Squire & Partners unveils rejigged plans to demolish Art Deco block

3Comments

Proposals would see 1930s Westminster building replaced with high-end care facility

Squire & Partners plans for a new care facility in Westminster

Squire & Partners has unveiled plans to demolish a nine-storey Art Deco block in Westminster and replace it with a high-end care facility.

A planning application has been submitted to Westminster council for the redevelopment of Dean Bradley House on Horseferry Road, close to the Home Office and the Department of Transport.

It will see the existing late 1930s building, which currently houses office and ground floor retail space along a street-front colonnade, flattened and replaced by a 10-storey building for care home operator Medici Lifecare.

该提案是对2017年开发商梅菲尔慈善有限公司批准的地块的重新调整，该地块没有实施，但将在该地块上建设新的办公、零售和住宅街区。

Source: google

Dean Bradley House, the existing building on the site, was built in the late 1930s

Medici Lifecare正在为重建寻找两种选择，一种是拥有126个单元的养老院，另一种是包含2800平方米的术后护理空间、6900平方米的临床空间和360平方米的零售空间的临床设施。

Squire & Partners said the new plans will replace the “inflexible and unsustainable” existing building with a “low carbon development utilising renewable technologies in order to minimise its carbon footprint”.

Although unlisted, Dean Bradley House was identified as a building of merit in the local conservation area.

Squire & Partners argued the building does not “comparatively make as positive a contribution” to the conservation area as other nearby buildings and “sits uncomfortably” next to its grade II-listed Edwardian neighbour, Belgravia House.

The practice also criticised the existing block’s “ruthlessly regular” grid of windows and said the facade’s grey-brown brick was “dull and out of keeping” with the red brick facades seen on many other buildings in the area.

Developer Medici Lifecare is looking at two options for the new building’s use

The 2017 plans received 21 objections, with many focusing on the loss of much of the site’s retail space.

一名反对者表示，“显然没有合理的理由要求拆除这么漂亮的一处房产”。另一位网友则表示，提案的“可怕”设计与保护区不相符，并批评失去了一座“如此优秀、如此美丽的立面、清晰的历史背景”的建筑。

The new plans, which were submitted earlier this month, will retain the earlier scheme’s key design principles including its massing and height.

Local group The Westminster Society has not objected to the revived proposals but said the existing building has “considerable architectural merit”, adding that there is an established need for care facilities in the area which justifies the loss of office space.

Medici Lifecafe and Squire & Partners have been contacted for comment.