Baker Street, London

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This group of new office and retail buildings continues along the east side of Baker Street from the two listed buildings in Blandford Street to George Street and back along Kendall Place.

Following nineteen years of negotiation with the planning authority and two lengthy and unsuccessful appeals, this design obtained approval from Westminster City Council and English Heritage because it embodied the requirements of the Portman Estate Conservation Area for the continuance of the classical tradition in detail and construction. Thus the external walls are all solid brickwork with sash windows set in deep reveals.

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The entrance building is in Portland stone exhibiting a Giant Ionic Order with attic storey above and rusticated and vermiculated ground floor. The corner building is stained and tuck pointed with a stone balustrade, cantilevered first floor balcony and hand carved plaques between the first and second floors. The shop fronts all employ the Palladian Doric Order. The buildings along Kendall Place exhibit Victorian and Early Georgian characteristics. The construction system is innovative, in that the interior and roof were erected first in steel allowing the loadbearing external walls to be erected outside the critical path. In this way the delays associated with traditional construction were successfully overcome.

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