David Adjaye reveals £600 million project for London's Piccadilly
Adjaye Associates has unveiled plans to transform a collection of post-war buildings opposite The Ritz hotel in central London into a hotel and apartment complex.
The £600 million project, known as One Berkeley Street, involves the redevelopment of properties at 70-73 Piccadilly, 1 and 3 Berkeley Street and 43-48 Dover Street, creating a 10-storey building facing one of London's most prestigious and best-known hotels.
As well as apartments and a luxury hotel, David Adjaye's firm has proposed new shops and a new public square in Dover Yard.
Proposal images, which were submitted to Westminster City Council last month, reveal a design with concrete floorplates that create horizontal stripes across the facade, while cladding and glazing forms fluted walls in between.
"The design objective is to provide a beautiful addition to the Piccadilly streetscape and create a building worthy of being opposite The Ritz," said Adjaye Associates in a statement.
The studio saw off competition from Rem Koolhaas' firm OMA, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Eric Parry to land the mixed-use project for Crosstree Real Estate Management back in January.
The property developer – which was set up in 2011 with around £500 million of backing from Swiss-Italian pharmaceutical dynasty the Bertarelli family – acquired 1-3 Berkeley Street in December 2011, before buying 48 Dover Street for £83.5 million in June 2013.
It will be one of the biggest UK projects to date for the Tanzanian-born British architect, who is also currently working on an office campus in Uganda, an observatory and education centre on the Isle of Portland and an affordable housing complex in New York.