Review of 2019

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships


On 31st July 2019, the practice celebrated its thirtieth year in business, a milestone in many ways, and not least for also marking the moment when we reached 500 employees. Of course the founders never expected, 30 years earlier, that our fledgling partnership would ever take on the scale of operation that it has, nor could we anticipate the extraordinary opportunities that have come with that growth.

What we did understand, from early on in our collaboration, was that our mutual interests were defined by three things: Architecture (what brought us together); Alliance (how we worked); and Ambition (what we believed in), and regardless of its shift in scale, 30 years later these words continue to underpin the workings of the practice.

2019 has seen the turbulent political environment of the previous two years only increasing in its intensity, and while the general election might have brought a greater certainty to the likely direction of travel, the long-term consequences of this remain to be seen.

At the same time the year has seen an increased focus brought to the climate emergency and the need to address it with even greater urgency. As one of the founding signatories of Architects Declare, we have revisited our established approach to analysing and improving the performance of our buildings as well as how we run our operations, while discussing new ways of working together with colleagues, clients, building users and communities to give substance to our commitment.

We look forward, then, to a 2020 of renewed challenge: in how we design and build for future cities and generations; in how we build and nurture our practice and people; and how we continue to deliver ambitious architecture.

 

Completed projects

This year AHMM has completed over 20 projects across the UK, Europe and the US including one of the practice’s largest masterplan projects to date. Hawley Wharf, which reached practical competition in March, transforms a neglected canal side site in Camden, creating a mix of affordable and private homes, a school, workplace units and workshops, a cinema, and a variety of retail opportunities including a flexible multi storey open market space.

In south London, West Grove Elephant Park has completed on site. Part of the second phase of the LendLease masterplan, the project creates 593 new homes within a series of mansion blocks and two towers. The taller of the two residential towers is the Highwood at 31 stories, making it the tallest building in the masterplan, and AHMM's tallest building to date.

In Berlin, a new home for Google and YouTube has been created within the Forum an der Museumsinsel development. Google Berlin celebrates the existing building, adapting it with a series of thoughtful interventions.

In Oklahoma the completion of Uptown Theater marks the conclusion of several AHMM projects as part of the wider redevelopment of a 1940s cinema which includes an indoor street market, the Elk Valley Brewing Company, and offices for Hudson Legal.

 


Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

Awards

This year the practice has been recognised with several national and international awards, with Television Centre picking up eight awards including the BCO Best of the Best award and an RIBA National Award.

The Ray Farringdon won two awards: the Brick Award for Commercial Projects, and the Schueco Excellence Awards Commercial Building Winner and Overall Commendation. The Bower won the Building Awards Office Refurbishment of the Year and an RIBA London Region Award, while its neighbour White Collar Factory was recognised with commendations for the NLA Mayor’s Award for Sustainable and Environmental Planning, and the Civic Trust Awards.

In Oklahoma, AHMM has had great success at the AIA Awards with Squirrel Park winning an American Institute of Architects (AIA) national Small Project Award and an AIA Central States Region Honor Award. 1212 Hudson was also awarded the AIA Oklahoma Design Excellence Merit Award for Adaptive Reuse, while Oso on Paseo and 8th Street Market were recognised with AIA Oklahoma Design Excellence Citation Awards. 8th Street Market also won a ULI Oklahoma Impact Award.

 

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

Planning

In October planning consent was granted for Elizabeth House in Waterloo, a project that will see the creation of around 2 million square feet of workspace adjacent to the UK’s busiest train station. In Belfast, planning permission was granted for the redevelopment of the Grade II listed former Belfast Telegraph office, AHMM’s first project in Northern Ireland. In Bristol, the City Council granted planning for a new student residence scheme as part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus close to Bristol Temple Meads Station; and One Portwall Square, which will eventually become the new Bristol base for AHMM, with the practice agreeing to pre-let two floors of the building.
 

Following extensive consultation and engagement with key stakeholders and the public, the application for planning and listed building consent for the redevelopment of Richmond House, to include a temporary House of Commons Chamber, has been submitted to Westminster City Council. The plans are the essential first step to enable the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster and will see the House of Commons Chamber and associated facilities designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, together with workspace for all 650 MPs and staff located within a single secure site. The development of the plans follows the decision of both Houses of Parliament in 2018 to temporarily move out of the Palace of Westminster while essential work to the building takes place. The application is one of a suite of seven submitted to cover work on Parliament’s Northern Estate.

AHMM is a part of the Lendlease project team along with conservation architect Feilden + Mawson. The wider masterplan for the Northern Estate site is being led by BDP.

 

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

On site

Construction has begun on site at Soho Place, AHMM’s longest running current project. Situated directly above one of the busiest underground (and future Crossrail) stations in London, the site was handed over to client Derwent London in 2018. Now the foundations are complete and the steel frame has been part erected up to the 6th storey. On completion, Soho Place will house a new 600-seat theatre and over 200,000 square feet of office space across two buildings, with 36,000 square feet of retail space at street level.

