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Make's plans for the 48 Chiswell Street site
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show captionPlans by Make to partially demolish and refurbish a postmodern 1980s office building next to the Barbican are set to be given the green light next week.
The 48 Chiswell Street scheme for Berkeley Estate Asset Management has been recommended for approval by Islington council’s planning officers ahead of a committee meeting on 14 November.
It proposes a comprehensive overhaul of the corner site’s seven-storey building, located on the edge of the City of London between the Barbican and a row of grade II-listed Georgian townhouses.
Make said the existing building, designed by Newman Levinson and Partners and built in 1987, currently faced a number of issues including an awkward layout, a lack of natural light and outdated internal office spaces.
The practice also criticised the site’s most prominent feature, a pentagonal entrance tower, as “disjointed and incoherent” against its backdrop and clad with “crude over scale detailing”.
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The existing building's pentagonal entrance tower would be demolished under the plans
Aerial view of the existing 1987 building
Existing site, showing the pentagonal entrance tower next to a row of listed Georgian houses.
The existing building's atrium
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show captionThe feature would be demolished under the plans and replaced with a new block clad in green ceramic tiles, while the rest of the building would be reclad, refurbished and extended upwards by two storeys with a series of landscaped terraces added on upper levels.
Islington’s planning officers said the firm’s plans were considered to be a “high quality proposal” which would significantly improve on the existing building.
The project team includes cost consultant Turner & Townsend Alinea, project manager Blackburn, structural engineer Elliott Wood, planning consultant Gerald Eve and landscape architect Townshends.
Other retrofit schemes under development in the area include AHMM’s 45 Beech Street, a Barbican-inspired refurbishment of a 1950s office building which was approved by the City in September.