Historic Building Light Well Preserved
SEVENDALE invested £6M in a major refurbishment converting the once warehouse into a prestigious shared office space.
OUR CLIENT
Sevendale House is one of the Northern Quarters most prominent Edwardian buildings dating back to 1903, once a general warehouse and now a Grade II listed property. Residing within the Stevenson Square conservation area.
SEVENDALE invested £6M in a major refurbishment converting the once warehouse into a prestigious shared office space. The iconic building has a large lightwell that they wished to utilise and preserve, our client was looking for an impressive passenger lift solution as well as additional lifts for goods circulation along with disabled access solutions.
Due to working on an additional prestigious project located in Saville Row London, iKONIC were invited to join the design team and participated in developing both the design and specification of the six lifts required onsite.
SEVENDALE wanted to achieve a stunning workspace for Manchester’s thriving business community. The finishes and style of the workspace was designed to encourage innovation, inspire employees, raise productivity and provide a real sense of personal wellbeing for all who utilise the building, their lift requirements were no exception.
iKONIC CHALLENGE
iKONIC was tasked with completing the installation of six bespoke lifts. Particular attention was being made to the passenger lift and structure contained within the listed staircase. The structure was largely timber with decorative iron work with complementary steel mesh infill panels.
It was essential to retain the historic aesthetic appearance of the original lift whilst installing a modern high-speed gearless traction lift to the very latest industry standards. The lift also integrates with the new duplex scenic lifts forming a triplex control system maximising the efficiency of the units.
Other concerns were the control panel locations which were eventually moved some 35 meters from the lift shafts. Achieved with no detriment to the running of the lift’s cables, iKONIC engineers screened and sized cables accordingly and routed through special ducting in the roof space ensuring not to visually impact the desired minimalistic appearance of the lifts.
In addition to the feature lifts we installed a disabled platform lift at the front of house, a further goods passenger lift serving 6 floors and a goods only lift within its own structure in the loading bay.
iKONIC SOLUTION
This was a very interesting and fulfilling project requiring a lot of design acumen and skill of our engineers. Visually we had to provide a clean clutter free lines and use experience to utilise the structure columns as a vertical conduit for essential cables and control equipment.
The lift within the structure needed an additional fine mesh screen installing within the lift structure to reduce the potential shearing risk due to the size of the original mesh. The cabins and doors on the scenic lifts were fully glazed
and frameless meaning great care was needed during the installation process.
iKONIC RESULT
With the installation successfully completed and all lift solutions passing comprehensive tests on time and within budget. iKONIC successfully fulfilled our brief. The transformation of Sevendale House provides a Grade A office specification behind a stunning Grade II Listed facade.
Our contribution working with the architect to use the fantastic central space to create a practical and aesthetically appealing solution which met our clients very bespoke requirement.
