PROJECTS

Planning and Listed Building Consent were granted by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for 26,000 sq./ft. of New Offices and a reconfigured 31,000 sq./ft. Retail Unit over 3 levels within this Grade II* Listed Building. The Basement, Ground & First Floor Unit of 31 000 sq./ft. was handed over to Japan House.

Planning and Listed Building Consent has been granted by the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames for up to 62,000 square feet of new Offices and up to 39,000 square feet of prime Retail space. This follows extensive consultation with local stakeholders for the proposed extension, reconfiguration and refurbishment of the 1969 Dickins & Jones Department Store (currently House of Fraser) within Central Richmond’s Conservation Areas. Retail activity is reinvigorated over 2 levels, along George Street and with return frontage to King Street and Golden Court. Specialist Retail is also reintroduced to 6-8 Paved Court. The main, double height, Office Entrance is located on Golden Court with a Staff Entrance at 4 Paved Court leading to a new “Atrium” amenity space. The contemporary, distinctive, “Cat A” , BREEAM “Excellent”, Office space includes external terraces and extensive cycling facilities.

A strategic approach for both landlord and end user created an additional 5,000 sq./ft. of floor space, allowing valuable existing tenants to be retained and provided an attractive environment to new office tenants. With a clear glass roof to the ground floor reception and new courtyard space, glass floor lights between floors, this £975,000 project took just six months to complete. Within Audrey House, we also reconfigured and expanded Gibson’s the shipbrokers and traders offices. We programmed this £750,000 refurbishment around Gibson’s so they were able to trade throughout the works.

Appointed lead consultants, Colman Architects completed the design and construction of the new police station in Great Dunmow, Essex after winning a European competition for the project. The brief was to create a 27,000 sq./ft. contemporary structure with a budget of £5-6m that encompasses the responsibilities of the police today – a structure that is as appropriate to law enforcement as it is to the welfare of the public they serve. With this challenge, Colman Architects designed a contemporary structure that combines the use of zinc and cedar. This combination represents the intricate nature of modern police work. The structure is strong and bold. It is predominantly steel in order to provide a flexible workspace that can be easily adapted according to the changing demands of 21st century policing.

Our Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent applications were approved by Westminster City Council for the reconfiguration, refurbishment, environmental upgrade, and provision of new external amenity spaces within this Grade II Listed Building to provide high quality workspace and residential accommodation in May 2024. Fado commenced construction in August 2024 and are programmed to complete the works in March 2025.

We have repurposed the former DAKS Simpson Headquarters to provide a Retail Unit over Basement, Ground and First Floors, with Offices above at Second, Third & Fourth Floor levels.

Planning approval has been granted by Trafford Council for the conversion of a vacant office building to create 60 new apartments at Clarendon House, Stamford New Road, Altrincham. Careful consideration was given to the design ensuring that the extended building and redesigned elevations responded to its surrounds, taking into consideration the Listed Buildings and Conservation Area in close proximity. Colman Architects’ design maximises the existing floor plate to meet demand for 1 and 2 bedroom flats at this important town centre transport hub. The design extends the main volume and adds two new floors to the top of the existing building. These will be predominantly glazed for maximum visual impact.

We obtained Planning Permission from the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead for this landmark 35,000 sq./ft. Category A Office building and Café on a very sensitive corner site on Maidenhead High Street.

Colman Architects developed an interior design to bring to life a partially completed office ‘slot’ atrium and reception space. The brief was to create a high impact and playful image for the difficult shaped spaces. The work was completed with existing tenants in occupation and the offices re-launched as ‘The Department’. All office bathrooms were also given a simple ‘lift’ with additional showers, basins, mirrors, lighting and colour added.

Our long term transformation strategy for Sirosa’s prominent historic building developed from our successful acquisition of Planning Permissions in 2013 and 2015. for its comprehensive reconfiguration, extension and refurbishment. Following Arcadia’s implementation of the refurbishment of their Colegrave House Offices, we completed the 3 floor reconfiguration of the former Plaza/Bourne & Hollingsworth to create a flagship store of 73,000 sq./ft for Next to Oxford Street (which opened in September 2018), expanded 2nd Floor for The Gym and 6,000 sq./ft of Offices, 9,000 sq./ft Restaurant for Arros QD on Eastcastle Street (which opened in June 2019) and 15,000 sq./ft retail unit to Berners Street.

