1 Berkeley Street
Sectors
Services
Client
Hurley Palmer Flatt
Project overview
BB7 were appointed by Hurley Palmer Flatt to take over the project from an existing Fire Engineer in the later stages of design. BB7 provided a fire strategy and CFD modelling for the client.
Project scope
1 Berkeley Street is a full renovation of an existing building which comprises 180-room high-end hotel, 6,500m2 of office accommodation and 2,000m2 of retail space opposite The Ritz hotel in Mayfair, London. The proposal uses most of the main structural frame of the existing office / hotel building on site with some new extensions to the back and an additional single storey. An adjacent 3 storey office Annexe also forms part of the development. ‘1 Hotel’ will be nature-inspired, bringing the outdoors in. The 9-storey hotel will house 184 guest rooms, a celebrated farm-to-table restaurant with garden seating and a bespoke fitness and wellness centre. 1 Hotel London will also feature a communal lobby bar, meeting rooms, indoor living wall and duplex presidential suites. The ground floor and basement levels will consist of newly renovated commercial units facing onto Piccadilly opposite The Ritz hotel and the upper floors will be newly fitted out office accommodation.
The BB7 response
BB7 took over the project from the existing Fire Engineer in the later stages of design and faced challenging design issues which had been agreed in principle to the team which were not achievable in terms of fire safety. We had to make design changes in areas of the building to satisfy life safety requirements whilst keeping high-end design features within the project. This included items such as green living walls within the main entrance lobby. Where the building is existing, the staircases that were part of the original building formed part of the escape routes for both the hotel, retail and office accommodation. This created difficulty designing the escape routes, fire service access and occupancy levels within the building.
In addition the team also completed the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modelling for the firefighting shafts within the building and provided fire engineered solutions for fire service access where the escape routes merged at ground floor level. The team have also been instructed to work on the construction stage of the project and provide a high level of input to the team on the fire safety systems, external wall and general construction queries arising from the complicated design.
Benefits of service
Where BB7 were able to identify areas that have been agreed in principle from the previous Fire Engineer that were not achievable – we were able to assist in the changes to design at an early stage. This would have been picked up by Building Control and the Fire Authority during consultation and would have resulted in major changes to design at a late stage causing delays and incurring a cost to the client. BB7 mitigated this risk by providing engineering expertise to help the client meet project requitements.
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