In east London construction work on the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall at the former Royal London Hospital has also begun, an occasion commemorated in July in a groundbreaking ceremony with the Mayor of Tower Hamlets.

At Assembly Bristol, the concrete cores are at almost half their full height and construction of its distinctive green steels has begun. In October telecommunications company BT agreed to a twenty year pre-let of the eleven-storey building which is due to complete in 2021. Around the corner at One Portwall Square, demolition of the existing squash court is complete, and work has started on the six storey office building.

In the North West, 2 New Bailey Square celebrated reaching its highest point and the completion of its steel frame structure. The 10 storey office building in Salford is one of two AHMM projects within a masterplan linking Salford and Manchester. In Liverpool, work is progressing on site at The Alder Centre, with the steel frame and brick work completed and its characterful pitched roofs installed.

 

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

FifthMan

AHMM’s in-house publishing arm, FifthMan, launched its new website fifthman.co.uk this year, showcasing its full catalogue of publications and a shop selling selected titles. The latest minigraph, charting a decade of work at the University of Amsterdam’s Roeterseiland campus, was published in November, and this year’s Adventures in Paper included a celebration of the New Metric Handbook and a short history of protest art to coincide with the practice’s research visit to Manchester in June. Work continues on the Chronicle – a compendium of all AHMM’s completed projects since 1989 with images selected by Tim Soar – and a new monograph, both of which will be published during 2020.

 

 

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

Practice and people

2019 marked the 30th year of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris: on Monday 31st July 1989 the practice first opened its doors for business at 7-9 Charlotte Street. Since then the company has grown from four to over five hundred with offices in London, Bristol and Oklahoma. We celebrated the event with a simultaneous cake cutting across our offices, and marked it with the publication of the Founders’ Statement.

This year we held our annual spring conference at the Palace Theatre in Soho, joined by Nica Burns OBE of Nimax Theatres, Ray Winkler of theatre and event producer Stufish, and architectural historian Elain Harwood. Our annual summer study visit took us to Manchester, where we learned about the city’s rich Modernist and Victorian architectural heritage.

In May AHMM joined fellow Stirling Prize winning practices in signing an open letter calling for architects and the wider construction industry to take collective action to address the climate and biodiversity emergency. Since then we have been working internally, with clients, and across our industry to address this pressing issue. We are currently auditing our organisational energy use to set ambitious targets for 2020, updating our sustainability toolkit process to better track our progress to net-zero carbon, and have worked with the RIBA to help draft a set of sustainability documents relating to their 2030 Challenge.

Two of the practice’s models were included in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, whose architecture room focused this year on sustainability: the timber model for the Alder Centre for Child Bereavement in Liverpool; and a conceptual model exploring the sustainable design strategies for the BRE Open Innovation Hub.

 

The practice continues to enjoy a rich and diverse cultural and social life, with a variety of workshops, talks and activities. Continuing our partnership with the Migrateful charity, staff have learned to cook a diverse selection of international cuisines, while staff wellbeing has been further supported with pilates, team sports, and resilience workshops. Our in house sketch club continues to grow, with regular drawing and urban sketching sessions with staff and young people. AHMM’s corporate support of institutions including the Barbican, Tate Modern, the Architecture Foundation and the Bristol Architecture Centre has allowed us to visit exhibitions, lectures and talks that have informed and enriched our thinking about design, cities, and the world around us.

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

Partnerships

AHMM’s 2019 Charity of the Year was the Magpie Project, a charity taking an innovative approach to supporting mothers and under-fives at risk of homelessness in east London. We supported the charity with regular office fundraisers and collections of clothing and toys, and sponsored the charity’s Artist in Residence, Louisa Tock. Work created by children at the Magpie Project with Louisa was exhibited in the London office in December.

AHMM’s Partnerships Group has continued its work engaging with community, humanitarian, education and climate action charities and initiatives, through fund-raising, sponsorship and volunteering opportunities. The group delivered 28 education activities with 124 education mentors volunteering 645 hours. Our first AHMM Summer School invited young people from organisations including the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and The Social Mobility Foundation to undertake a week of masterclasses, lectures, sketching, model making and mentoring. Our Partnerships prize for international volunteering was won by Rebecca Nixon, who travelled to Uganda to deliver workshops with primary school children inspired by Ugandan and international architecture.

Individual and group charitable initiatives continued to reflect the practice’s culture of collaboration and contribution to our communities. Three AHMM cyclists participated in the annual Cycle to MIPIM, raising around £9,000 for children’s charities including Coram and the Magpie Project. Our Reception team organised fundraising initiatives throughout November, raising more than £4,400 for Stand Up to Cancer.

The practice continued its long-standing support for The Bartlett School of Architecture, where the four founding directors first met, as well as Sheffield University School of Architecture and others around the UK with sponsorship of summer shows, bursaries, lecturing and tutoring the next generation of architects.

 

Completed projects

          Awards

Planning 

On site 

         FifthMan

    Practice and people

              Partnerships

 

 
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