of the original 1186 seat auditorium and remodelling of facilities, with Act ll adding the new box office and a weathered steel and glass-fronted extension that wraps around the building. This award follows the project’s success at the Architects’ Journal Retrofit Awards last month, where it was awarded overall Retrofit of the Year.
Planning permission for AHMM’s office-led mixed use building at New Bailey in Salford has been granted by Salford City Council. The scheme for 2 New Bailey Square – the practice’s latest large-scale commercial project in the North West – will provide 25,236 sqm office space over ten floors, with reception area, retail and restaurant space at ground level.
2 New Bailey Square is part of the wider Salford Central development masterplan, which will form a new gateway to the city, and on completion create 9,500 new job opportunities, 180,000 sqm of commercial space, over 1,000 new homes and two hotels.
Royal Court Liverpool has been named overall Retrofit of the Year by the Architects' Journal, having won the category award for Culture - Theatres and Cinemas at a ceremony held in London last night (14 September). The AJ praised 'the restrained, careful and thoughtful reinvention and subsequent phased interventions at the building', commenting that 'AHMM’s retrofit has given the theatre a future'. Find out more about the project and the special place the Royal Court has in the city and culture of Liverpool.
AHMM won Retrofit of the Year two years ago with its transformation of the University of Amsterdam's Roeterseiland campus.
Ten AHMM projects will be opening their doors for this year’s Open House London. 1 New Burlington Place, 10 New Burlington Street, Adelaide Wharf, Angel, The Bower, Burntwood School, Morelands, Television Centre, The Library at Willesden Green, and Weston Street will all be open to the public over the weekend of 17-18 September as part of the capital's largest annual festival of architecture and design. Find out more about locations and opening hours on the Open House listings page.
AEP Fitness Center has been selected by the Chicago Athenaeum as one of this year’s American Architecture Award winners. Chosen from a shortlist of 380 projects from all over the United States, the award winners will be celebrated at a gala dinner in October and in an exhibition organised in conjunction with the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, starting in Athens this December. AEP Fitness Center’s success follows that of Burntwood School, which received a Chicago Athenaeum International Award earlier this year.
Ermine Street Church Academy at Alconbury Weald in Cambridgeshire has reached practical completion. The three form entry primary school is AHMM’s third intervention as part of developer Urban & Civic’s wider masterplan for the former airbase site, and like its neighbour - the Alconbury Weald Club - makes extensive use of CLT as a structural material. Opening in September, Ermine Street Church Academy, part of the Diocese of Ely Multi Academy Trust, will be the first school in the Alconbury Weald development.
This week saw the opening of YouTube Space, a new facility at Google’s London office available to any YouTube content creator with more than 10,000 subscribers. Part of AHMM’s three phase fit-out of Google’s Kings Cross office, YouTube Space includes offices, retail and training space, and offers access to editing suites, equipment including 360 cameras, and the first fibre optic studio in the world.
AHMM’s latest projects to win planning permission reflect the practice’s growing ability to work in a range of different contexts. Our scheme for a significant site at 97-137 Hackney Road, granted approval by Hackney Council, creates a series of flexible workspaces together with residential units of varying size, including wheelchair-adaptable homes. The ambitious project will transform the brownfield site to deliver 19,614 sqm of employment-generating space with 184 homes and new public space.
Meanwhile, we have been granted planning permission for Queen Victoria House, a residential scheme in Bristol providing 67 apartments and a range of communal facilities aimed at people at all stages of retirement. AHMM’s first project in the city of Bristol to win planning permission, it follows on from our recent planning success with the Madeira Hotel development in Cornwall - also for Pegasus Life - offering 34 retirement apartments overlooking Falmouth Bay, a World Heritage Site.
Two projects have been recognised in this year’s New London Awards, given by New London Architecture this week for the best architecture and development in the capital. The Blossom Street Masterplan by AHMM with DSDHA, Duggan Morris Architects and Stanton Williams was commended in the Mixed Use category while the Library at Willesden Green was commended for the Mayor’s Prize. Earlier this month, the Television Centre masterplan was named Residential Development of the Year in the Norwood Property Awards, with The Bower winning Commercial Development of the Year.
Meanwhile, Adelaide Wharf– our groundbreaking and still highly-acclaimed housing project in east London – has been named as one of 24 outstanding residential schemes shortlisted for Property Week’s 10 for 10 Award for the best UK housing projects in the last decade. The winner will be announced in September.
Seven AHMM projects have been shortlisted for the 2016 World Architecture Festival Awards, four completed projects – The Library at Willesden Green, Royal Court Liverpool, 61 Oxford Street , and AELP Fitness Center; and three unbuilt/future projects – 119 Farringdon Road, Number One Oxford Street, and Weston Street. The winners will be chosen over the three-day World Architecture Festival in November, held this year in Berlin. The full shortlist and more information about WAF can be found here.
