Project: John Lewis, Cambridge
Working in association with Professor Sir Colin Stansfield Smith, John Pardey Architects won a limited competition for the design of a new 154,000 square feet John Lewis department store in Cambridge city centre which was to form the cornerstone of a new 2.8 HA shopping mall designed by Chapman Taylor Architects. The site was classified by English Heritage as one of the six most sensitive sites in the UK and we secured planning consent within eighteen months. The store opened at Christmas 2007 and quickly established itself as one of the most profitable stores in the chain and has received praise for the way that it fits into the historic city centre context.
The redevelopment of a key city centre site – Grand Arcade – to provide Cambridge with new retail accommodation included a new anchor department store for John Lewis, associated car parking and a new magistrates court.
address the two streets and these are infilled in panels of patinated bronze panels, set behind a delicate gunmetal framing that picks up on the scale and rhythm of the buildings along the street.
Grand Arcade comprises two naturally ventilated ‘covered streets’ that link Petty Cury and Lion Yard with St Andrew’s Street. A range of new shop units located between the southern department store and the existing Lion Yard development provide improved retail facilities and contribute to the urban grain of this quarter of the city.
A zinc-clad, vaulted attic storey contains a large restaurant with fantastic views over the Cambridge roofscape.
Additional city centre car parking, cycle parking facilities and a park and ride scheme on the southern perimeter of the city was introduced. The design of the John Lewis store is basically a large square on plan with one side peeled off to address the main shopping street, creating a wedge shaped atrium between the two parts – this acts as the main entrance. The large four-storey ‘box’ onto Downing Street also backs onto a new arcade to its rear, while the lower building onto St Andrew’s Street that acts as a ‘display box’. The building is clad in a cream sandstone forming giant masonry frames that
PROJECT DETAILS Client: Status: Contract value:
USS / Grosvenor Ltd. Completed 2007 £22,000,000.00
Structural Engineer: M+E Engineer: Cost Consultant:
Beattie Watkinson Faber Maunsell Cyril Sweett