City House | Re-Clad | 52m | 15fl

[Val Verde]

Article in today's YEP about the reclad for City House which I think deserves its own thread considering it should be a rather large reclad for such a visually prominent yet rather poor looking building. http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.u...tre.3888488.jp

Plan to transform city centre 'ugly block' with an up-to-date facelift

ONE of Leeds most prominent – but least attractive – buildings is set for a 21st century facelift.
Commercial property investment and development company, Kenmore Property Group, has submitted a planning application for the redevelopment of City House, pictured, situated directly above Leeds City train station.

Proposals for the prominent 1960s office building, formerly occupied by The Department of Transport, include an extensive refurbishment programme that will see the landmark building transformed into highly specified office accommodation.

Kenmore Property Group bought City House in 2006 with a view to regenerating the tired and dilapidated building and maximising its potential given its overall size, presence and location within Leeds City Centre.

If planning is granted, Kenmore intends to start work this autumn with a view to completing in late summer 2009.

Kenmore has appointed Leeds-based Carey Jones as principal architect on the project alongside structural and environmental engineers, Arup, project managers Savills and CB Richard Ellis and Ryden as agents.

Just over 130,000 sq ft of Grade A space across 12 floors will become available to let either as a whole or in part and parking for approximately 79 vehicles will be available.

The entire building is to be re-clad with a full height, glazed curtain walling which the developer said would result in a greater energy efficiency rating.

James Scott, associate director at Kenmore Property Group, said: "We are delighted to submit plans to transform City House into what will become one of the best and most prominent office developments within Leeds city centre.

"Kenmore has a successful track record in revitalising sites and schemes in locations with a thriving economy and Leeds is certainly no exception being the one of the main centres for businesses in the North."

Should hopefully improve this building which is clearly in need of attention especially to remove that rather poor brown brick and white / blue paint covering this building. Also I wonder how they will fit in a crane for this development as well as perhaps have something at ground floor on New Station Street next to M&S Simply Food which at present is just a plain wall. Are there any renders of this scheme anywhere and didn't I once read that this scheme was going to have its floor print made larger? Still at least it is something that if it passes planning should be done rather soonish.

Anyway here are some pictures of City House at present and in the past:





image hosted on flickr

[ferge]

good to hear its gettin a reclad, but the curtain wall cladding, uhmm... its too broad i think to just be a simple clad, it needs breaking up a little with the facade.. wait n see what the design is but i worry it will just be a large lump of glass.

[wiggleyleeds]

wow this is brilliant news its finnally gonna happen. Its probably the last remaining ugly-style 60s block in the city core that conjures up the feeling of a northern ugly city. Once this has been reclad fully glazed it will be modern and look very dominant, making all of the city square zone look great combined with lumiere and the glazed city square building currently in the process of going up.

I think a complete glass effect is the best way.. making it look slick and officey, and certainly is a better type of reclad than say park plaza silver plastic effect - that still feels sort of dated.

i look forward to the renders.. but im guessing it will be similar to this..

[img]http://i10.************/348ksjb.jpg[/img]

[Leeds No.1]

Curtain glass refers to roof-base glazing; similar to Hyatt in Birmingham or HIC.

[Skychaser 2005]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

Curtain glass refers to roof-base glazing; similar to Hyatt in Birmingham or HIC.

I like the sound of this. Both buildings look cool. It will certainly add class to the gateway into the city from the south.

[wiggleyleeds]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

Curtain glass refers to roof-base glazing; similar to Hyatt in Birmingham or HIC.

im confused still by what that means, can you explain further please.. and if there's a pic available of HIC whatever that is lol

[Leeds No.1]

HIC- Harrogate International Centre.

image hosted on flickr

image hosted on flickr
Mirrored curtain glazing on Harrogate International Centre.

And on the Hyatt
image hosted on flickr


Both those are mirrored though. It could be that it is not mirrored (like the atrium of BWP below, which is curtain glazing but not mirrored)
image hosted on flickr

[wiggleyleeds]

ta bud.

so basically curtain glazing means a completely glazed front with no structral elements visible. For example, in the pic i posted of colmore plaza, while it is glazed, the floor elements are visible breaking up the seamless glass look. Are you saying curtain glazed means completely covered? How will they do that given that the windows are so small? Or is it just an effect - so from the outside its fully glazed looking, but internally the windows are still small.

i cant want for this to transfrom. will look an eyesore when being done tho lol

[Leeds No.1]

It just means continuous glazing. Ie there won't be any metallic or stone cladding to break it up. Well, there might be strips at each end or something but you get the point. The image you posted has that dark grey cladding that surrounds the windows.

[Val Verde]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

It just means continuous glazing. Ie there won't be any metallic or stone cladding to break it up. Well, there might be strips at each end or something but you get the point. The image you posted has that dark grey cladding that surrounds the windows.

Cool. It would be great if it turns out similarly to the excellent reclad of the London Stock Exchange Tower.

Before:



After:

image hosted on flickr

[Leeds No.1]

Yes that would be good. The glass on that extends past the roof, like what will happen with City Square House.

Curtain glazing should bring a new style to Leeds and add something truly modern and hihg quality to the skyline.

[rich-leeds]

We discussed this a while back somewhere. Anyway, clearly this will be significant since it's so prominent, and certainly deserves its own thread.

