Crown House

This 10-storey building located in the heart of London's Theatreland district, is being redeveloped into an upgraded office development with retail space and underground parking. To maintain the historical character and continuity of the area, a façade support scheme was required to retain the existing listed stone elevations on Aldwych, Kingsway and Drury Lane.

As with most projects of this complexity we prepared an animated schematic presentation based on photography and architect’s drawings to illustrate the deconstruction methodology to the project team. We liaised extensively with Westminster Council to obtain permission for temporary road closures, traffic diversions and closure of footpaths to enable the tower crane to be delivered/erected.

The façade retention scheme was supported on piled foundations due to the existence of a large diameter service tunnel associated with the former Victorian tram link. The roof level Cupola and other listed stone features were carefully dismantled and removed to a storage facility, to be cleaned, repaired and rebuilt at a later stage.

Following soft strip structural demolition was carried out on a top-down floor-by-floor basis using mini excavators fitted with various attachments supported by hand held pneumatic tools from scaffolded elevations. Basement slabs and foundations were removed and a designed piling mat installed ready for the construction phase.

Noise, vibration and emission monitoring was carried out throughout the duration of the project to ensure environmental standards were met. All waste material was segregated and sorted on-site for removal to nominate recycling centres.

Testimonial:

The location of Crown House presented a number of logistical challenges which needed to be overcome. Clifford Devlin were proactive in dealing with the issues and must be commended on their ability to successfully deliver this complex and difficult project.
Steve Kitchen, Senior Project Manager, ISG Plc