Identification of ‘Live’ Services – UK House, London

UK House is an iconic mixed tenanted office and retail space located on Oxford Street, with parts of the building dating back to the early 1900’s. It has since undergone many refurbishments over the years and continues to evolve to meet with demands of today’s clients.

VJA Consultancy Ltd were appointed by Boom Collective who were overseeing the Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health services within the building. 

uk-house

The 2-day per week appointment lasting circa 3 years involved the identification of existing and redundant services throughout the building and feeding back to the Design Team to allow them to progress their detailed design. There was also a requirement to act as the liaison between the Design Team and the Building Manager in relation to scheduling potentially disruptive works.

The overall project scope included:

  • Identify and strip-out redundant services, including the enabling works.
  • Remodelling the building to suit the requirements of the current and future tenants.
  • The enabling of works for new penthouse accommodation on the roof.
  • Decarbonisation of the remaining gas heating and oil systems.
  • Major relocation of the Daikin VRV systems.
  • Replacement of the Main HV Transformers and LV Switchgear.
  • Removal of old water chillers, AHU’s and satellite systems.
  • Relocation of water tanks and booster pumps.
  • Installation of a new Fibre Data system ready for migration from the copper network
  • Replacement of all lifts.

Project Challenges

  1. Trawling through all the existing documentation / O&M’s etc. to understand the current installation, including the tenanted areas. Although the building has been well managed over the years, some key information was no longer available.
  2. Surveying a fully operational commercial and retail building on Oxford Street without causing any disruption to the multiple tenants.
  3. Understanding the evolution of the building’s infra-structure.
  4. Surveying within confined spaces.
  5. Working with the Project Team and the Building Manager to find an acceptable way to deliver each stage of the project with minimal disruption to the tenants.
  6. Building trust with all the Stakeholders.
  7. Working within an ever-changing construction environment.
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