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THE OLD WAR OFFICE
The Old War Office is an iconic 580,000sq. ft. Grade II Listed building of national heritage importance on Whitehall, in the heart of London
The Old War Office is an iconic 580,000sq. ft. Grade II Listed building of national heritage importance on Whitehall, in the heart of London. The project involved sensitively repurposing the disused former listed Government building to create a 125 room hotel and 85 studio-to-five-bedroom apartments.
The Old War Office building was designed by William Young and completed during 1906. The large neo-Baroque building is located on Horse Guards Avenue at its junction with Whitehall in central London. The original building construction required five years to complete, at the cost of more than £1.2 million, at the time. The building is somewhat oddly shaped, forming a trapezoid shape in order to maximise the usage of the irregularly shaped plot of land on which it was built: its four distinctive domes were designed as a decorative means of disguising the building’s shape. It held around 1,100 rooms over seven floors.
Client: WDS
Value: £85M
Completion Date: 2020
Following the Government’s War Office Department relocating in 2007 the building had remained unoccupied, and due to its former use, it was designated as a protected site which didn’t allow public access. Therefore, without investment the Old War Office building would have remained unoccupied. This would have both significant costs associated with an empty building, whilst also being detrimental to its upkeep. By transforming the building, it will keep the listed building intact, give it a new lease of life, and allow public access.
On undertaking a project of this scale, both in size and complexity, it was important to understand the building as much as possible. This allowed us to re-use as much of the building as we could, both aesthetically and structurally. With early-stage planning and investigations of old records and drawings Toureen and the wider design team set out the best way to alter the grand building whilst giving great emphasis on environmental matters and disruption to the neighbours and Government buildings located in the area.
Toureen was the main contractor for the demolition and ambitious refurbishment. The huge scope of works on this extremely challenging project included integrating three new stories on top and ambitious proposals to add four new basement levels beneath the existing listed structure.
Due to the historical nature of the building, we worked closely with Historic England to ensure materials and artifacts were kept, catalogued and handled with the utmost care, and in most cases returned to their original position within the building once the intervention of the area they were in was completed.
The final project also boasts a grand new ballroom and multiple leisure spaces, whilst maintaining its status as one of London’s landmark buildings.
Project Achievements
The overall achievement of the project was to bring back to life a building of significant heritage and history. Without funding or desire the building’s future would have been uncertain, but with significant investment the Old War Office has been sensitively transformed into a hotel, whilst keeping its grand and historic stature. As the building is both listed, and holds many historical artifacts and memories, we are also immensely proud of our achievements in the work we did with Historic England, saving, cataloguing, storing (in specialist storage), artifacts, and fixtures.
The figures and statistics of the work that took place during the project are on a massive scale, and we are proud that this was also reflected on the amount we saved.
– 65,000m3 of spoil reused offsite
– 50,000m3 of the demolition arisings, 98% diverted from landfill
– Extensive work to salvage and reclaim items within the building as well as protect the structure itself for reuse
– Weighbridge optimising waste loads saving 90 lorry movements and associated carbon and traffic impacts to surrounding community
– Delivering on local employment and procurement
Waste reduction & recycling
The figures and statistics of the work that took place during the project are on a massive scale, and we are proud that this was also reflected on the amount we saved. From the 65,000m3 of spoil that was removed from beneath the building all of it was reused offsite and over 98% of the 50,000m demolition arisings were recovered and recycled offsite. There was extensive work to salvage and reclaim items within the building as well as protect the structure itself for reuse.
The size constraints of the site made moving waste around a real challenge, the project team trialled and invested in a number of electric wheelbarrows for a zero noise and emissions alternative to transport the waste, as well has having the additional benefit of reducing manual handling and HAVs risk to our operatives.
When the excavation works below the building had reached peak, the project team installed a temporary weighbridge – which was a challenge in a size constrained central London site. This ensured that each load was optimised – lorries are usually underfilled in order to ensure that they are safe and compliant for authorities on the road. This introduced a level of efficiency that contributed positively to the sustainability of the project – reducing congestion in an already heavily congested area of central London in Westminster and also estimating to have saved over 90 waste lorry movements and 900kg CO2e.
In addition all waste and delivery lorries servicing sites were mandated to be FORS Gold compliant (matching the same standard as HS2 major infrastructure scheme) which is the highest standard for safety and environmental of on-road vehicles.
Reducing carbon and materials usage
A big success was Toureen’s ambitious proposal to dig down another two levels rather than add even more floors on top, this allowed us to devise a plan to use the existing foundations that were in place; coupled with our revised design with reduced temporary propping and Pynford Beams – saved huge amounts of materials and associated carbon in comparison to the tender proposal.
Constructing the new RC beams using the Pynford method, allowed us to form the beams in their final position, removing the requirement for large structural steel temporary propping frames. The new reinforced concrete foundations were also formed and cast in a piecemeal sequence, significantly reducing the requirement for temporary works.
For lifecycle stages A1-A5 the embodied carbon savings for Toureen’s revised scheme were 1,114 tonnes (tCO2e), realising a 78% carbon reduction and a similar 76% decrease across lifecycle stages A-C.
Working with Historic England
We are also proud of our achievements in the work we did with Historic England, saving, cataloguing, storing (in specialist storage), artifacts, and fixtures, and ensuring that the historically sensitive aspects of the works were professionally managed.
In order to undertake certain aspects of this requirement, Toureen appointed and managed a heritage contractor to undertake the works which involved the surveying and removal of components of the building fabric for subsequent storage. This work was carried out in conjunction with Historic England and the client’s own heritage architect.
Major structural interventions at roof level also had to be undertaken whilst ensuring that rainwater and moisture ingress into the building base managed and minimised to ensure that historically important elements of the existing building fabric were not damaged.
Similarly, major structural interventions were undertaken beneath a magnificent marble and alabaster staircase – which meant that the temporary works and sequencing had to be calculated precisely to ensure that movement was absolutely minimised to ensure no damage was caused.
We also undertook a large amount of salvaging, transporting and storing of architectural antiques, e.g. floorboards; hundreds of oak doors and panelling; wrought ironwork; Portland stone porticos, chimney stones and balusters, marble fireplaces etc.
The local community & employment
With over 1.2m hours worked by teams on the Old War Office, the project was a great catalyst for employment, training, and inter-team working. We employed numerous new team members, from every walk of life, in every division to help with the project – two local trainees and a number of internship placements throughout the project. As well as undergraduate visits from Imperial College, Bath University and LSBU. The new skills people gained, along with the experience was invaluable. The project gave opportunities to so many young people and due to the length of the project, gave them a real start and steppingstone to a career with us.
Due to the location of the project, amongst residential buildings and Governmental offices, it was vital disruption was kept to a minimum.
Travel and logistical planning was both on a large scale and in extreme detail. This was to minimise the number of trucks coming to and from site, and to minimise noise and disruption to the local area and on the roads.
Stats
- 4 New basement levels added
- 3 New upper levels added
- 35 m high
- 25 m deep
- 36,000 m2 Floor area added
- 65,000 m3 Spoil removed – where did it go?
- 36,000 Tonnes Reinforcement used
- 627 piles 450mm – 1.8m diameter
- 50,000 m3 Demolition arisings
- 1.2m man hours worked
- 1114 tonnes CO2e saved in temporary works
- Optimising and removing 90 HGV movements