Ardmore set to go solo on troubled Barbican scheme

Ardmore is set to go it alone on a £140m school and flats complex at the Barbican in the City of London as cracks start to appear in its joint venture with Mace.

An Ardmore/Mace team was appointed preferred bidder on the Milton Court scheme by developer Heron International earlier this year.

But Heron is believed to be unhappy with escalating cost estimates on the project and could now turn to Ardmore to build the project on its own on a design-and-build basis.

Meetings are planned this week between the developer and the joint venture to thrash out the future of the project.

A source close to the job said: "Heron has been getting twitchy about some of the numbers being put forward by Mace and the figures they are talking about are not what the developer wants to hear.

"Relations are getting a bit strained between Ardmore and Mace and it looks like Ardmore could go it alone and get the job done cheaper than in a joint venture."

Costs on the project have already been cut after a revised planning application was submitted to the City of London Corporation.

A Mace spokeswoman conceded Heron was looking at the future of the deal. She said: "We are in discussions with Heron because they are looking for different routes to run the job."

The original application for a 44-storey tower was rejected by the Corporation and has been replaced with scaled-down plans for a 35-storey residential tower above a new theatre for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The scheme has caused controversy among conservationists because it involves demolition of the first building constructed at the Barbican - the 1963 Milton Court by architect Geoffrey Powell.

Milton Court is not listed like the rest of the Barbican, but heritage group the Twentieth century Society has written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport calling for the building to be listed.

Revised designs from David Walker Architects have reduced the tower's height to 112m and it will contain 295 new apartments.