Bloomberg’s European headquarters is located in the heart of the City of London, is the company’s first, wholly-owned and designed building in the world – planned to facilitate collaboration and fuel innovation. Awarded a BREEAM ‘outstanding’ rating, Bloomberg’s building is the world’s most sustainable office space, by design. The 3.2 acre site is home to 4,000 Bloomberg employees, and encompasses three public plazas, 1.1 million square foot of office and retail space and the restored Roman Temple of Mithras. It is also the RIBA 2018 Stirling Prize winner, the UK’s most prestigious architectural awards.
Bloomberg Place was constructed with both its geographical location and environmental sustainability in mind. Built on the historical site of the Roman temple of Mithras, the building houses a permanent exhibition testament to this historical heritage. Additionally, the site build made every effort to be sustainable and environmentally conscious. With these strategies in mind, Bloomberg Place seeks to achieve a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating. The site runs parallel to the Waterloo & City line over a length of 133m, extensive monitoring was required during the basement construction. The proximity with the tube line has resulted in the construction of a new ticket office to connect into the line as part of the Bank Station upgrades.
The main Victorian brick sewer also traverses the site requiring the foundations and structure to be designed to allow this to bridge over the sewer. In order to facilitate this series of monitoring measures AECOM were put in place, our role included the condition surveys of the sewer. The sewer is 2.4m diameter and runs full bore which has meant even carrying out the surveys were not without difficulty, these required shut off periods where the sewer could be drained down to allow access.
The headquarters are effectively split between the north and south building, which share a common basement and are connected via link bridges on the upper levels. The fit out space is bespoke to client’s needs, with specialist areas such as lunch rooms, dining rooms, an auditorium, and media and pantry areas amongst others, supporting the open plan office space.
AECOM provided a key role in taking this high profile development to planning, working closely with the client team, the design team and the City of London to ensure a robust Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out. The site originally had an extant planning consent for an office and retail-led development. We worked closely with all stakeholders to ensure that the impacts of the then proposed Bloomberg Place scheme were presented against the cleared site and in comparison to the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the previously consented scheme.
AECOM provided Cost Management and CDM Co-ordination services on the Bloomberg project. This included both the shell and core and complete end-user fit-out of the building. The project was procured via a construction management form of procurement, with over 100 trade packages being either tendered or negotiated with.
AECOM worked closely with both the design team and the trades, to ensure that the bespoke nature of the works, were procured both on time and within budget and importantly meets the required level of specification and quality that was required.
- Scenic lifts – a bespoke design which has no cables to allow the flow of light
- LED lighting – designed to look like petals
- Bespoke desks – designed into circles to enable multiple configuration types
- Vacuum flush toilets
- Largest pieces of grooved glass in the world
Due to the prevailing market conditions and the nature of the works, it was imperative to work collaboratively with the team to identify and secure suitable and interested trade contractors to undertake some of the more specialist work. The pre-tender analysis proved invaluable to ensuring the right calibres of Tier 1 trade contractors were involved with the project.
AECOM services:
- Cost management
- CDM Coordination
- Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Awards:
- RIBA Stirling Prize 2018
- BCO National Awards 2018 – Winner ‘Best Corporate Workplace’ and ‘Best of the Best’
- BCO London Awards 2018 – Winner ‘Best Corporate Workplace’
- London Design Awards 2017 – Silver Winner ‘Architecture – Commercial – Constructed’
- UK Tekla Awards 2015 – Winner ‘Miscellaneous Category’
- London Planning Awards – Winner ‘Best Mixed Use Scheme’
- BREEAM Awards 2018 Commercial Project – Design Award
- BREEAM Awards 2018 Regional Awards – Western Europe
- Property Week Awards – Winner ‘Occupier of the Year’
- D&AD Awards – Yellow Pencil / Spatial Design / Exhibition Design
- Lighting Design Awards – Winner ‘Global Project of the Year’
- Lighting Design Awards – Winner ‘Workplace Project of the Year’
- LABC London Building Excellence Awards – Winner ‘Best Inclusive Building’
- RIBA Regional Award – Winner ‘London’
- Finishes & Interiors Sector Awards (FIS) – Winner ‘Partitioning category Gold’
- Finishes & Interiors Sector Awards (FIS) – Winner ‘Fibrous and GRG new build Gold’
- Lumen Awards – Winner ‘Award of Excellence’
- AJ100 Awards – Client of the Year
- New London Architecture Awards – Offices Built Winner
- The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects – ‘The City of London Building of the Year 2018’