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PROJECT REPORT: HOTELS, RESTAURANTS & BARS
PEACEFUL VIEWS
The original retained facade looks out over the Peace Gardens, a key part of Sheffi eld’s public realm
works needing to occur over existing basements, and retention works to party walls with the building’s neighbours. Ben Carrack accepts that: “technically, this was an extremely complex project with many aspects to navigate.” This is a busy, diverse city centre site, with a near one-storey level change between Pinstone Street and Burgess Street, posing perhaps the greatest challenge to the architect, as they sought to maintain access to the rear of the Gaumont building whilst offering the potential for an external courtyard. Pinstone Street is a major route, so deliveries would be diffi cult, and needed to be primarily from the upper level of Burgess Street, causing future challenges for the developing Transport Strategy. There were a couple of related design challenges in erecting a new hotel to maximise the investment for the client on this tight site. Retaining the existing facade on Pinstone Street in particular (which once housed Palatine Chambers and City Mews) meant a prescribed window pattern on that elevation, which constrained the dimensions
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of rooms that could be provided, versus what could have been done with a more pragmatic modern hotel plan. In turn, this also impacted on the window arrangement that was possible on the new elevations. In addition, the new seven-storey block on the west fl ank that replaced Barkers Pool House needed to respect its neighbours. As a result, this steps down to fi ve stories to blend with existing buildings on Pinstone Street. Retaining the facade “presented challenges through the design stages but the end result was worth it,” says Ben Carrack.
A ‘subservient’ facade HLM created a ‘manifesto’ early on in the project to “anchor the key design drivers for the project” and ensure everyone was on board. This principally “looked to draw upon and amplify the rich social and architectural history of the site, responding sympathetically to the existing material palette of the wider historic context in a contemporary reinterpretation for the Sheffi eld of today.” The practice asserts that while the design developed,
ADF MAY 2025
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