2009 WINNING SCHEMES > 'Must See' Scheme

 

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A pair of drab 14-storey towers are remodelled, one as student bedsits and one as private rental apartments, brightly reclad and topped with two more floors. The mix depends on strong management which has a presence at ground floor in a double-height space which feels like the lobby of an upmarket hotel, a clue to one part of the JV developer, Blackstone, operator of some of the world’s biggest hotel chains. Judges were impressed, but unsu­re about whether the affordable housing in a wing of the podium block enjoyed much amenity. The scheme is otherwise a smart mixed-use jigsaw deserving attention.