Continuing our shortlist preview series, a spacious atrium and geometric layout give a slick rejuvenation to a central London office block

Angel Building, London submitted by AHMM

The Angel Building is an extensive refurbishment of a lumbering and unloved eighties office block at a prominent junction on the edge of central London. The structural concrete frame of the original building has been retained but new spaces and a distinctive new external glazed skin have been wrapped around it. With its envelope sleekly clad in continuous black steel curtain wall and split into 3m bays, the facade attempts to recreate the linear simplicity of Mies van der Rohe. And yet with its gently curved main frontage and deferential treatment of its street edges, it makes a far more positive contribution to local urban grain and historic fabric than its hulking predecessor ever did. But it is the central atrium that leaves the greatest impact. In what was once the brooding belly of the former building the architects have inserted a soaring, spacious foyer flooded with daylight and exquisitely encased in smoothly honed concrete. With its monumental scale and geometric layout, the atrium is the perfect symbol of a building that has been rejuvenated by clarity, precision and order.

Project team

Client: Derwent London
Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Structural Engineers: Adams Kara Taylor
Project Managers Buro Four
Cost Consultants: Davis Langdon
Property Agents: Pilcher Hershman / CBRE
Service Engineers: Norman Disney & Young
Landscape Architects: J&L Gibbons
Fire Consultant: Norman Disney & Young Fire
Main Contractor: BAM
Approved Inspector: Islington Building Control
Acoustic Consultant: Sandy Brown Associates
Planning Consultant: DP9
CDM Co-ordinator: Jackson Coles
Party Wall Surveyor: GIA
Transport Consultant: Colin Buchanan
Graphic Designers: David Hillman
Rights of Light Consultant: GIA
Lighting Consultant: GIA Equation

Each day in the lead up to the Building Awards ceremony next month, we will profile one of the finalists in the Project of the Year and Public Building Project of the Year. The winners will be announced as the Building Awards ceremony taking place on April 7. To book a table at the Building Awards visit the web site here.