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department store building in Piccadilly. Lacking the ornamentation of his earlier Art Deco work, the car park’s curves and long horizontal lines give it an elongated appearance that exemplifi es the Streamline Moderne style.
Evolving needs Nearly a century on, transport’s decarbonisation and the emerging ideal of the ‘walkable city’ have called into question the priority that cars have long been given on our streets. With our masterplan for Olympia creating a state-of-the-art logistics centre underneath the exhibition halls, the former car park needed a new future. Given the complexity involved in converting MSCPs to other
uses, it is perhaps unsurprising that other buildings in this category, particularly later Brutalist additions to Britain’s landscape, have been lost to the hands of time. Famous examples include Gateshead’s Trinity Square, known for its appearance in Michael Caine’s Get Carter, that was demolished in 2010. But with newly acquired Grade II listed status, adapting a multi-storey car park to meet the needs of Olympia’s masterplan presented an exciting challenge for SPPARC.
The eastern portion of the newly renamed Emberton House is undergoing transformation into a 11,056 m2 fi ve star hotel, one of two hotels set to open at Olympia. Meanwhile, the western portion has been designed for a new school focused on the performing arts, as part of meeting the masterplan’s cultural aims. Arranged over 6,474 m2, the Wetherby Pembridge school includes a new community theatre that will complement the site’s new creative uses.
Working within constraints From the get-go, SPPARC set out to retain and celebrate the MSCP’s architecturally signifi cant exterior. Thought to be inspired by the Schocken department store in Chemnitz, Germany, the facade has horizontal bands of light coloured brick, between which are four continuous glazing strips that span the length of the building, curving at side elevations – faithful to the original composition. The addition of stainless steel balustrading and painted steel doors and windows call back to Olympia’s Victorian roots. The main challenge of converting an car park into other uses is the low fl oor-to-ceiling heights. Once all the requirements of a
VIEW FROM THE PAST The MSCP seen on right of pic, viewed from the train station / Russell Road
modern building like HVAC, lighting systems, and sprinklers are installed, this leaves a very limited clear height of around 2 metres. Adapting the height of the slabs was, therefore, needed to bring the building back into use, while ensuring these aligned sensibly with the retained window openings. With no less than 10 split-level fl oors, the car park’s existing structure consisted of a traditional reinforced concrete frame with columns supporting its vertical loads and cores, with one-way reinforced concrete slabs. SPPARC replaced the internal structure with a new reinforced concrete frame and post-tensioned slabs, connecting these to the original facade. This created single level fl oors and increased the clear height for the hotel and school uses, with a slight variation between the two that refl ects their differing requirements. SPPARC also introduced two additional storeys, bringing the total to seven. This lightweight glazed extension is set back by around 8 metres to ensure the increase in height is sensitive to its surrounding context. The elegant use of glass, defi ned by a balance of horizontal structure and vertical pleated glazing that is inspired by the original Grand Hall, enhances the MSCP’s visual cohesion with the wider Olympia masterplan, that utilises similar references. Though adapting the MSCP required working within signifi cant constraints, several retained aspects of the original design played well into the change of uses. Particularly well suited to the hotel is the building’s ribbon glazing. Wrapping the exterior, this allowed for windows that span the width of the exterior wall, allowing in plentiful light and reducing reliance on artifi cial lighting. Facing a low-scale urban fabric, particularly from the north elevation, this also provides guests with a wide, continuous view over London from the second fl oor up.
A new lease of life
CELEBRATED CURVES Trevor Morriss: “From the get-go, SPPARC set out to retain and celebrate the building’s architecturally signifi cant exterior”
Opening in late 2025 as part of the rest of the newly regenerated Olympia, Emberton House blends London’s architectural heritage with contemporary interventions that secure its use into the future. An important milestone in the developing design of this building type, the restoration sought to celebrate the car park’s infl uence, while ensuring it contributed to the vision of the wider masterplan in a meaningful way. Originally solving a car parking problem, the building is enjoying a new lease of life, training a new generation of creatives and increasing Olympia’s appeal as a cultural destination in its own right.
Trevor Morriss is principal at SPPARC
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF APRIL 2025
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