Second life

Regeneration makes business and environmental sense

If there's one thing more satisfying than creating a new development from scratch, it is breathing new life into an existing building. It demands a certain kind of creativity and lateral thinking to keep the best of what exists and introduce improvements within tight parameters. But it also delivers clear commercial and environmental benefits. A redeveloped building can be delivered to market much faster than starting from square one; and by maximising use of existing materials, you reduce the overall environmental impact.

Dashwood| is a good example. If you had passed by a few years ago, you might easily have missed it. Despite its height and location next to Liverpool Street Station, it is set back from Old Broad Street behind another building and lacked street presence. Originally built in the 1960s, it also felt like it had seen better days. The regeneration project we had in mind would be one of our most ambitious yet.

Over the course of 2007 to 2008, we stripped the building to its core, retaining its existing foundations and floorplates, and then began an imaginative process of rebuilding around it. Four new floors were introduced on top of the existing 14-storey building, creating showpiece, column-free spaces and increasing the lettable area by 17.8%. The entire reconstruction process made maximum use of demolition materials and involved a series of innovations to improve energy efficiency. These included solar water heating panels on the roof, rainwater capture and recycling, and a high-performance coating on the external glass cladding to control heat and light levels.

The last remaining challenge was to entice people into the new property. We worked with our neighbours to landscape the approach to the building, and introduced a ground floor restaurant with outside space overlooking the gardens in St. Botolph's churchyard. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere of the place changed, creating an oasis of calm minutes from Liverpool Street Station. New lighting, paving and signage brightened up the entrance, while specially commissioned artworks set the tone in the main reception.

From an environmental point of view, Dashwood was quickly declared a success, achieving an 'Excellent' BREEAM rating. However, the project was equally notable from a commercial standpoint. Market conditions were far from encouraging when work was completed in October 2008. But we successfully attracted ten new occupiers, including Cadawalder, Wickersham & Taft LLP, who let 18,012 square feet of office space for a term of ten years.

For us, it's proof that even the toughest buildings in the most demanding economic times can be transformed by an injection of lateral thinking and imaginative planning. We continue to look for any opportunity to prove the point.

"It feels good to come into the office every day. Dashwood is close to many major transport links and we love the views and light given by the floor-to-ceiling windows." Catherine Rawlin, Partner, RGL Forensics, Dashwood