Planning consent has just been achieved and a tender for contractors will go out in the summer. Work is expected to start on site in the autumn.
The refurbishment of the 60,000sq ft office and underground car park – known as Ashby House, after Thomas Ashby, the local brewer - seeks to strip the entire building back to its concrete frame and waffle slabs while reconfiguring parts of the plan to gain an additional 20,000sq ft of floor space.
The original building, built only in 1989, has a distinctive three-storey pitched roofed structure and banded brick cladding. This will be removed as it is considered to have dated badly already.
The distinctive horizontal ‘white’ banding of the proposed design is a nod to these old cantilevered panels, the designers say, and suits the riverside setting, while also actually reducing the height of the building, which is in a conservation area.
ESA design director Nic Sampson said: “The result is effectively a new-build, providing Grade-A office space in the heart of the town.”
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