The owners of a City of London block are set to revamp the site in the hopes of helping it “fulfil its potential as a grade-A office”.
King Street Capital Management and Arax Properties bought Alban Gate at 125-130 London Wall, EC2, from Blackstone for almost £300m in 2020.
Now the City of London Corporation has signed off proposals to extend and refurbish the building, including increasing the office space in the podium level by more than 50% to almost 8,000 sq ft, revamping its reception, and reworking the City Highwalk with new landscaping.
Architects at TP Bennett said in planning documents that the proposals are focused on “improving specific areas of the scheme which are detrimental to the building and the public realm, preventing it from fulfilling its potential as a desirable place of work and as an important urban node in the street context of London Wall and Wood Street”.
The firm added: “The pedestrian experience, way-finding, and undersized entrances of Alban Gate lack the presence one expects of a grade-A office building of this size.”
The building was designed by Sir Terry Farrell and constructed in the early 1990s. TP Bennett described it as “a symbol of an era in London now referred to as ‘the big bang period’ where financial markets were deregulated and financial markets boomed.”
But now it faces a number of problems, including poor access, a lack of greenery and what the architecture firm calls “a dull and dingy colour palette”.
A planning statement from Gerald Eve described the plans as “an opportunity to refurbish the building and improve public accessibility from ground to podium level to better reflect the site’s strategic positioning in this part of the City”.
Image from Radius
Send feedback to Tim Burke
Follow Estates Gazette
