McLaren Construction has been appointed to build the £60m first phase of a Foster & Partners-designed development on the corner of New Bond Street and Grafton Street in London’s West End.
The 5,400 sq m retail and office development for O&H Properties includes lower ground, ground and first-floor retail space, five storeys of office and event space above, and a complex three-storey basement.
The design for the Mayfair Conservation Area includes a precast concrete and brick facade with curved triple-glazed bay windows and a zinc shingle roof.
McLaren’s top-down construction programme will cast the central section of the ground floor slab to enable the cores to be built at the same time as excavating down and casting the basement floor slabs and liner walls.
Extensive temporary works include 33m deep 1.2m diameter piles and 15m steel plunge columns to support the cores and ground floor slab, allowing the basement box and jump forming of cores to happen simultaneously.
Subcontractors on the project include McGee for the groundwork, civils and concrete for the basement box; BHC for the steel frame; Techrete for the precast facade; Seele for the glazing; and All Metal Roofing for the roof.
A ‘technical feat’
Due to the site’s tight corner location, McLaren worked with the City of Westminster to develop a logistics strategy and traffic management plan to minimise impact on the local road network.
A largescale temporary ramp will allow deliveries down to site level from Grafton Street and give access to the piling rig and crawler crane.
The Grade II-listed shopfront of Wartski jewellers at 14 Grafton Street has been dismantled and will be reassembled in Barlow Place during a later phase of the redevelopment.
The final mixed-use redevelopment of the site between New Bond Street, Grafton Street and Bruton Street will feature new homes, a hotel, office and retail space, bars and restaurants.
McLaren Construction’s managing director for London and South, Darren Gill, said: “There is a deep and complex basement to be constructed before this beautiful new building rises above Grafton Street.
“We know from considerable experience of working in the Oxford Street area that this technical feat will be pulled off in a tight site surrounded by a lot of activity. Occupiers and passers-by will see a smart new addition to the West End without ever realising how precisely planned and engineered it needs to be.”
