Wellington House is a private residential development, delivering 60 apartments above retail accommodation at ground level. The 10-storey building occupies a highly visible triangular site at the junction of Buckingham Gate and Petty France in the City of Westminster, and is composed to create a visual focal-point for the area.
Client: Land Securities
Dates: 2007—2012
Architect:
John McAslan + Partners
Consultants
David Bonnett
WSP
Waterman Partnership
Hann Tucker Associates
Mace Group
Arcadis
Georgina Russell (Artist)
Gerald Eve
Pell Frischmann
General Contractor:
Wates
The ‘flat-iron’ plan with a central core angles back from tightly radiused prows, giving equal prominence to both principal façades and shaping a building that is read in the round rather than from a single viewpoint. JMP collaborated with the artist Georgia Russell to develop a continuous facade treatment in red Jaipur sandstone. The stone is intricately incised to form a subtle, large-scale relief inspired by patterns of the wind and birds in flight. The artwork changes in appearance according to the shifting quality of sunlight playing over its surface. Stone fins projecting from window reveals add more texture in oblique views.
In a contemporary interpretation of the traditional mansion block, the main body of the building is defined as a single, masonry-clad volume while the ninth floor is differentiated with zinc and glass cladding, and registers as an attic storey against the skyline. The result is a building that combines confident urban presence with fine-grained craftsmanship, using material, form and art to animate a prominent city corner and enrich the public realm.