The Broadway by Squire & Partners

The Broadway

Squire & Partners has completed The Broadway, a 1 million sqft mixed-use development for Northacre which establishes a new Westminster destination comprising residential, workspace and retail uses with generous new public realm.

The design of The Broadway is rooted in place from the urban scale down to the final details of the development, with Squire & Partners providing total design encompassing the masterplan, architecture and interiors to achieve a unified scheme which creates a unique sense of place. The site previously housed the Metropolitan Police Headquarters – a defensive 1960s block which occupied the entire footprint, creating a wall along Victoria Street. The site lacked any urban design or contribution to the public realm, and its existing use was inappropriate for retrofit as the building was purpose-built.

With this in mind, the concept behind The Broadway was to divide the site into two podiums with three buildings ranging from 14 to 19 storeys on each, thereby creating a campus feel with a new connection through the site linking Victoria Street with Broadway and Dacre Street, whilst framing views of the Grade I-listed 55 Broadway. Reintegrating the site into the urban grain of the area, the new public space - Orchard Place - is named as an extension of the adjacent Abbey Orchard Street.

Project Team

Development Manager Northacre Properties

Client SHUAA Capital

Architecture/Interior Design Squire & Partners

Common Areas FF&E Nainoa

Penthouse FF&E Elicyon

Show Apartment FF&E Natalia Miyar Atelier

Planning Consultant Bilfinger/GVA

Structural Engineer

Robert Bird Group

Landscape Consultant Gross Max

Sustainability Consultant Aecom

Façade Engineer

Buro Happold

Lighting Design Nulty Photography Jack Hobhouse

Architecture

Inspired by the art deco architecture of 55 Broadway by Charles Holden, the design of The Broadway creates a pared-back, contemporary response that draws upon the period’s geometric shapes, jewellery, fashion and opulence, with distinctive diamond-shaped pre-cast panels across the façades.

Proposals sought to create a cohesive design across the six buildings, whilst respecting the context of both the commercial buildings on Victoria Street to the south, and the historic sandstone mansion blocks of the Conservation Area to the north.

Consequently, a family of three design languages is employed across the development, used to pair buildings on the west and east of the site to create a connection between the podiums.

Located on the extremities of the site, buildings one and six are paired with the same language of dark grey pre-cast concrete and dark bronze window frames.

Addressing Victoria Street, buildings three and five feature white pre-cast concrete with medium-toned bronze window frames and a honeycomb metal mesh installed within the glazing units.

To the north, buildings two and four reference the Conservation Area beyond with sandstone-coloured pre-cast concrete and light bronze windows.

Residential lobby interior

Interiors

The three palettes of light, medium and dark bronze metal are carried through respectively to apartment interiors, also designed by Squire & Partners, with kitchen islands and shelving finished in the same material to unify the design.

The oblique lines of the distinctive façade panels create full height glazing with a sense of place for occupants. In each bathroom, bespoke sanitaryware complements marble wall and floor finishes, whilst custom-made wardrobes feature in bedrooms and entrance halls.

As each building occupies a different footprint, repetition is minimised in the residential layouts, creating individuality in each apartment.

Penthouse in Building 5 adressing Victoria Street with white pre-cast concrete exterior, medium-tone bronze window frames and kitchen finishes

Apartment in Building 5 with medium-tone bronze window frames and finishes and bespoke Corian bathroom elements

Apartment in Building 6 with dark grey pre-cast concrete exterior, dark bronze window frames and kitchen finishes

Mixed-use

The development provides 268 apartments, three floors of office accommodation and an animated ground floor with retail and restaurant uses. Entrances to the workspace levels are located along Orchard Place, further activating the new central street.

The lower ground floor and two basement levels house residential amenities, including a spa with swimming pool, sauna and steam rooms, treatment rooms, a gym, changing facilities, a games room, cycle storage and parking.

The highly unusual and complex mix of uses at this scale in a central urban location required careful planning. The six buildings had different design parameters and needed to work cohesively without compromising the different components.

Uses are stacked on top of each other on a grid to connect the buildings, with a basement that spans the whole footprint across three levels and interconnecting podiums on the fourth floor – providing shared external landscaped space for residents.

Office lobby interior and typical office floorplate

The residents’ spa includes a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, treatment rooms and changing facilities

Resident amenities include a gym, fitness studio and games room with screening room

Ground floor plan (not to scale)

Site section (not to scale)

Victoria Street

Broadway Dacre Street

View from penthouse terrace in Building 5, looking east

About Squire & Partners

Squire & Partners is an architecture and design practice with experience spanning four decades, earning it an international reputation for architecture informed by the history and culture of where it is placed. Its award-winning portfolio, for some of the world’s leading developers includes masterplans, workspace, retrofit, residential – from private and affordable to co-living, build to rent and super prime – as well as hotels, retail, education and public buildings.

In addition the practice has a series of dedicated teams for modelmaking, computer generated imaging, illustration, graphics and an established interior design department, which has created a number of bespoke product ranges.

Squire & Partners’ approach responds to the unique heritage and context of each site, considering established street patterns, scale and proportions, to create timeless architecture rooted in its location. Embracing traditional and emerging technologies in craft and construction, the practice is renowned for delivering a rigorously detailed product.

For further information, please contact:

Jenny Gray or Rosie Gillard

020 7278 5555 | pr@squireandpartners.com

The Department Store

248 Ferndale Road

London SW9 8FR

020 7278 5555