The Bartlett School of Architecture has awarded this year’s Victor Kite Award for Design Technology to Claudia Walton, a BSc student in Unit 9. Sponsored by AHMM, the award recognises the best work in Design Technology (year 2), a module that evolves students’ technical and architectural expertise in detail design.
The award was established in 2013 by Scott Batty, a former member of staff at AHMM now running the Design Technology course, in memory of architect Victor Kite. Victor was a mentor to Simon, Jonathan, Paul and Peter as Part II students, and later to many others at AHMM, playing a significant role in the practice and its work.
61 Oxford Street and ARK All Saints Academy, Highshore School and St Michael and All Angels Church have won RIBA National Awards. Announcing the 46 national award winners, RIBA President Jane Duncan said ‘the RIBA National Awards are a great indicator of UK design, economic and construction trends. These buildings are what the best architecture looks like today.’
ARK All Saints is the fifth AHMM-designed school development to win an RIBA National Award, following Great Notley Primary School, Westminster Academy, Kirk Balk Community College, Waverley School, and the Stirling Prize-winning Burntwood School. Described by the judges as a ‘classy and elegant transformation’, the campus brings together an 800-pupil academy, a school for children with special educational needs, and a chapel serving the local parish.
61 Oxford Street, meanwhile, is one of the latest in AHMM’s ‘city sandwich’ schemes, bringing a mix of retail, residential and office to one of London’s busiest shopping streets and acting as a catalyst for the regeneration of this part of London as Crossrail nears completion. Find out more about this year’s RIBA National Award winners here.
AHMM’s proposals for 133 Deptford High Street have been granted planning permission by Lewisham Council. The project is for a 70 room hotel adjacent to Deptford rail station and includes the re-provision of a church hall at ground floor level, associated with Our Lady of Assumption Roman Catholic Church. The scheme will form part of the regeneration of this key location in Deptford, adjacent to the public realm improvements and new market soon to be provided at Deptford Market Yard.
Paul Monaghan will be talking about Burntwood School and the work of AHMM at a special event on 26 May during the preview of the Biennale Architettura in Venice. Organised by the Associazione Italiana di Architettura e Critica and A10 magazine , the event showcases the work of a leading practice from 37 European countries. The theme of this year’s Biennale, curated by Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena, is ‘Reporting from the Front’, and the programme of exhibitions and events runs from 28 May to 27 November.
Following a delegated decision from the City of London on Friday, the Secretary of State has granted Listed Building Consent for the creation of a new shop within the Barbican Arts Centre. AHMM’s latest intervention at the Barbican creates a new retail unit in a visible and accessible location, more appropriate to the Barbican Centre’s size and requirements.
The masterplan for Blossom Street by AHMM with Duggan Morris Architects, DSDHA and Stanton Williams has taken an important step further towards the revitalisation of the site in Spitalfields, east London. Following a judicial review, the High Court has upheld the Mayor of London’s decision to take over the planning applications to redevelop the area, which he has subsequently approved.
61 Oxford Street and ARK All Saints Academy and Highshore School have been recognised with RIBA London awards. 61 Oxford Street, a mixed use ‘city sandwich’ building on London’s busiest high street was described by the judges as ‘thoroughly delightful with clever references to context, mixed use and skyline’ while ARK All Saints Academy, AHMM’s tenth RIBA award-winning school, was praised as ‘a brilliant transformation of a failing school... the architects’ experience of building many schools and learning every lesson in the book showed.’ The RIBA London awards, presented this year at the University of Greenwich, are given to UK buildings for their regional importance as pieces of architecture, and form the shortlist for the RIBA National awards to be announced in June.
Open-City’s fifth Green Sky Thinking week was launched this morning at AHMM’s Morelands office. Chaired by Nick Raynsford, former MP and government minister, the event included talks from architect Alison Brooks, Eleanor Fawcett of the London Legacy Development Corporation, Karl Sharro of PLP Architects, and Jonathan Manns from Colliers. Green Sky Thinking runs from 25-29 April and AHMM will be hosting an event at the Design Council’s Angel Building-based office – find out more here.
White Collar Factory celebrated reaching its highest point on Tuesday. The topping out ceremony was hosted by Derwent London and Brookfield Multiplex together with the project team of AHMM, Arup, AKT-II, AECOM and Jackson Coles. Speakers included Derwent directors Simon Silver and Paul Williams as well as Simon Allford, who was joined by Associate Director Stephen Taylor and the design team.
The White Collar Factory concept has evolved through AHMM’s long standing relationship with Derwent London, with the aim to create a sustainable and adaptable office building. The key design features include high ceilings which increase daylight penetration allowing for larger floor plates, in turn increasing the flexibility of use; while Smart Servicing maximises passive systems such as concrete core cooling and minimalizes excessive kit. A simple passive façade with openable windows and solar shading reduces the need for mechanical cooling. The building is scheduled to complete later this year.
