Client British Land and McAleer & Rushe
Location London, UK
Status Built
Completion 2013
Awards
2014 Surface Design Award
2014 New London Award Finalist
This mixed-use building for British Land and McAleer & Rushe provides 133,425 sq ft of high quality office and retail space on a prominent site on the corner of Portman Square. The typical level provides a column-free floor plate of over 18,330 sq ft which is unusual in the context of the West End.
The original building on the site was known as 2-14 Baker Street. Historical research by Jestico + Whiles identified that the corner building in the Georgian streets originally held the number 10. By designing the entrance of the new offices to address the square, the number was recovered and the entire building now bears the 10 Portman Square address, adding considerable value to the office floors.
The entrance is recessed to create a covered external lobby area which, given its prominent location on the corner of the square, is an appropriate location for public art. Glass artist Kate Maestri was commissioned to create an artwork for the lobby which curves from the outside to the inside in a sweep of blue, incorporating fine strips of mirror reflecting the dichroic glass on the exterior of the building.
Each elevation of the new building is designed appropriately to the local street context. The perceived scale of the building is broken down into smaller constituent elements, each of them individually enriched with high quality materials including stone, bronzed metal and dichroic glass.
The ground floor also provides 10,763 sq ft of high quality retail frontage.
10 Portman Square was designed to be as sustainable as possible. The building achieved a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating and uses ground-sourced heat pumps and solar panels to reduce its carbon footprint.
The new building at 10 Portman Square created a significant uplift in accommodation. Under Westminster City Council’s mixed use planning requirements, where for every square metre of added commercial accommodation, a reciprocal square metre of residential accommodation had to be provided. For 10 Portman Square this uplift was created from another British Land office building at 99 Baker Street, also designed by Jestico + Whiles.
'The building looks fantastic and is a great credit to the Jestico + Whiles team. We have enjoyed working with you and your colleagues and are most appreciative of all your efforts, thank you.'
Nigel Webb, Head of Development, British Land.
