42 Berners Street, London – Projects

42 Berners Street is a striking Commercial building in the Berners-Allsopp Estate in Fitzrovia. Designed by Buckley Gray Yeoman with an elegantly assertive Portland stone and bronze façade, exemplary tenant facilities, and an improved streetscape, the building sets a new standard for developments in the prestigious estate.

Elliott Wood provided structural engineering solutions to deliver the 8-storey office, which replaced two outdated existing buildings on a challenging site. The design increased the office area to circa 22,000ft2, with 5,300ft2 of retail, showroom or restaurant accommodation on the ground and lower ground floors. The newly enlarged workspace is suitable for a single organisation or multiple tenants, and was offset with a new residential building offsite.

Despite complex boundary conditions, we were able to justify the design without piles and to support the reinforced concrete frame on a deep raft foundation. Designing out the piles reduced the amount of concrete going into the ground by approximately 50%. By ‘flipping’ the foundation design in this way, we saved on programme, costs and embodied carbon – a considerable value-add for the client. For the concrete we did use, we specified 50% GGBS.

Elements of the frame are expressed throughout the building to enhance the general aesthetic and add to the high-quality commercial spaces. Each level has access to its own outside space, provided by a series of balconies and roof terraces. The high-quality stone cladding to the front of the building provides a solid presence at street level, further embellished by deep-set reveals and visible fossils within the material.

42 Berners Street makes a positive contribution to the famously varied architectural character of Fitzrovia. Maintaining the neighbourhood’s intimate charm – whilst also helping to grow its economy – it is especially close to our hearts, as the Elliott Wood headquarters are just around the corner, in The Building Society on Whitfield Street. To know Fitzrovia is to love it, so we’re pleased to preserve it with projects like this.