Metropolis extends and refurbishes the nine storey Woolworth House, an existing office building originally designed by Richard Seifert in 1955 as the UK headquarters of the US retailer F.W. Woolworth and completed in 1959, located in the Dorset Square Conservation Area in the City of Westminster.
The mixed-use scheme for client General Projects creates over 236,000 square feet GIA of office spaces across three distinct blocks at Marylebone Road, Harewood Avenue and Harewood Row. The scheme also includes a flexible retail / office unit on ground and lower ground floor, accessed from the corner between Harewood Avenue and Harewood Row.
The existing car park is replaced with a seven-storey stepped extension clad in glazed terracotta with a cross laminated timber (CLT) frame and planted terraces on every level. Above the Harewood Avenue and Harewood Row blocks, the existing roof plant enclosures are removed and consolidated, allowing the creation of rooftop office pavilions on level 8 and level 5 respectively.
Internally, a generous new office reception hub, accessed from a new entrance along Harewood Avenue, and a stepped atrium expose and celebrate the building’s existing structure whilst bringing additional daylight to the deepest office floor plates.
Metropolis has been ambitiously designed to set new workplace standards, with wellbeing and experience at its core and benefits from over 20,000 square feet of amenity, including planted terraces on every floor, several internal amenity and break-out areas, a high specification cycle store and associated facilities.
From the outset the design strategy has been centred on the principles of retaining, refurbishing and extending, resulting in a low embodied carbon project. 93% of the original building’s fabric has been reused, with existing facades refurbished to improve their appearance and performance. Internally, existing MEP equipment has been entirely upgraded to ensure net Zero carbon operation, creating an attractive workspace which exceeds modern sustainability standards, receiving both BREEAM Outstanding and AirRated Platinum accreditation.
