Pioneering office listed for award
Maidenhead’s Tempo building has been shortlisted for a prestigious award as it undergoes its £40million refurbishment, writes Madeleine Evans.
The office space in Grenfell Road has been nominated for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) UK Regional Awards 2024 under the Refurbishment-Revitalisation Project category.
The ambitious redevelopment project is a finalist for the award alongside three other projects in the South East, which will be judged by a panel of seven experts chaired by Henry Russell OBE, lecturer of historic development at Reading University.
The former head office of Three has been undergoing major redevelopment since March 2022 by Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), to create a 150,000sq ft sustainable building.
An initial aim for works to be finished by May 2023 has been revised to an expected completion date later this year.
Stanley Black & Decker, the world’s largest tool company, is set to lease the top floor of the building once the project is complete.
The RICS Awards praised the redevelopment from architect Suttonca, which has ‘wellbeing and occupier satisfaction at the heart of the design’.
The new space will include four floors of office space, a shared roof top, multi-purpose pavilions, a club lounge, and outdoor terraces.
It will also feature ‘end-of-trip facilities’ in the basement, which includes cycle storage, a spin and fitness room, a treatment room, changing facilities, and parking with 35 EV charging spaces.
The building’s focus on sustainability means it will have no natural gas heating, instead using electrically driven air source heat pumps, installing 282 PV panels, and maintaining the original concrete façade to reduce the refurbishment’s embodied carbon.
The awards showcase inspirational initiatives and developments in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure across five categories: Residential Development, Community Benefit, Heritage, Public Sector, and Refurbishment-Revitalisation.
Winners of the Regional Awards will be announced by April and automatically entered into the RICS National Awards, judged later in the year.