19 Cornwall tour report
Sarah Worth, West Midlands Chapter Lead for Don’t Waste Buildings, presenting at 19CS.
A belated write up from a fabulous tour at 19 Cornwall Street in Birmingham.
This 7 storey building was built in 1989 and was home to PwC in the Midlands for 27 years before they relocated in 2019.
Kier Property commissioned Associated Architects to undertake a comprehensive retrofit, remodelling the façade and envelope to improve energy performance, replacing and updating the services to embed modern efficient technologies and smart, user-responsive amenities as well as creating outdoor amenity spaces and reconfiguring the entrance sequence, atrium and floorplates.
The building is now a sustainable workplace that prioritises wellbeing and environmental performance, ticking all the right boxes for NABERS, WiredScore, Well and BREEAM.
The air permeability and energy performance has massively improved and significant carbon savings were made throughout, through interior design choices, M&E upgrades and façade improvements.
The key takeaway for me was Director Steve Townsend’s comment, that they were able to make considerable savings in their carbon choices, but they were a drop in the ocean compared to saving the building itself, and if the city is to have any chance at meeting its stated carbon reduction targets, then much more is needed to be done to encourage building retention and reuse.
Click on gallery below for larger photos. Photo credits: ‘Before’ photos courtesy of Kier Property/Associated Architects. Tour photos and completed building photos ©Ben McPhee.