This £12.5m project at 11 St James' Square, London, was executed to a very high quality with fast track reconfiguration of the 81,000 sq./ft. office Category A fit out whilst retaining the integrity of the two listed buildings. The transformation took just 12 months to complete. The style of this refurbishment is essentially clean and contemporary with bold use of glass, stone, ceramic, veneer and stainless steel. These sophisticated office spaces in a prime West End location attracted prominent high quality tenants. The refurbishment attracted much media attention and the offices were successfully leased out as the highest value office spaces in the world.

Colman Architects was appointed by Elmbridge Borough Council to restore a locally-listed, Victorian brick building, originally a school house and more recently home to the Walton Library. The newly created ‘Community Hub’ brought life back to the building which had been held in high regard by its local residents. It became home to the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), together with other community-serving organisations. A new glazed porch was designed to give emphasis to the main, public entrance. Landscaping of the external areas included an internal courtyard for use by staff and a small public square at the front of the building, accessed directly from the High Street. The original single-storey building was converted to create a mezzanine floor providing additional accommodation for twenty desk spaces; including a manager’s office and private office for use by the CAB – a valuable and cost effective addition to the original footprint. The ground floor level accommodation is used by the Police and Counselling Partnership. The repairs and restoration of this locally-listed building ensure the longer term sustainability as well as positively contributing to the streetscape along the High Street. Colman Architects was nominated for two categories of the LABC South East Awards for our work on the Elmbridge Community Hub and won an award in the Best Change of Use of an Existing Building or Conversion category. “The refurbishment of this old Victorian building has proved to be a real success” — Mike Bennison , Elmbridge Mayor

This prominent corner building in a City of London Conservation Area was transformed through the creation of 38% additional floor space and complete refurbishment, resulting in a dynamic workspace. Behind the elegant, traditional façade of Queen’s House lies a new, very contemporary office space. An exciting palette of quality materials was specified for the interior, including beech panelled access flooring and walls of cast glass and polished plaster. This was in stark contrast to the mundane ‘grid ceiling and carpet floors’ language of typical office space in the city. In fact, it has more in common with Soho!

Augur Liverpool purchased the iconic Lewis’s Department Store and 4 related plots in the old Liverpool Central Station site in 2016. Colman Architects has since developed the ‘Circus’ masterplan strategy which enables the re-birth of the Lewis’s store, giving it new life by making it an integral and exciting part of the wider major development opportunity. By combining Lewis’s, the old station site and a direct access into Central Station into a hub of Leisure and Retail around a new public space, ‘Circus’ will be a new and dynamic destination within Liverpool. It will extend and create links between the main retail of Liverpool and the developing Knowledge Quarter, and create a focal point for the regeneration of the area in a significant place-making opportunity. The current scheme design provides more than 275,000 sq./ft. of retail and leisure space over 5 floors. This is in addition to the existing 126 room Adagio Aparthotel and over 70,000 sq./ft. of grade A refurbished office space over 4 floors and a 25,000 sq./ft. Pure Gym on the lower ground floor. Proceeding in advance of the major project, works have been completed to safeguard and regenerate the Grade II listed Lewis’s building itself. Elevational refurbishment and a new external lighting scheme have been completed and heritage works to original internal features are being developed. Proposals for improvements to the existing upper-floor Adagio aparthotel have been developed with new reception, lounge and dining areas being created at ground floor and meeting rooms and break-out spaces at 5th. Also, a striking new interior design for the existing office entrance and atrium has been delivered for ‘The Department’, Liverpool, regenerating office interest in the building.

This high quality building was reconfigured at ground floor level to provide a new prestigious reception area and an 1100 sq./ft. retail unit adjacent to Oxford Street.