Repositioning – PLP Architecture

Cleveland Clinic, London, UK

Former office building, 33 Grosvenor Place in London, has been transformed into healthcare provider Cleveland Clinic’s first European hospital.

This project includes the high-profile renovation and adaptation of a key historic building along Oxford Street in Central London. The design completely rethinks the 1930s building’s presence within Europe’s busiest shopping district, greatly expanding its retail space to make it more economically viable and ensuring consistency within its commercially-orientated setting. The T-shaped building sits confidently across from the iconic Selfridges & Co department store, providing an unparalleled visual retail presence that an international brand has capitalised on for their new global flagship store.

Corso Como Place, Porta Nuova, Milan, Italy

PLP Architecture was commissioned to refurbish the former Unilever Tower in Milan as a contemporary office space. The tower, built in 1962, had been a modernist landmark in the international style, although a recent misplaced attempt at recladding the facade had completely changed its character, rendering it unremarkable and undervalued. The existing block and surrounding buildings had become run-down, in stark contrast to the surrounding buildings of Corso Como. When complete, the building will serve as Accenture’s national headquarters. A new all-timber pavilion adjacent to the tower will house the headquarters for the technology company Bending Spoon.

1 Page Street, London, UK

1 Page Street in Victoria provides a contemporary work environment for Burberry, the British luxury fashion brand. In consultation with the property owner and developer, Derwent London, and Burberry, we refurbished and extended a 1960s building on the former Westminster Hospital estate, which had been converted to office use in 1999.

Tower Ten WTC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The new development at WTC is intricately interwoven into the existing fabric of the complex, creating a stimulating combination of richness and identity for the campus.

One Bishopsgate Plaza, London, UK

The recently opened One Bishopsgate Plaza marks the completion of a mixed-use masterplan that originated with the adjacent Heron Tower to the south. The masterplan envisioned a new City of London, moving away from the mono-culture of the office towards a rich aggregate of different uses that brings together hospitality, residential, amenity spaces, new types of retail as well as innovative public realm and place making.

100 VE – Unilever London HQ, London, UK

Unilever London Headquarters (100 VE), a landmark structure overlooking Blackfriars Bridge and the River Thames, was completed in 1931 and listed in 1977. While distinguished on the exterior, the plan of the building was cramped, with a series of narrow fingers overlooking dark and dreary light wells to the rear. The interior was highly compartmented, with narrow circulation corridors that had evolved over time as areas were modified. Staff restaurant and breakout spaces were in the basement, visitors met in windowless rooms at ground floor, and generally the interiors were cut off from the stunning panoramic views.

World Trade Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The renovated World Trade Center project is a case study showing how a 1960s structure, anti-urban in its form, can be reconceived as a project which initiates the regeneration of a whole quarter of the city. The WTC Amsterdam is located in the most attractive area of South Amsterdam adjacent to WTC/Zuid, the main railway station. It forms the gateway to the city’s ambitious new masterplan devised by the city authorities to turn Zuidas into a dense business and residential quarter reinforced by new cultural, educational and recreational facilities. However, the existing buildings of the World Trade Centre – four 1960s office slabs connected by lower structures and open courtyards – were dark and unwelcoming.

Tour First (Formerly Tour CB31) La Défense, Paris, France

This project, won in an international architectural competition, involves a re-massing and full refurbishment of the tower CB31 of 1974, in La Défense, The building is one of the tallest in La Defense and the new silhouette is clearly visible on the skyline. Besides its new visibility from afar, the new design carefully reconfigures the public space at the base, reinforcing the connections of the building to its surroundings.

27 Old Bond Street, London, UK

The DKNY store at 27 Old Bond Street was the first Donna Karan flagship store. The building is a radical reconstruction, retaining only the facades of the existing 1920s building adjacent to the listed Royal Arcade.