Work on RSHP-designed scheme set to start next year and complete in 2032
Mace has triumphed in the race to win the £700m scheme to extend the British Library in London.
The firm was told this morning that it had won the work along with beaten rival Sir Robert McAlpine. A pitch from Multiplex for the job, which is being let as a CM contract, was tailed off earlier in the process.
The scheme at St Pancras is set to be one of the biggest construction jobs in the capital in the coming years.
It is being run by Japanese developer Mitsui Fudosan and development manager Stanhope and involves adding a 100,000sq m groundscraper containing office and library space to the side of the grade I-listed 1990s landmark which was built by McAlpine.
The win is a huge coup for Mace – which is selling its consulting arm to Goldman Sachs – and comes just a few weeks after it was told it had won Mitsui’s Edge Shoreditch scheme, now renamed Edge Liverpool Street, which the firm is masterminding along with Dutch developer Edge.
Less than 10% of the new 12-storey British Library building, which has been designed by RSHP, will contain library space, with the rest reserved for offices targeted primarily towards life sciences occupiers and a new headquarters for the Alan Turing Institute.
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Mitsui Fudosan has previously said the scheme, which was signed off by London mayor Sadiq Khan last July after a protracted stage two approval process, will start construction in 2026 and complete in 2032.
It is understood that 5,000sq m of underground passageways on the site intended as safeguarding for the future Crossrail 2 project will be funded by Mitsui Fudosan. The tunnels and shaft, which descend seven storeys beneath the site, were part of a deal agreed between the developer, Stanhope and Transport for London to secure the site.
The scheme also includes the controversial demolition of several buildings to the north of the main library, including the 2007 British Library Centre for Conservation, designed by Long & Kentish.
Others working on the project include QS T&T Alinea, engineer Arup and landscape architect DSDHA.
Earlier this year, Mitsui took full ownership of SMBL, the scheme’s development partner which had previously been a JV between itself and Stanhope.
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