- Client The Coal Authority
- Project Head Office Refurbishment
- Cost Two phases, £3.8m
- Sector Public Sector / Office
- Location Mansfield
- Date July 2005
- Background
- Lewis & Hickey were commissioned to refurbish the client’s 1960’s built main office accommodation, providing a new contemporary office environment.
- The Challenge
- The project was conceived by the Coal Authority (part of the Department of Trade and Industry) with the intention of providing a flexible and contemporary office environment for staff at the Mansfield headquarters. An open brief was given and a fresh approach to the design of the working environment encouraged.
- This bold decision by our client has resulted in the re-development of a 1960s archive centre into a contemporary flexible office space that is both calm and light. Working alongside L&H Architecture and L&H Safety Management, the brief was to deliver this major project with minimum disturbance to the client, their staff and visitors, with the works to be carried out without relocating the client’s staff away from the site. Given the age and nature of the building, there was also the significant risk of accidental disturbance of asbestos.
- The Solution
- Working closely with the Coal Authority at the design phase, a relocation plan and strategy document was developed in order that the client’s staff could be safely relocated in newly constructed temporary accommodation and other buildings on this site. This schedule included a traffic plan, temporary services and the establishment of a secure construction area.
- From the client’s existing asbestos management plan for the building, alternative methods of construction were proposed, which avoided extensive disturbance of the asbestos, and the disruption, delay and cost that this would entail.
- L&H Solutions hands-on site management – especially during the construction of an on-site temporary office facility - contributed to the successful delivery of this innovative office environment. The two-phase project was completed within the two-year time frame set out by the Coal Authority without any major disturbance to the client’s staff.