FORE completes highly-sustainable London office redevelopment

FORE Partnership, the pan-European real estate investment club for family offices and private
investors, has completed the redevelopment of VIEW 58, its highly-sustainable, speculative office
development on the River Thames and has completed the sale of the building in a pre-agreed
transaction to Nesta, the innovation charity. Nesta has begun fit-out of the space and aims to be in
occupation later this year.

Delivered in joint venture with Kier Property, VIEW 58 provides 48,000 sq ft of Grade-A office space
at 58 Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the Thames in London’s Midtown.

tp bennett, which was lead architect on the project, led the design of a state-of-the-art office space
that meets the demands of the modern-day occupier. The building’s most distinguishing feature is a
fully-glazed atrium with feature balconies and lifts, which provides added animation to the office
space.

In line with FORE’s “responsible real estate” vision, the development incorporates a number of
technologies not seen before in the UK, such as solar photovoltaic panels that generate power from
both the top and underside of the panels. It achieved BREEAM’s ‘Excellent’ sustainability rating,
making it one of the most sustainable buildings to be completed in London this year.

Bordered by buildings on three sides, the narrow site presented a host of challenges as the retained
façade provided the only access point to the site, as well as the main source of daylight and views.

To balance this tp bennett carefully engineered the access, fire, servicing and daylight strategy to
ensure the interior of the building had visual connectivity to the outside and lots of natural light.

By resetting the ground floor and creating new openings, the floor levels were cleverly regulated
within the retained façade, providing scope for new external balconies and ensuring the office space
was compliant with BCO regulations. A new floor was also added to the roof level to provide 40%
more floor space, while working within the tight constraints of St Paul’s Heights’ regulations.

Basil Demeroutis, Managing Partner of FORE, said: “We are delighted to have completed VIEW 58. It
has been a hugely-successful development for us and endorsed our ‘responsible real estate’
philosophy, which focuses on low carbon strategies, social impact, placemaking and design, which
we believe enhances rental income and improves returns. We aim to bring sustainability
mainstream, to use it as a tool to unlock value just like any other asset management strategy and to
widen the view of ‘green’ beyond the traditional narrow focus on energy, water and waste”.

Phillippa Prongué, Managing Director (South) at Kier Property, added: “58 Victoria Embankment has
been an amazing scheme for Kier and FORE. Built by Kier Construction, it demonstrates a forwardthinking
approach and successful collaboration. We’re looking forward to continuing to build on our
relationship with FORE with the recent purchase of an 89,000 sq ft office building in Bothwell Street,
Glasgow”.

Yvette Hanson, Principal Director at tp Bennett, said: “We have enjoyed working on this project and
helping to deliver a highly-sustainable building on this unique site. It was by working in collaboration
with contractor, the wider consultant team, and through the innovative use of BIM, that we were
able to counterbalance the site’s complexities to provide a dynamic building that leads the way in
sustainability”.