A new City of London office tower, 52 Lime Street, has been awarded the first-ever BREEAM UK New Construction 2014 certificate for building design. It has been awarded a BREEAM Excellent rating.
Image of buildingDesigned by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), and engineered by Arup for WRBC Development, the Lime Street tower will be approximately 190m tall, with 35 floors of offices above ground and mezzanine levels, with an additional two basement and two roof plant levels.
The tower will provide approximately 400,000 sq ft of office accommodation over 35 office floors. Floor plates will range in size from 6,500 sq ft to 16,000 sq ft and are arranged around a side core located to the south of the building, which maximises available floor area, limits solar gain and offers views of London to the north, east, west and south west.
Public space created by the development will include a ‘square’ of approximately 11,000 sq ft which will complement the existing precinct between the Willis Building and Lloyd’s of London.
The tower, which is due for completion in 2017, will be the new European headquarters for global insurance company, W. R. Berkley Corporation, who will occupy one fifth of the building, bringing all of its London employees together. The remaining office space will be available for lease.
Andrew Reynolds, managing director, WRBC Development Ltd, comments: “We are delighted that 52 Lime Street has received the first BREEAM UK 2014 New Construction certificate, which demonstrates our commitment to creating one of the finest buildings in London. Our team is determined to deliver a high performance building that is not only architecturally superb but creates a pleasant and productive environment for those who will be working there.”
Gavin Dunn, Director of BREEAM, said: “The BREEAM UK New Construction 2014 scheme represents the latest and highest standard of sustainability. This achievement demonstrates a genuine commitment by the project team to deliver a high-quality development that will benefit the building owners and occupiers into the future.”
Mel Allwood, who leads Arup’s BREEAM consultancy services in London, said: “Arup is very pleased to have received the first BREEAM UK 2014 New Construction certificate for 52 Lime Street on behalf of our client WRBC Development. WRBC Development was clear from the outset about the importance of creating an indoor environment of the highest quality to support the wellbeing of the building’s users. KPF and Arup’s design demonstrates that energy efficiency can be combined with exemplary indoor environmental quality. The BREEAM Excellent rating reflects the hard work of the entire design team.”
High design-stage scores were achieved for BREEAM’s transport, land use and ecology, water, waste and management categories.