I posted this before I think, but there was a pre-app presentation on this last year in October. The officer's report is here, but I've extracted the interesting bit as follows:

The proposals seek to strip back the existing facades, extend and re-clad City House. The proposed extension is located to the rear of the building, upon each of the buildings floors. This proposed extension seeks to link the two main angled sections of the building.
Internally this will allow each floor to be used as one large open plan office, which is not segregated by the separate central core area which accommodates the stairwell, and toilets (as at present). This proposed extension would increase the floor space of the building from 13 200sq m to 17 640sq m.

The re-cladding works include recessing the windows, within a new external stone/ stone like panel frame for the building, and glazing the main north and south elevation with a contemporary glazed skin, which will run from the first floor to the top of the building. The glazed envelope will incorporate heating and cooling units, providing a sustainable environmental solution which will minimise the need for centralised plant equipment. The proposal also seeks to screen the roof top plant equipment, and contain this equipment within a ‘floating, halo’ type roof. The proposal also seeks to include a new centralised main entrance on New Station Street, as at present the existing entrance is relatively discreet and the building lacks an active frontage at street level. This is dependent on negotiations with Network Rail.

Here is the summary of the response from Members:

Minutes:

Members received a report by the Chief Planning Officer setting out details of pre-application proposals to refurbish City House at New Station Street

The Panel received a storyboard presentation on behalf of the applicants

Members were informed that the building was largely vacant and had a variety of unattractive features which was inhibiting the building’s use. These included a tired image, a hidden entrance, leaking windows and heat loss, a lack of adequate air conditioning, shallow floor to floor levels, limited toilet provision and the fact the building did not comply with DDA legislation

The building was on a prominent, landmark site at the travel interchange and was central to large scale city regeneration and so merited redevelopment

Demolition and rebuilding was not an option due to site constraints, therefore the proposed approach was to remodel the building where possible and capture the essence of a good 1960s building

The skin of the building would be replaced and daylight maximised by using a flat curtain walling system which would be designed to allow air into the building. Air conditioning, toilet provision and access to the basement of the building would all be improved and it was hoped to widen the pavement to better manage the congestion currently experienced at this point of the site

Members welcomed the scheme to address the building’s shortcomings, and the potential of the scheme, although concerns were expressed that the proposed window treatment looked flat and some further consideration should be given to this

RESOLVED – To note the report, the presentation and the comments now made

It's been a while, so I guess the proposals may have moved on a little. It's worth noting that City House is Leeds city centre's other notable work by disgraced architect John Poulson (along with the International Pool).

It'll be nice to see this refurb scheme come together - together with the Neville Street project this will make the entrance to the south side of the city through the dark arches much better. It still amazes me how this block sits on top of the old railway arches! I'll also be especially interested to see how they resolve the ground level to New Station Street - the pavement there needs some improvement to overcome the congestion. M&S had a proposal for an extension there which they withdrew last year - I wonder if there's a connection?

[New_To _This_City]

I think this was number one on my reclad list for Leeds, im so glad its finally being done, anything will make the city look better than this, it really cries out the "Northern City" look that Leeds is working hard to wipe out!!! Great news, now we need the Merrion and St.John's Centres to get thier skates on!!

[leonardhenry]

Originally Posted by New_To _This_City

it really cries out the "Northern City" look that Leeds is working hard to wipe out!!!

Oh dear!!!

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This sounds as though it could be very tidy indeed. The building has a nice shape as it is (imo), the extension to the rear will add a new dimension and glazing is always classy

[Stefan88]

Great news. It'll give visitors a much better first impression of Leeds when they see it as they leave the station.

[Bulldozer]

One thing about the stock exchange refurbishment (shown in this image below posted by Val verde) was that all the floors were extended out, by up to 2 m IIRC.
image hosted on flickr


A reclad if done well will be a vast improvement, and as it sits in prominent position will improve Leeds image to visitors.

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by New_To _This_City

I think this was number one on my reclad list for Leeds, im so glad its finally being done, anything will make the city look better than this, it really cries out the "Northern City" look that Leeds is working hard to wipe out!!!

That depends whether you're idiotic enough to associate ugly postwar buildings with the north of England.

You asked for that btw.

[Smoggie_Si]

Originally Posted by Bulldozer

One thing about the stock exchange refurbishment (shown in this image below posted by Val verde) was that all the floors were extended out, by up to 2 m IIRC.
image hosted on flickr


A reclad if done well will be a vast improvement, and as it sits in prominent position will improve Leeds image to visitors.

You're right about the LSE tower Bulldozer. Once the cladding was removed metal brackets were attached on each floor extending the floorspace outwards and the new cladding was attached to these brackets. I was lucky enough to be able to watch it all happening from my desk!

The LSE tower is a wonderful example of what can be done with a reclad, I'm not expecting the City House reclad to be that good, especially seeing as our good friends Carey Jones are the architects, however I await the renderings with bated breath, the descriptions sound promising particularly the 'facade overrun' hiding the plant and the active street level frontage.

This and the Trinity Quarter kicking off could make 2008 an epic year for Leeds city centre.

[touchthesky]

what is a floating halo type roof?

the reclad sounds like good news as it is a bit ugly lol. sounds like it might just be a glass block rather than anything a bit more distinctive/attractive.

[di Livio]

Carey Jones did a good job with the glazed atrium building on Park Row.