Stanhope

Innovative design was central to the success of Standard Chartered Bank's new global headquarters.

In the early stages of the project unforeseen ground conditions and obstructions led to the need to make up lost time.  The team made a bold decision relatively late in the design process to switch to core steel/concrete composite panels that had never been used in a commercial office development in London before. The decision led to a six-week time-saving.

By carrying out a fire engineering analysis we were able to gain approval to reduce the fire resistance of the building from 120 to 60 minutes and to omit fire protection from most of the secondary beams - a first in the City.

A four-month excavation of the site uncovered mediaeval building footprints and substantial Roman finds, including a unique Roman glass recycling facility that attracted worldwide interest. An unrecorded nuclear bomb shelter was also uncovered on the site.

The 12-storey building was restricted by the St Paul's Heights Code, so the net internal area has been maximised by locating most of the building's plant within two basement levels.

We developed the building to shell and core.