Renzo Piano Building Workshop's Central St Giles

Central St. Giles is designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, who invited us to collaborate as executive architects. The mixed-use development by Stanhope and Legal & General includes an office building and over one hundred apartments, with restaurants, shops and cafes at street level. Located east of Centre Point, Central St. Giles will transform a forgotten backwater, currently overrun with traffic. Labelled Gin Lane in the 18th century, the area was notorious for its poverty and violence. The anonymous government offices that subsequently occupied this site further restricted opportunities for local improvements.

This building has now been demolished and construction is underway. Renzo Piano has likened the scheme to an apple, where a bright skin conceals the subtle tones of the flesh. The new offices are arranged around the perimeter of the site and are conceived as a series of linked street façades enclosing a central space. Vivid colours are used to reinforce this, with glazed orange and green ceramic panels providing a contrast to the pale grey and white used internally.

Entrances to the new public space align with the surrounding street pattern, developing a network of pedestrian routes from Covent Garden to Bloomsbury. A centrepiece mature oak will be planted, overlooked by the street level restaurants, shops and cafes, and further improvements to Princes Circus will result in another public space. The apartments are organised in two buildings to the west of the site. A mixture of market and affordable housing is arranged on fourteen floors. A series of innovative winter gardens add a further amenity to both the occupants of the offices and the apartments.

press:
Free Office Search - Central London office space take up doubles in May June 2011; Need Office Space - Londons best offices announced by BCO June 2011; Free Office Search - Central St Giles wins BCO Commercial Workplace Award June 2011; Europe Real Estate - Google deal secures full office occupancy at Central Saint Giles May 2011; Legal and General - 160000 Sq Ft deal secures full office occupancy for Legal and General and MECs Central Saint Giles May 2011; Property Week - Midtown outstrips City and West End offices May 2011; Arch Daily - Central St Giles Court - Renzo Piano and Fletcher Priest Architects January 2011; Property Week October 2010; Property Week October 2010; Circle Anglia July 2010; more » Property Week July 2010; Wallpaper July 2010; ProgRes Londra June 2010; LuxuryOnline June 2010; NY Times June 2010; archoportal.com June 2010; Sustainable Cities June 2010; Archi World June 2010; Stylepark June 2010; The Times June 2010; Architects Journal June 2010; Sustainable Cities June 2010; Independent June 2010; europe.re.com June 2010; This Is London June 2010; Building Magazine June 2010; BD Online May 2010; e-Architect May 2010; World Architecture News May 2010; Property Week May 2010; Building Magazine April 2010; The Guardian April 2010; e-Architect February 2010; e-Architect July 2009; Building Design June 2009; CSG Newletter October 2008; World Architecture News April 2008; Building March 2008; Architects Journal March 2008; Building March 2008; World Architecture News March 2008; Building March 2008; Financial Times March 2008; Propoerty Week July 2007; Estates Gazette June 2007; Propoerty Week April 2007; Property Week January 2002;

next project in retail:
Retail Centre, Stratford City »

fletcher priest architects london + koln + riga

Renzo Piano Building Workshop's Central St Giles