Rethink of 1990s SOM-designed building comes ahead of Dentons’ move to Eric Parry’s 1 Liverpool Street in 2026
KPF is working on plans for a deep refurbishment of the London office of US law firm Dentons in the City.
The practice has submitted a planning application for what it describes as a “major repositioning” of the 30-year-old building at 1 Fleet Place, which Dentons will vacate in 2026.
It comes ahead of Dentons’ move to Aviva Investors and Allianz Real Estate’s 1 Liverpool Street, an Eric Parry-designed building next to Liverpool Street station which is being built by Mace.
KPF said the existing nine-storey 1 Fleet Place, 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, would retain the 150,000 sq ft building’s substructure and steel frame while replacing its facades and adding outdoor terraces to most levels.
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 ground floor lobby would be 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 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.
The current building sits above the City Thameslink station and has been in continuous occupation by Dentons since its construction.
The firm’s name originally belonged to a City of London law firm founded in 1788 which merged with Wilde Sapte in 2000 to form Denton Wilde Sapte, before merging with Chicago-based Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in 2010 to form SNR Denton. SNR Denton merged with Fraser Milner Casgrain and Salans to form the current firm, called Dentons, in 2013.
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