Eric Parry Architects has won planning consent for a landmark new office scheme in St James’ Square, London. The proposal consists of the complete redevelopment of 8 St James’ Square and the adjacent 7 Apple Tree Yard to provide a new 5 storey office building, and the refurbishment of the Grade II listed 7 St James’ Square.
The site lies within the St James’s Conservation Area and the new building will sit between two listed buildings, as well as abutting the historic former Wheelers Restaurant in Apple Tree Yard. This called for a sensitive approach and Eric Parry Architects’ design of the new building takes references from several characteristic features of the historic surrounding buildings.
The design pays particular attention to the vertical hierarchy of the façade. The new building will be one storey lower than the existing allowing increased floor heights at the lower level, as well as a generous ground floor and a taller piano nobile. Floor levels above are consistent, but the window arrangement is modulated between floors and first floor openings are more generous with larger windows to emphasise what is the principal level of the building, in the style of a typical Georgian elevation.
The building will be constructed from structural brickwork, dark in tone to complement nearby Georgian elevations and to contrast with the Lutyens façade of no. 7. Windows to the façade fronting onto St James’s Square are detailed with gauged brick arches with simpler treatment to the Duke of York Street elevation. Connections between the new building and the listed existing building will be reinstated at a number of levels.
The existing building - No 7 St James’s Square - will be completely refurbished and altered, with three residential units being created on the fourth floor of the building. Within the reconfigured courtyard to the rear of 7 St James’s Square, a glazed elevation with vertical shading in the form of closely spaced metal fins is proposed for the north and west faces. These support horizontal mesh walkways that allow access to the stepped elevation. At ground floor level a larger opening is formed to allow views into the courtyard from the end of the reception passage, and first floor. A new landscape scheme will enhance the courtyard and the rear of 7 St James’s Square, with planting at the base of the courtyard, on the side areas of the terrace to the rear of No 7, and on vertical trellises.
Project Director Nick Jackson commented: “We are very pleased that planning has been granted. The context of the new building has demanded a well-considered approach and our design lowers the height and reduces the scale, providing an appropriate setting for the listed 7 St James’s Square.”
For information on Eric Parry Architects, please contact:
Robert Torday / Gemma Wood
Telephone: 020 7247 8334
Mobile: 07747 596 959 / 07751 187 175
Email: Robert.torday@ing-media.com / gemma@ing-media.com
Notes to Editors:
Eric Parry Architects is an established and award-winning practice with a growing portfolio of notable work.
Current projects include Aldermanbury Square in the City of London and the most significant renewal project currently being undertaken in London, the restoration and redevelopment of the historic St Martinin-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square. The practice has recently been appointed to design a new recital hall for Wells Cathedral School, Somerset – the UK’s leading specialist music school.
The practice undertakes a broad range of work, varied in scope and scale. It has won numerous awards, including an RIBA Award for Bedford Music School in 2007, an RIBA Award and an AIA Design Excellence Award in 2003 for the design of the office building at 30 Finsbury Square, London, which was also shortlisted for the prestigious Stirling Prize in the same year. The Spa at the Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park was awarded Best Leisure Design at the FX International Interior Design Awards in 2001 and Foundress Court at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, won an RIBA Award in 1998.
The practice is based in Finsbury, London, and employs over 50 staff. EPA also has an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the practice has designed a number of residential schemes.
Eric Parry has a key involvement in all projects, particularly in their design development stages. He is keenly interested in the bridges between theory, practice, space and society.