Emrys Architects has sensitively upgraded a 1980s Covent Garden building by Richard Seifert

Buildings.

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Alan Williams

Emrys Architects has completed the renovation, refurbishment and extension of 15 Stukeley Street in London’s Covent Garden, a prominent office building designed in the 1980s by Richard Seifert. While widely vilified when built for its associations with speculative developers, Seifert’s work – which includes the nearby Kemble Street and Centre Point towers – has found contemporary admirers, with several buildings now listed. The most prominent addition to Stukeley Street is a glazed box roof extension that replaces a dilapidated mansard added in the 1990s. The previously unoccupied building, located between the Seven Dials and Bloomsbury Conservation Areas, now provides 12,650 square feet of grade-A office space for GMS Estates.

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Seifert’s original design has been respected – if not celebrated – throughout. The original curved brown brick facade to the upper levels has been retained, restored and painted black, while geometric patterns reflecting design motifs employed by Seifert feature on a new ground-level shopfront facade. Large expanses of glass curtain walling frame a new double-height entrance reception, accessed from a narrow side street, to provide a secure and inviting entrance.

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The monochromatic palette continues inside the building, with all internal finishes in black and white. Seifert’s signature pattern-making has influenced the design of fixtures, fittings and wayfinding throughout, from the reception desk, flooring and signage, to the enclosure of the metal spiral escape staircase and balustrading on the new roof terrace. Partition walls, previously added to define office spaces on each floor, have been removed to reinstate the building’s original inherent flexibility, while new horizontal picture windows afford views along Stukeley Street.

The roofscape has been transformed in appearance and functionality. With a floor-to-ceiling curved glass facade, the new extension follows the profile of the building with an exaggerated canopy intended to complement the original building. A pattered ivy screen has been replaced with an aluminium balustrade, perforated with a geometric pattern, defining a breakout space which opens onto a newly refurbished terrace.

“Presented with an opportunity to breathe life back into an original Seifert building in the heart of the city, we worked with GMS Estates to sensitively update the building fabric”, says Glyn Emrys of Emrys Architects. “While drawing inspiration from Seifert’s classic Centre Point geometry, we have created a new and beautifully unique working environment designed to champion the health and wellbeing of its occupants.”

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