Number 41 Harley Street is a historic, period building which has been used as consulting rooms for eminent health professionals for many years. It has recently undergone refurbishment by The Howard de Walden Estate to provide approximately 5,746 square feet of medical accommodation.
The main brief focused on the need to update the building as part of the ongoing maintenance of the estate and this also had to provide a solution to facilitate complete disability access throughout the building, starting at street level.
Having worked with the project architects for several years, Granite Marble and Limestone Ltd (GML) were chosen as consultants at an early stage to advise on the suitability of using natural stone in the environment. This role resulted in GML being appointed to carry out the project.
Inside the building, the main project design challenges were dealt with by the setting out of the diamond pattern flooring which was to run across the large reception room, through and along the hallway to the entrance. This was especially difficult as the diamond pattern grid had to be maintained, despite almost all the original walls of the property being out of square.
The substrate was prepared by the main contractor in consultation with GML and the project architects before decoupling membrane was specified and installed over the new flooring substrate. There was a significant contribution, throughout from the client, who was fully aware of the value and importance of this preparation work which would ensure the desired look of the finished surface.
“To realise the architect and client’s
vision within the uneven features of the historic building was a major project
management challenge that was made achievable through GML’s own design, drawing and surveying team.”
To realise the architect and client’s vision within the uneven features of the historic building was a major project management challenge that was made achievable through GML’s own design, drawing and surveying team. To achieve the classic interior pattern with a perfect execution in this setting, the architect specified a dual border of Carrara and Bardiglio surrounding the stones. The in-house team of highly skilled masons had to create each made-to-measure Carrara border individually to fit in with the undulating proportions of the building and the stones were sealed using specialist impregnators during and after the installation.
Adam Isaaks, Project Administrator and Drawings Coordinator for GML, commented on the complexity of the task at hand: “This is not a new-build, so it's impossible to have everything aligned perfectly, and the difficulty with this project was translating what we see on a CAD drawing and assessing how the users will interpret the design and layout of the pattern. That's why we met with the architects and client on-site and dry-laid the stone to physically see the best setting out before fitting”.
Another major focus of this project was to facilitate a disabled entrance to the building. The design solution and preference was to replace the entrance steps with a ramp
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A design providing contrasting, clear borders was drawn up that separated the start and finish of the ramps. There was also a subtle use of inset cabochons, which are darker on the flat surfaces and revert to Carrara on the sloping surfaces to denote the change in levels. The solution also meant that overall this did not detract from the character, aesthetic properties, and quality of the building along with the original materials used. Through the surveying and drawing studies, GML determined the exact challenges and techniques required to approach difficult and problematic areas – one of them being the greatly uneven walls.
The complexity and high specification of this project meant that the flooring pattern, both internally and externally had to be finely tuned on-site, with new elements being added to the initial scope of works and new additions such as bespoke door thresholds were made. It was important to spend time planning and to identify and foresee any possible issues and to make provision for these to ensure there was no wastage of time and money. GML were particularly interested in engineering and solving the disability access request and providing an intelligent design feature and use of suitable materials that aided visually impaired users. This was a major focus and of great importance to the success of this project.
GML’s team expertise and skill set made the client’s vision a reality against all the odds and the project was successfully completed on time and to the main contractor’s budget and schedule.
www.granite-marble-and-limestone.com MARBLE, STONE & TERRAZZO | 45
whilst meeting the requirements of maintaining the historic character of the building. GML advised that the use of one of the most classic of building materials, Carrara marble, was a suitable choice for this, mainly because this marble had been used in many of the original buildings when the street was constructed.
When creating the ramps, it was necessary to ensure that slip resistance values were set and achieved with a greater value being applied to the ramped flooring than to the level area, offering a different textured stone finish. Besides the incorporation of safety ramps for easy disabled access there was a necessity to also ensure clear visual cues for users with sight impairments. This meant different materials would be required and another traditional marble, Bardiglio, was selected to provide this.
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