Building on Victorian values

Refurbishing large Victorian buildings is not everyone's idea of a fun construction project, but for Chris York, project director with John Laing Management, it's just what he's after.

"I'm so enthusiastic about doing this job. Not many people are going to have the luck to renovate a Victorian hotel at one of the foremost stations in London," says York.

Laing Management is now a year into its £45 million construction management contract to refurbish the Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street, in the City of London.

"It's far more challenging and satisfying than building a new office block - it's like fitting a jigsaw together," says York, eyeing the hotel with a proprietal gleam.

A jigsaw accurately describes both the hotel's original construction and its refurbishment. The Great Eastern was built in the 1800s, substantially extended at the turn of the century and has had a series of extensions and alterations since then. But little or nothing has been done in the way of proper maintenance or refurbishment in the last 20 years, which meant the hotel became so run down it was no longer fit for use.

However, a joint venture between Arcadian Hotels and Conran Holdings clearly thought that refurbishing the only hotel in the City of London would be a lucrative prospect. They bought a long lease from the freeholder - Railtrack - with the intention of transforming the building into a five-star luxury hotel.

No easy task

Altering Grade II listed buildings is no easy task, but architects Manser Associates, came up with a solution. "The architect has done a magnificent job to get planning permission that ensures we create a modern hotel within the old building," says York.

Manser's solution is to demolish the roof and fourth and fifth floors, while retaining the building's distinctive corner and central towers. The centre of the building has also to be demolished down to sub-basement level and be rebuilt to create a large central atrium with a glass roof. Two and a half additional floors are to be created within the new copper-tiled mansard roof raising the number of bedrooms from 150 to 266.

The ground floor will accommodate five restaurants, to be designed by Conran Design Partnership, the new bedrooms are also being designed by CDP. Conference and banqueting facilities will be grouped around another new atrium on the first floor of the eastern half of the hotel. A number of the finer rooms in the existing building are being retained and a new front entrance will be created.

Four new kitchens and new back of house facilities, such as storage areas and staff offices, will be located at ground, basement and sub-basement levels. Major plant is being installed at sub-basement or roof level. The building will have to be totally re-serviced. Bedrooms will be cooled by fan coil units and all the public areas by ducted, chilled air. New lifts, new electrical, hot and cold water and drainage systems and a cabling network for IT systems will also be installed.

Laing won the job for a number of reasons, but a key factor was that the client did not just want a construction manager, it wanted an expert builder as well, something Laing could easily provide. York was chosen as project director because he had worked on Victorian buildings before. "Unless you have had experience of these old buildings you might not find it interesting or easy. You need to know the problems," says York.

Laing's immediate problem was that it was given no lead time to get on site. "We had no time to plan," says York. The Great Eastern Hotel shares a wall with Liverpool Street Station. Two levels of shops on the station concourse run along this wall and reach back under the hotel. Also, part of Liverpool Street Underground Station is beneath the hotel.

All of this presented major problems for the demolition works. The tower crane had to be installed in the middle of WH Smiths which meant building a new shop for the retailer. A rubbish compactor and service ducts had to be removed or re-routed and staff from London Underground and the various other retailers moved out during the initial demolition phase.

Demolition was carried out by John F Hunt who demolished the roof and top two floors and then dismantled the central section floor by floor with a small mini-digger to create an enormous hole in the centre of the hotel. Trad Scaffolding installed a temporary Haki roof over the hotel to allow work to proceed in the dry.

Structurally the hotel was largely in good shape. The project consultants had been working on the hotel for a year and had undertaken quite a lot of exploratory work, so Laing had a reasonable idea of what to expect.

Corrosion

"The roof was shot. The lead work was gone and it had been adapted and bodged around. There was some corrosion on the Victorian steel girders, but there was very little dryrot in the breeze infiller joints. Everything will have to be replastered, except for the corridors. The weight is not an issue as we have demolished as much as we are putting back on," says York.

Once the demolition of the roof and top storey was complete, Laing began erecting the new steelwork which will provide the structural basis for the new floors and new mansard roof. Steel was craned onto the roof via a hole in the Haki roof and installation is now complete.

While work is underway on the top floor, the basement levels in the west block are also undergoing a thorough refurbishment. The basement will house new cold storage rooms and staff preparation and office areas. The existing configurations involve a lot of twists and turns, so straight corridors are being cut and new staircases being installed.

Lee O'Connor, Laing's manager for the west block, says: "There is a damp problem on one level, so we are waiting for the architect to come up with a solution, but there are no problems on the level below. New drainage systems are now complete and some structural steel has been put in to reinforce the ceilings as new plant rooms are going to be installed on the level above."

The basement areas extend out under Liverpool Street Station's concourse. A further phase of demolition will begin shortly to make way for the new kitchens. This has meant decanting the shops on the upper concourse level. The cantilevered walkway that gives access to the upper shops has got to be propped during this phase of the work. Work can only take place between 1am and 6am so as not to disrupt the remaining shops and passengers using the railway and underground.

Further along the concourse is the Hamilton Hall, a highly ornate Wetherspoons pub. The hotel extends above the Hall and a careful demolition job has to be carried out to remove the walls above the Hall's main beams to make way for new conference rooms. Any heavy handed demolition could send a decorative plaster cherubim crashing down into someone's pint.

The main work on the central area has yet to come on phase. A new reinforced concrete raft slab has been laid. Eventually a new atrium will be constructed from the first floor to the top and covered with a glass roof. New bedrooms will be constructed around the atrium rising to eight floors.

York has set a tough schedule for his subcontractors of 20 bathroom/bedrooms a week. "We made it very clear to the M&E guys and the plasterers that this was the speed we had to go at," says York.

York is keeping a watchful eye on tender and labour prices. "In the market at the moment you can still get very competitive prices, but you can get a very good firm for a much better price. If you get the specifications right you should never have to compromise on quality. The client is spending £45 million and he deserves a £45 million building. Quality and time are linked together and must not be compromised," argues York.

York acknowledges that now the industry is out of recession firms are wanting to make profits of 5-10 per cent. "This is the pressure we are under. Wages are going up so you have to know how to keep people. If the demand is there you can't keep a lid on it, so you might get poaching. You can counter that by providing a good environment to work in, good canteens and so on.

"My style is to go round and get to know people on site. I do the same with tenants and neighbours, talk to them, keep them informed."

York is also strong on health and safety. "The planning supervisor Mace, produced a good health and safety plan for the early stages, one of the best I've seen in fact. We run heavy safety induction courses with regular safety meetings and fire precautions are rigorously imposed."

Laing started on site on 28 June 1997 and is due to finish on 2 August 1999. For York the biggest challenge is time. "It's a very complicated job that needs a lot of understanding. We've a mountain to climb. It will really test our skills and those of the subcontractors to get it in on time."