No.1 was the first step in our commitment to provide Liverpool with a set of buildings which sit easily within the city’s heritage. RHWL have worked hard to understand the Liverpool vernacular and the strength of the architectural language which underpins so many of the city’s buildings.
The building has been designed to be seen from every angle. There are no forgotten, nor neglected, rear elevations, and its entrances are set squarely in the centre of the principal facades. Symmetry is important and the red sandstone used in its construction is reminiscent of the material heritage of the city and its very bedrock.

Won through competition, RHWL designed this complex 6,900m² scheme near Frankfurt as the European headquarters of a major US investment fund management company. It links a19th Century villa with a new three storey office development. A pedestrian link set into the contours of the landscape provides an umbilical cord between the two. The listed villa  –  which was once owned by the Mumm champagne family – has been restored and acts as the front door to the scheme.

A 41,130m² office building for Allied London Properties in Spinningfields, Manchester. The 10-storey building offers floors of around 4,000m² and has been fully pre-let to RBS. From a developer’s point of view, such large floors require flexibility for future subdivision. As a result, we designed 4 wings, separated by 3 atriums. These are connected by a spine running across the back of the site, which uses the atriums to maximise daylight in office areas, permitting 4 possible sub tenancies per floor.

Photography:  Hufton + Crow, James Maddox

Designed by RHWL for a major US fund management company, the building, clad in hand set Portland Stone, compliments its location directly opposite St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The building offers 10,800m² of office accommodation and a 500m² restaurant. Set on an island site, the entrance space is approached via a colonnade and leads to a vaulted entrance hall. There are 5 upper storeys with a central atrium rising through the upper 3 floors.

Photography: John Walsom

RHWL’s design is composed of two 7-storey office wings united by a top-lit internal street which functions as both a corporate focus and an informal meeting place. Featuring bars, restaurant, shops, cafés, and exhibition space, it avoids the sterile atmosphere common to so many contemporary offices. The building incorporates 18,750m² of office space. Flexible floor plates respond to Diageo’s immediate space requirements and the potential for future alternative tenants. Glass pedestrian bridges link the wings at each level, increasing connectivity.

Photography: John MacLean

Won through competition for German publisher Axel Springer in Berlin, Germany. The project consists of the Axel Springer Tower — a listed building that has been retained — and a new 50,000m² low rise mixed use building housing bars, restaurants and shops with 41,000m² of offices above. The buildings are linked the Ullstein-Halle. This hall normally functions as circulation space but can be transformed to host major events. We also designed the interiors of 3 bars and restaurants.

Photography: Stefan Müller, RHWL

Building 5 forms part of RHWL’s mixed use regeneration scheme in Liverpool for English Cities Fund. The design is a contextual response to the environmental brief, generating 10% of energy needs from on-site sources, whilst developing solutions which reduce energy consumption by 25%. A flexible, multi let, low cost office solution may appear at odds with a highly specified, energy efficient, green building, but our design shows that they are not mutually exclusive.

Photography: Hufton + Crow

Our award winning 68,000m² corporate headquarters for RBS near Edinburgh was a joint venture with Michael Laird Architects. It consists of a cluster of 7 buildings on a former hospital site. A glazed internal street functions as the heart, providing a supermarket, restaurant, bars, informal meeting and social spaces. The 3-storey scheme retains a human scale while accommodating around 3,500 people. RHWL also designed a new Conference and Leisure Centre and the original listed buildings have been restored, housing a Social Club and Staff Nursery.

Photography: Keith Hunter

A 23,250m², 18-storey city specification office building for Greycoat, located adjacent to Broadgate, London. The building’s concept design was by Horden Cherry Lee with RHWL as executive architects. We have been able to avoid internal columns due to innovation of structure. RHWL were also responsible for the interior design of the buildings reception area and core services. Two renewable technologies have been incorporated into the scheme: photovoltaics and a Ground Source Heat Pump.

Photography: Alan Williams

This 12,400m² Grade A office building forms part of RHWL’s mixed use regeneration scheme in Liverpool for client English Cities Fund. Achieving BREEAM Excellent, the design incorporates a sophisticated envelope design coordinated with an environmental strategy that provides carbon reductions of more than 20%. A central core and 8 column free floors offer ultimate flexibility. The reception includes a state of the art lighting design, theatre quality acoustics, bespoke reception desk and back lit feature glass wall depicting our original concept.

Photography: Christian Smith 2011