Great Portland Estates
East Marylebone Conservation Area
BREEAM Very Good

Through the considered placing of contemporary services and the stripping away of arbitrary walls and linings, this early 20th-century furniture factory has been transformed into light-filled offices. The extension and simplification of circulation and services routes makes the interiors highly adaptable and simple to navigate. The insertion of new oak and glass screens and the cutting of lightwells between ground and basement levels has formed an elegantly understated entrance that enhances the presence of the building within the East Marylebone Conservation Area.

Burwell Architect's have completed the fitting out of new offices for documentary film making company Lonelyleap.

Located at the ground floor of a new build residential block, adjacent to the practice's own studio, the team worked closely with the client to deliver a bespoke fit-out for less than £650 per sq.m.

An open plan workspace, with bespoke steel and plywood desks, is supported by meeting rooms, editing suites and a central kitchen that forms the social heart of the company.

A restrained industrial aesthetic, with sections of raw concrete left exposed, allowed the client the freedom to personalise the space with their own eclectic collection of loose furniture. 

Great Portland Estates

The introduction of a contemporary pavilion within the industrial setting of Elsley House’s courtyard simplified the reorganisation of internal circulation and servicing of this fine 1930’s ‘rag trade’ building. The creation of dual entrances allowed greater accessibility and more flexibility in the unit sizes. The interior was also stripped back to its essential form to create light-filled, adaptable, workspace.

The building provides two new floors of office accommodation for Hollybook Homes new head offices and 6 apartments within a early 20^th century warehouse, a rooftop extension created a penthouse unit with exceptional views of The Shard and Tower Bridge and a side extension provides office entrance and reception spaces along with a further two residential units above.

A new basement formed beneath both the new and existing structures provides disabled car parking and further ancillary floor area for the offices above. State of the art accessible moving stair was used at the main entrance to the building to overcome accessibility issues. 

Hollybrook

1 Cam Road is one of the commercial elements in the Stratford South Central mixed development - a pioneering suite of buildings that has helped to bring life and employment to a run-down industrial site in east London. This building provides four floors of open plan office accommodation above a reception area and car parking. The façades allow simple and efficient sub-division of the floor plates yet offer good natural light and clear circulation. The exterior mixes clear glazed and obscure timber panels, offset visually by white render on the masonry.

Appointed by Overbury to implement project from RIBA Stage D2 onwards

Refurbishment of three floors within the Heron Tower in the the City of London

Interior Design by Magnus + Associates

London

Through a careful review of the compartmentalisation of the space and a remodelling of the circulation cores and entrance area, this complete office refurbishment achieved a 9% gain in the net lettable floor area of the building. The work also improved the specification of the accommodation by incorporating raised floors and air conditioning into the existing structure. This was a joint venture undertaken by MCM Architecture with Nicholas Burwell acting as consultant.

The refurbishment of the second floor of Kent House in Bloomsbury offered an opportunity for Great Portland Estates PLC to create a new marketing suite. 

Bespoke furniture implies a series of rooms that are dedicated to project areas with curtains and sliding partitions creating varying degrees of privacy for small meetings or larger events, presentations and lectures. Creating an elegant exhibition space for Great Portland Estates extensive and impressive scale models. 

Burwell Architects have completed a sympathetic revitalisation of a prominent former Art Deco office building at the heart of London’s West End for Great Portland Estates plc. Having completed a light touch refurbishment on the building over ten years ago, the practice has been invited back with scope to undertake a more comprehensive refurbishment, this time to future proof the building with a focus on improving user experience and wellbeing.

Great care has been taken to ensure that interventions complement and enhance the original Art Deco building. Past alterations to the interior have been stripped back, with original features such as bespoke moulded architraves, brick walls, and riveted iron columns re-exposed and restored along the way.  

Two reception areas have been remodelled and updated using a carefully curated material palate; patterned terrazzo floors, mirrored surfaces and brass detailing adds a touch of 1930s glamour to define public space. The main entrance on the ground floor is formal and symmetrical, featuring a sculptural terrazzo reception desk between two elegant, steel panelled porticos which frame visible office space beyond. 

Within the courtyard pavilion lobby area to the rear of the building, partition walls have been removed to accommodate a relaxed seating area, suited for meeting, greeting and congregating. Providing a quirky reminder of the building’s past; heavy industrial roller doors which were once concealed within the walls, now provide a striking focal point within the space. 

Accessed from the courtyard, an industrial lift opens onto a large bike store located on the lower ground floor. Replacing a redundant oil tanker on this level, an extensive suite of showers, changing rooms and lockers facilitate a healthy and sustainable commute to and from work. 

On the lower ground floor, additional space has been reclaimed from existing vaults located beneath the pavement to accommodate new WCs. Occupants of this floor also have access to a revitalised sunken courtyard where a series of colourful aluminium fins conceal an existing car park and fixed planters provide a leafy backdrop to the new integrated seating. 

Throughout the building, office spaces have been transformed through a series of simple steps; false ceilings have been removed to increase floor to ceiling heights, and existing roof lights have been refurbished to bring in soft, natural light. To accommodate potential growth, a secondary service core has been created to connect several floors, allowing tenants to expand their offices, yet remain self-contained. 

On the roof, free space has been repurposed to provide additional, high quality breakout amenity for the buildings’ occupants. A fifth-floor office now benefits from private access to a new and beautifully landscaped roof terrace, complete with stepped seating and lush planting. A second, more generous roof terrace has been created on the sixth floor, providing tenants with an opportunity to meet other occupiers while taking in a piece of the central London roofscape. 

Where possible, the building fabric and services have been upgraded to improve thermal efficiency and occupant comfort. With existing tenants in situ, not all office spaces were included as part of the refurbishment plans. A key challenge was therefore to sensitively upgrade the original fine metal windows with minimal visual impact upon the facades. As a result, original frames have been restored and fitted with individual micro double-glazed units. 

Completed in July 2019, Burwell Architects have successfully brought back charm and life to this stunning Art Deco building, while providing high quality office and communal space for its occupants. With every office pre-let upon completion of the first phase, subsequent phases were delivered in such a way to enable new tenants to move in as soon as individual office refurbishments were finished.  

"Together with our team of advisors, we have delivered another quality refurbishment that we are very proud of. The work has enhanced the building's historic features, whilst delivering first class office and amenity space designed to meet the needs of our occupants"

Rob Russell-Smith, Portfolio Manager, Great Portlands Estates plc

“Elsley is looking fantastic after all your efforts…..thank you, I love your designs. From the way the new entrance sequence works (feeling much less cluttered) to the cleaner materials used in the entrance on Great Titchfield St and the various terraces and open spaces, the whole building feels really special.”

 Toby Courtald, Chief Executive, Great Portland Estates plc