The City's One Angel

The construction of Mace’s One Angel Court project in the heart of the City of London, was completed today [23^rd February].

Mace acted as construction manager and principle contractor on the £125m commercial office project to revamp a seventies office tower in the City of London for developer Stanhope.

Appointed in 2014, Mace has achieved BREEAM “Excellent” rating, diverted 96% of waste generated by demolition away from landfill and has added six floors onto the existing 21-storey tower.

After a complete overhaul, the building now stands at 27 storeys and its floor space has been increased from 18,000 sq m to 28,000 sq m, maximising rentable space for the client.

The building was stripped back to its core and then reclad with floor to ceiling glazing. The impressive glass building is squeezed into the city surrounded by period architecture, including the Bank of England, creating a modern mix of old and new. 

To enable upper podium floors to be let as office space and create feature roof gardens, mechanical and electrical plant from the seventh storey was moved to the basement. As the plant required greater height than the office floors, Mace fixed all 27 new floors above them at different levels from the floors in the original building.

Steel beams and columns used for the building’s construction were up to 12m long and had to be delivered separately and lifted into position one at a time. So that the drivers delivering the beams could safely navigate the narrow streets surrounding the site, they were trained on a practice track using a video representation of the road layout.

To minimise noise for the development’s neighbours, Mace came up with an innovative solution and suspended acoustic screens around the site’s perimeter instead of using secondary glazing. This saved costs and reduced discomfort for the surrounding neighbours.

Mace’s fit out specialists, Como, also shared equipment and logistics from the hoists and cranes to the site’s security and booking procedures during the first stage of fit out. This allowed Mace and Como to overlap on the final stages of construction work, saving the client time and money.

Como’s work included installing all new suspended and plasterboard ceilings with exquisite details in the octagonal tower and new raised access floors across the 28 sq m of office space. Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) services included life safety systems, almost 50,000m of pipework for the air conditioning systems, installation of over 5,000 separate light fittings and more than 70km of cables.

Mace’s Paul Dalton, Project Director at One Angel Court, said: “It’s such a pleasure to see the new building come to life in the city. This project has been a significant logistical challenge being placed right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of London but it was worth it. The team here have done a fantastic job and we have improved what was once here, increasing usable space and making the building into a place where people want to spend time. This is what it’s all about.”

Como’s Paul Mynard, Senior Project Manager at One Angel Court, said: “On a normal project of this size you wouldn’t get this sort of advance fit out activity happening while the shell and core contractors are still on site. Como’s site team has worked hard to integrate fit out operations into the shell and core programme to deliver a top quality building.  This joined-up approach makes the transition so easy and smooth; it’s been a great project to be involved with.”

David Camp, chief executive of Stanhope, said: “We are delighted to have completed this landmark building - the first City tower to complete in 2017 – which is a real reflection of the commitment of both Mitsui Fudosan and ourselves to the London office market.”