GEORGE BARNSDALE
150 BISHOPSGATE
THE SENSITIVE RENOVATION OF A LISTED BUILDING
Located in the city of London , 150 Bishopsgate is based in London ’ s Square mile in a conservation area with some fine examples of Victorian architecture on display . The 43 storey tower rises above the nearby historic buildings and shopfronts in striking juxtaposition .
Listed buildings in the middle of a site where you want to build a new multi-storey luxury hotel and residential development can be a “ fly in the ointment ” for architects and developers . In the case of 150 Bishopsgate , the buildings on Devonshire row , including an original Victorian shopfront that had to be preserved and sensitively renovated and some new sympathetic replacement shopfronts as well as replacement windows and doors for Devonshire House had to be carefully managed to maintain their historic integrity . George Barnsdale ’ s experience of designing authentic timber windows and doors for historic buildings on commercial developments such as this one is well established and made them the ideal choice for this project .
“ Initially , the project looked quite straight forward compared to the very high specification requirements of other large projects we were working on at the time ,” said Hayden Darley , Technical Director .
“ However , the complexities of the job came to light once we started to survey the building and discuss the architect ’ s exacting visual requirements .”
As with any old building , the openings are not square meaning that fitting the sliding sash windows can result in varying amounts of frame to be visible . Mitigating for this meant many months of design and re-design work , much more detailed surveying of the openings and numerous project meetings to balance what is actually possible to manufacture alongside the architect ’ s requirements .
“ This wasn ’ t straight forward ,” Hayden continues . “ We were not able to drill holes in the existing cast columns either side of many of the window openings so had to come up with innovative solutions to this and get them approved by the wider team .”
The sliding sash windows sit beautifully and some incorporate curved glass which look absolutely stunning .
Once one main design of the windows and the tolerance of visible frame was agreed the installation method was discussed .
W www . georgebarnsdale . co . uk T 01775 823000
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