United States
project
The Willis Building, 51 Lime Street
When industry leaders merged to form this global advisory, broking and solutions company, they sought to reimagine their European headquarters, The Willis Building, into a highly collaborative, productive work environment that brought the two business cultures together under a refreshed brand.
Structure Tone first completed the fit out of the Willis Building in 2008 and we were delighted to return 10 years on to bring our customer’s renewed vision to life.
The CAT B restack of the central London icon involved fitting out 19 floors with completely new branding and open, flexible workspaces, meeting rooms and video conference facilities. With the goal of a collaborative and agile work environment at its centre, the design concept includes junction areas at the centre of the work floors, ‘Collaboration’ and ‘Connect’ areas for teams to interact, as well as areas that respectfully retain the diverse cultural brand identities.
The client-facing areas were redesigned to deliver an enhanced visitor experience, starting with the building’s large reception. To realise the Reception Desk’s remarkable organic design our team developed a never-tried-before ‘Corian moulding’ technique to form the perfect curves that lead visitors into the building. Three stunning, client-facing floors include a fine-dining restaurant that opens to striking views across the city. The existing auditorium—The largest of its kind in London—was also renovated and rebranded, introducing new automated lighting trusses and new AV systems.
It was critical to our customer that they remained in full operation throughout the project life cycle and, therefore, all works were meticulously co-ordinated to ensure ‘zero impact’ on their day to day business—including the hired use of the auditorium by external clients. This created another challenge for the construction team. The reception area was a key focal point of the works given its role as the first impression for those entering the building. Keeping the reception open was a must for our customer, so the works required the installation of bespoke hoarding to maintain the first-class reception experience throughout construction—even during strip-out and structural steel installation. The hoarding was specially designed to be easily deconstructed over numerous weekends and reinstalled before reception opened again for business on Monday.
The original Willis Building has been re-energized to reflect the expanded benefits and services our customer can offer their employees and clients. The renewed workplace also respectfully retains the diverse cultural brand identities of its heritage while uniting the new team under one roof.
COMPANY
sectors
Architect
HLW International Ltd
Client
Confidential Financial Services Client
Location
Willis Building 51 Lime Street, London EC3M 7DQ
SF
240,000
Architect
HLW International
Project Manager
JLL
Primary Engineer
Hurley Palmer Flatt
Quantity Surveyor
CoreFive
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