The 1980s Brutalist landmark building by renowned architect Denys Lasdun, 76 Upper Ground, underwent a quiet transformation and expansion, creating a total of 53,000m² of modern office space.

2025 Schuco Excellence Awards – Overall Winner
2025 Schuco Excellence Awards – Major Project Winner
2024 WAFX Award – Reuse
2024 WAF Awards, Future Office Project – Shortlisted

The new construction echoes the form and materiality of the existing structure, maintaining its architectural integrity. However, through a series of interventions to the existing facade, the floor plates have been improved with additional daylight and greatly improved thermal and solar performance. 76 Upper Ground, the five-storey building, situated on a prominent site on London’s Southbank, featured a complex layering of floor plates which created 4,100m² of terraces across different levels. These terraces were clad in precast concrete upstand beams, giving the building its iconic appearance.

Under the plans, which saw an additional two floors added and all other floors extended, 76 Upper Ground’s famous concrete edge panels were removed, refurbished and rehung 500mm higher, allowing the window height to be increased and letting additional light flood into the storeys below.

The facade works included replacing all the existing ribbon windows, replacing the ground level defensive facades with a new inviting lobby and shop front glazing, two substantial roof lights, a ‘beacon’ plant room enclosure, and new precast panels to the new floors.

For the existing precast beams, we undertook the complex task of devising a methodology for removing and replacing the nearly 40-year-old panels, considering their connection to the original slab and new support conditions.

Location
London, UK

Client
Stanhope | Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group

Architect
AHMM

Photography
Rob Parrish