Lucent

This prestigious project involves the iconic Piccadilly Circus buildings at 1 Sherwood Street, 8 Glasshouse Street, 4-6 Glasshouse Street, and 11-17 Shaftesbury Avenue. The project was delivered in two phases, phase one being a careful dismantle of the existing facades on Sherwood Street and Glasshouse Street, with the repair, restoration and alterations to the existing historic stonework made off site. Phase two is the reinstatement of the facades including some modification and facade stretching at higher levels and the installation of a new faience facade on Shaftesbury Avenue as a replica of the former damaged historic one.

Planning conditions on the buildings required as much reuse of the existing stone as possible. Some of the stone was quite badly damaged and, in the end, we were able to salvage 80% of the Bath stone facades and 90% of the Portland facade. The facades had to be taken down and the stones shipped to Wolff Stone in Somerset where they were repaired and restored and some of them reduced in thickness to allow for modern cavity construction. The salvaged stones were returned to site and the facades installed with new supporting structure behind.
Overall, the % of stone that was able to be reused was very good and the contrast between the historic reused stone and the new stone patched in, allows the history of the building to be told visually.