100 Liverpool Street

This significant existing building adjacent to Liverpool Street Station and the future Crossrail Station has been extensively rebuilt and extended in a major development for British Land. The redevelopment has been led by Hopkins Architects, in collaboration with Universal Design Studios on interiors, and creates a new, contemporary identity for the building, befitting its size and location, connecting to the Broadgate estate and one of the public entrances to Liverpool Street Station.

Hopkins won a design competition in 2012 with proposals which replaced the existing 1980s cladding with a new sinuous façade and reinvigorated the public realm around and within the building with increased retail space at the lower levels. A significant amount of the existing structure was retained in order to minimise disruption to the existing bus station and Network Rail accommodation at the lower levels. Over subsequent years the design was developed in close collaboration with British Land to take strategic advantage of its location by further increasing retail accommodation and adding a rooftop restaurant and a large external terrace on the 9th floor with fantastic views across the city to St Paul’s Cathedral.

The existing 1980 building originally designed by Arup Associates in response to the banking industry ‘Big Bang’, featured deep floor plans suitable for dealer floors. In order to create a modern and flexible office space Hopkins stripped the building back to its structural frame, relocated cores to the perimeter of the building to create more open and flexible office layouts and created a new central atrium.

An additional three floors of office accommodation were created whilst retaining the existing foundations and a large proportion of the existing steelwork, thereby significantly reducing the embodied carbon in the new building and allowing the Network Rail retail areas below to continue trading throughout construction. The development creates a total of 520,000 sq ft of lettable office space.

At ground floor level new escalators and pedestrian walkways inserted into Octagon Mall improve permeability through the scheme and provide opportunity for new retail accommodation as well as creating a dramatic entrance to Broadgate for passengers emerging from Liverpool Street station.

A double height colonnaded walkway surrounds the building and helps to visually separate the retail from the office accommodation above. Two entrance lobbies are provided for the office building, one on Liverpool Street to the south and the other on the north side with entrances from both the Circle and Octagon Mall. Escalators from both lobbies take people up to the main reception space located at second floor level where they emerge at the base of a dramatic elliptical atrium. An open staircase ascends the side of the atrium and connects into the lift lobbies on each floor creating a link back to reception and aiding with orientation around the building.

The top five floors of the building are progressively setback from the edge to create a series of planted terraces and outdoor amenity spaces that have step-free access from the adjacent office spaces. These terraces help minimise the bulk of the building when seen from the tight grain of the City streets to the south and the public amenity space in the Circle that sits at heart of the Broadgate estate to the north.

100 Liverpool Street has achieved a BREEAM Outstanding rating and is on target to achieve WELL Gold certification.

Interiors

Hopkins Architects worked with Universal Design Studio to develop the design of the entrance lobbies and the second floor lobby which accommodates the main reception, café, informal meeting and flexible work areas. Interiors have been designed as welcoming, flexible spaces for building users and visitors alike.

Universal sought to create a main lobby interior with a sense of arrival. A repeated grid of white concrete panels with projecting fine white fins line the double height walls and feel embedded within the architecture, adding detail and texture. The walls are also punctuated with recessed leather seating, display shelving and storage alcoves.

Primary circulatory routes are mapped out in linear ‘tracks’ embedded in the terrazzo flooring, referencing the history of the site, previously Broad Street railway station.

Whitewashed oak panelling lines the escalator walls up to the second floor atrium with light flooding in from above. The atrium features a bespoke lighting fixture, designed in collaboration between Hopkins, Universal and Speirs + Major, featuring rectangular perforated steel panels. The LED lighting tracks the curves of the interior void and creates a pattern of light within the space.

Universal’s focus for the lobby areas was to create active spaces which are inviting and encourage use. A range of seating and furniture is used throughout to accommodate different modes of working from informal meetings and focussed work to team collaboration.

The central bar is an animated focal point with banquette seating, and bespoke tables and chairs. This social space features warm and tactile materials such as end-grain timber flooring and large chip terrazzo joinery.

A site-specific ceramic artwork by Lubna Chowdhary is located at the building’s Broadgate Circus entrance. Embedded within the concrete walls, the piece further references the industrial iconography of the railway landscape. Other artworks include ombre lift spaces by Germans Ermičs, create a further synergy between architecture, interiors and art.

Nigel Webb, Head of Development at British Land, said: “100 Liverpool Street is a landmark building that encapsulates our commitment to providing well-designed, sustainable places that promote health and wellbeing – and which will ultimately set the benchmark for British Land buildings going forward. The building’s completion marks the end of the first phase of British Land’s £1.5 billion investment into Broadgate, where we’ve delivered 1 million sq ft of workspace and 170,000 sq ft of retail and leisure across three buildings on the campus.”