Park House | Robin Partington & Partners

Park House presents a rare opportunity to redevelop an entire 1.04 acre city block on the edge of Mayfair with an Oxford Street frontage comparable with Selfridges. The project reached completion in November 2012.

The brief calls for prime retail space at basement, ground and first floor levels fronting onto Oxford Street, with the building above split into two parts, comprising seven floors of prime Mayfair office space to the western end and 39 private residential apartments to the east.

The building has a striking singular form, appropriate for the scale of Oxford Street with a commanding presence diagonally opposite Selfridges. The design allows retail, office and residential accommodation to enjoy a strong individual sense of identity without any one element dominating the character of the building as a whole.

Oxford Street steps across the site presenting an oblique view of the north elevation to the Oxford Street corridor. Similar steps in the alignment of both North Audley Street and Park Street are reconciled by a confident curvilinear form with corners that soften the buildings presence in the townscape. The tapered plan form allows for a dramatic double height office entrance to be located on Park Street, an important Mayfair business address. The more discrete residential entrance is located along North Row.

The 12m primary structural grid compliments the grain of the uses within, providing punctuation, hierarchy and order to the north and south elevations. The structural articulation has sufficient scale and presence at ground level to anchor and support the building above, balancing the need for transparency into the retail accommodation.

The unique configuration of its residential accommodation together with spectacular windows, balconies and private roof terraces afford stunning views over London, Mayfair and Oxford Street.

The recessed column cladding detail, with a midnight blue gloss finish articulates the building’s primary north to south grid The columns frame the layered façade panels which sit between the structure, integrating solid and glazed elements. The cladding is subtly varied in response to the mix of uses, adding depth and richness to the overall form, and a character that evolves and engages as you pass by.

Enamelled glass panels, designed by the artist Walter Bailey provide further visual interest, reinforcing the character of the building with a pattern complimenting the large carved timber sculpture that frames the Park Street office entrance.

The inclined facades of the building increase the space available for pedestrians at ground level on this busy thoroughfare, whilst ensuring that the upper levels do not become overly dominant. The roof areas are clearly articulated from the main facades by an inset balcony that steps along the north and south elevations, extending the language of strong horizontal roof line elements along Oxford Street and creating a valuable feature for adjacent office and residential accommodation.

The swept profile of the roof presents a fifth elevation in distant views along Oxford Street, and as such this important feature is clad to a similar standard as the principal elevations, containing and concealing roof plant, flues, exhausts and the mobile building maintenance unit within the overall envelope of the building.

The building takes advantage of ground water cooling to help reduce the amount of plant and minimise the energy that it consumes. The ground water provides the primary ‘cooling’ requirements for the commercial elements of the scheme.