Rethink of 1990s SOM-designed building comes as current law firm occupier prepares to move to 1 Liverpool Street

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The existing 1 Fleet Place, designed by SOM and completed in 1992, will be stripped back to its steel frame and refurbished under KPF’s plans 

Kier has won a deal worth around £90m to refurbish a 30-year-old building at 1 Fleet Place which sits above the City Thameslink station.

Building understands the firm was told earlier this month it had beaten Multiplex and Mace to the job in the City which has been the London office of US law firm Dentons ever since it opened in the 1990s.

Dentons is moving to Aviva Investors and Allianz Real Estate’s 1 Liverpool Street, an Eric Parry-designed building next to Liverpool Street station which has been built by Mace.

Architect KPF is behind the Fleet Place plans and in planning documents said the existing nine-storey building, which was designed by SOM for Rosehaugh Stanhope and built by Bovis in 1992, is in need of renewal and “at the end of its serviceable life”.

The firm’s proposals, designed for One Fleet Realty Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan’s Takenaka Corporation, would retain the 150,000sq ft building’s substructure and steel frame while replacing its facades and adding outdoor terraces to most levels.

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KPF’s plans to remodel SOM’s 1 Fleet Place

The scheme, which was given the green light last November, will see the ground floor lobby extensively redesigned with the addition of a new cafe and curved stair, and an existing retail unit outside the main entrance would be demolished and replaced with a landscaped area as part of a wider strategy to tidy up the site’s public realm.

KPF’s brief for the project is to improve the building’s energy performance to an EPC A rating and achieve a minimum of BREEAM Excellent in order to “attract new high-profile occupiers to the City following a major lease event”.

The building would also be given a new external colour scheme with its white steel beams repainted charcoal black and other elements on the facade changed to a light teal.

The project team includes development manager Savills Development Management, Exigere on costs, DP9 on planning, AKT II as structural engineer, Arup on facades, Momentum on transport and Hoare Lea on MEP and sustainability.

Meanwhile, Phil Harper, the head of finance at Laing O’Rourke Delivery, is set to take up a new role as finance director at Kier’s London and Thames Valley construction business from next month.

Harper spent a decade at O’Rourke after joining from Heathrow Airport in 2016.

Kier yesterday announced a record set of results with turnover increasing 7% to £4.35bn in the year to June.

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