Building Investment (Jan - Feb 2017)

Design Feature
One New Ludgate wins LEAF Awards
for Developer Project of the Year
Fletcher Priest Architects’ work in creating a new and lively area on an old
London site wows judges. Photo credit: Timothy Soar
THE NEW Ludgate project involved
the transformation of a city block into a
spacious and lively new quarter for London.
It sets up a dialogue between two striking
and complementary new buildings while
reinstating and improving the public realm
around it and creating new routes through
the city block.
View from the top overlooking the piazza.
54 Building & Investment | www.b-i.biz
One New Ludgate from street level.
It is, in essence, a new addition to the
city on a site rich with history. The site was
the backdrop for many characters, both real
and fictional, ranging from Pocahontas to
London’s first live rhinoceros.
Later came railway engineers who put an
iron viaduct across Ludgate Hill, and World
War II, which left the site in ruins.
The site on the old city wall of Ludgate Hill
was formerly home to some outdated 1980s
office buildings with a dull sunken arcade at
its lower levels.
Fletcher Priest was asked to masterplan
the site while creating two headquartersized
office buildings—One New Ludgate
and Two New Bailey, the latter designed in
collaboration with Sauerbruch Hutton.
By creating a new passageway between
the two, a route named Belle Sauvage after the
15th century coaching inn that once operated
nearby, the area on the east-side could also
form a new open space that catches the noon
sun for office workers and the public alike.
The square here, with a nod to precedents
in Rome, is defined by facades and plays off
an existing terracotta Victorian elevation
opposite. This space has been designed with
as little of a corporate feel as possible.
Piazza in front of Two New Bailey.
Buildings One and Two at New Ludgate.
The 165,000 sq ft One New Ludgate
building itself comprises nine storeys with
ground floors. It is animated by bars and retail
outlets under fixed white glass awnings. The
building uses a facade concept of a masonry
grid that keeps off direct sunlight and
throws light onto the flooring. “We wanted
something quite cool and modern, whereas
the other building may be more playful,” says
Steve Barton, one of the partners at Fletcher
Priest Architects.
One New Ludgate was developed for
client Land Securities and was awarded
Developer Project of the Year at the recent
LEAF awards. •
More information at www.fletcherpriest.com