Construction work set to start early next year
Benedetti Architects’ plans for a £60m refurbishment of RIBA’s central London headquarters have been given the go ahead.
Westminster council used delegated powers to green light the two-year overhaul of 66 Portland Place, RIBA’s grade II*-listed base in Marylebone.
The entire building has now closed, with construction work expected to take around two and a half years.
The scheme, which was submitted in March, aims to modernise the building as part of the wider £85m ‘House of Architecture’ programme first unveiled by former RIBA president Simon Allford.
It will include a new space to house the institute’s architectural collections, a new cafe with outdoor seating on Weymouth Street, a relocated shop, bigger lifts, enhanced event spaces and a ‘treasures room’ housing important exhibits..
Benedetti is also proposing to return parts of the George Grey Wornum-designed building, which was opened in 1934 by King George V, closer to their original Art Deco designs.
RIBA chair of board of trustees Jack Pringle said: “Another landmark moment in our transformative House of Architecture programme, following an extensive and hugely positive consultation with Westminster City Council, Historic England, Twentieth Century Society and numerous local stakeholders including our freeholder Howard de Walden.
“This sensitive, essential refurbishment and restoration of 66 Portland Place in London will make it more accessible, functional, sustainable, and welcoming.
“We’d like to thank Benedetti Architects, Newmark and the other consultants for their hard work getting to this point.”
RIBA Stage 4 design is now underway with the intention of enabling works starting in the autumn and the main contract works early 2026, and complete in 2028.
The project team includes Gardiner & Theobald as project manager, Eckersley O’Callaghan as structural and facade engineer, Jackson Coles on costs, Alan Baxter on heritage and transport and Gerald Eve on planning.
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