Skanska is to build the St Giles Circus development in the West End of London for developer Consolidated Developments. The contract is worth £142m.
The scheme combines retail, leisure and entertainment spaces, commercial offices and residential accommodation across four new and a number of existing buildings.
The largest of the new buildings incorporates an innovative, retractable facade on its middle floors, revealing an urban gallery that will be open to the public at street level. The building’s foundations straddle the Crossrail tunnel, above which the team will construct an underground “box within a box” to contain an auditorium.
Another of the new buildings incorporates a Victorian retained facade.
In a later phase, the team will refurbish the buildings along the north side of Denmark Street, an area with a rich history in music known as London’s “Tin Pan Alley”. The street was once home to NME and Melody Maker, as well as recording studios that saw The Kinks, the Rolling Stones and Elton John pass through their doors.
The refurbishment covers a number of Grade II listed buildings on Denmark Street, Denmark Place and St Giles High Street, some dating back to before the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The new buildings will be built to meet BREEAM very good standard. The domestic refurbishments are designed to meet BREEAM excellent.
“We were able to offer a programme with innovative scheduling, so that the above-ground and underground elements can be built simultaneously,” said Skanska managing director Steve Holbrook.
Construction work starts in July 2017 and is expected to be completed in Q1 2020
