The Acre, Covent Garden

Architect: Gensler

Client: Northwood Investors

Contractor: Lendlease

Comissioner: ING Media

Modernist architect Richard Seifert – a somewhat ‘Marmite’ figure in his day – designed more completed buildings in London than Sir Christopher Wren, totalling about 600 by his own estimation. Given this proliferation, and Seifert’s influence on both the London skyline and British office design, it is perhaps surprising that only two of these buildings – Centre Point and Space House – have listed status. But this lack of historic-building protection provides an opportunity for developers.

In London’s Covent Garden, Lendlease, with the assistance of development manager Platform, is transforming a late-period Seifert building – the former First Chicago House, which was completed in 1981 as a base for the former First National Bank of Chicago. The result will be a mixed-use office and retail block that’s fit for the 21st century, renamed The Acre.

The scheme used 1,000 tonnes of steel – a quarter of the amount a new build of equivalent size would typically require. Similarly, just 5,000 square metres of additional concrete was needed (rather than 17,000 square metres for a new build). Retaining the existing structure and much of the facade mean a total saving of 4,250 tonnes of CO2.