Harbour Exchange, South Quay

This scheme in London’s docklands created a new identity for a tired 90,000ft office building which was best known for having been damaged by a bomb in the 1980s. The building had high quality floor plates with excellent views across Docklands, Canary Wharf and London, but had very poor kerb appeal, with a small, hidden and unwelcoming entrance which was out of keeping with the scale and overall quality of the building.

Our focus was to create a whole new approach and entrance to the building - to increase the building’s presence and strengthen its identity, whilst providing improved accessibility. We replaced the old access lift, extended the entrance hall, and added a large canopy to create a generous entrance court which can be seen from distance.

Internally we continued with this approach, simplifying access between the cores and the office floors, and creating more open and generous reception spaces at each lift lobby, These changes were aimed at making the building more attractive to smaller, single floor tenants, and therefore helping allow for a more flexible letting strategy. This strategy increased the headline rents and saw 70,000ft of space let within 9 months of completion

The building was subsequently sold to Chinese investors for £37m.