AHMM has been appointed this week to design a new Civic Centre in Whitechapel, east London. The £77m project will see the grade II listed 18th century Royal London Hospital brought back to life as a public building open to the borough of Tower Hamlets, and also involves the refurbishment and redevelopment of other buildings and sites in Whitechapel and nearby. The new Civic Centre will be a key part of Whitechapel’s wider regeneration, which includes the opening of Crossrail in 2018, with 3500 new homes, 5000 jobs, new retail opportunities and new public spaces to be delivered over the next 10 years.
The masterplan for the Rich Estate site in Bermondsey has received planning approval from Southwark Council. The development of the former industrial estate for London Square will provide 406 new homes and 225,000 square feet of workspace including a new permanent home for Tannery Arts, a charity working to promote access to contemporary art. AHMM has also been working with Coffey Architects and Studio Egret West on elements of the masterplan, phase one of which is expected to be delivered in 2018.
Peter Morris and Ceri Davies arrived in Cannes today, having spent six days cycling from London with the Club Peloton team to raise money for children’s charity Coram. Over six days, 100 professionals from the property industry have been riding in a relay format to Cannes in time for the MIPIM property conference. If you’d like to donate, you can still do so via Peter’s and Ceri’s fundraising pages.
Last night saw the official opening of 1 New Burlington Place, eight years after the project and its ‘non-identical twin’, 10 New Burlington Street, were won in a competition. The AHMM project team joined client The Crown Estate, developer Exemplar and contractor Mace to celebrate the opening of the completed scheme, together with speakers Cllr Robert Davies from Westminster Council, and David Shaw and James Cooksey of The Crown Estate. 1 New Burlington Place creates a cohesive urban block through the integration of a new building with two retained and restored listed Georgian townhouses, providing more than 15000m² of retail, residential and office space over five floors, with a double height reception and mezzanine. New public and tenant open spaces include a courtyard, roof terraces and revitalised public realm, with a specially commissioned artwork by Keith Tyson marking the entrance on New Burlington Place. The building’s curved façade also features the first extensive use of pressurised triple glazed facades in London.
Last night the London Legacy Development Corporation granted planning permission for Bream Street in east London. The residential-led mixed use scheme for London & Quadrant Housing Trust is located next to the River Lee facing the Olympic Stadium, and responds to the heritage and grain of the surrounding Fish Island district. Its seven buildings will provide 202 residential units and over 2000 sqm of employment space for businesses and established creative industries of Fish Island, while a generous new canalside public realm will offer access to the lock.
Islington Council has granted planning permission for 119 Farringdon Road, home to the Guardian and Observer newspapers from 1976 to 2008. The new building for Viridis Real Estate will include BREEAM Excellent rated office space with dedicated cycle parking and change facilities, retail, café and gallery uses at ground and lower ground, affordable workspace, and new public realm interventions that activate pedestrian routes and redefine the Farringdon Road elevation.
Paul Monaghan joined Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson and Gillian Miller, Chief Executive of the Royal Court Theatre Trust to cut the ribbon at the official opening of the Royal Court Theatre Liverpool last night. The event marks the completion of the Royal Court Act II: the extension of the entrance foyer with a new kiosk and box office, the addition of an external terrace and the refurbishment of the front of house areas.
The refurbishment of the iconic BBC Studios 1-3 at Television Centre has reached practical completion. For our clients BBC and BBC Studios and Post Production, the studios have been restored and updated, re-establishing the clarity of original 1960s plan. Stripped back finishes expose the existing concrete and brick structure, reinventing the studios that have been home to shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Later...with Jools Holland, and BBC Children in Need. The technical fit out will take place later this year as well as the installation of artwork by Studio Myerscough.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris has been shortlisted for three BD Architect of the Year awards: Education Architect of the Year, Public Building Architect of the Year, and Office Architect of the Year. The winners of the awards will be announced by writer and broadcaster Stephen Fry on 9 March.
The Mayor of London has resolved to approve the revised plans for Blossom Street. In September 2015 the Mayor called in the scheme after it was refused consent by Tower Hamlets Council, despite being recommended for approval by its own planning officers and Historic England. British Land and the design team, led by AHMM with Duggan Morris, DSDHA and Stanton Williams, amended the proposals in response to pre-application consultation and discussions with the Greater London Authority. The project will deliver a total of 350,000 square feet in seven buildings, including office space, 13 retail units and 40 apartments.
Southwark Council’s planning committee has unanimously voted to grant planning consent for Plot 5 at the Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey, south London. AHMM secured outline consent in 2013 for the wider masterplan for the redevelopment of the old Peek Frean factory site, which includes 800 residential units and 8,240 square metres of new commercial space. The six-storey Plot 5 building will form the first phase of the development, with six floors of office space and communal amenity space at the ground floor.
The Royal Court Liverpool is among 16 organisations invited to apply for the second stage of Arts Council England Large Capital Grants programme. The next step of the application is to submit detailed design and development plans for the new 150-seat studio space in the existing basement, and the addition of a larger more open bar on the third and fourth floors; if successful the theatre could receive up to £2m of Arts Council funding to take the project forward to its third ‘act’.