Located at the cross roads of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street in central London, and located above the new Crossrail station, The Now Building and associated St Giles Circus development breathes new life into the heart of London’s entertainment district with two new music/event spaces, a hotel, new and revitalised retail, restaurants and some of the largest immersive LED screens in Europe.

The site incorporates much of Denmark Street, London’s own Tin Pan Alley, and many of the heritage buildings were carefully restored and refurbished with the existing tenants remaining in situ. The relatively modestly sized buildings that make up the main site are located over a huge new basement entertainment venue, which itself is located just above the Crossrail tunnels under.

Structurally, this is a project that required careful engineering to succeed, ranging from cantilevering the principle corner over the station, to carefully engineered piling works prevent excessive tunnel movements the construction of a box in box structure, achieved through a ship-in-a-bottle like mole hole, and even the wholesale underpinning, lifting and relocating of a listed building to facilitate the construction of the multi-storey basement under.

A project of this scale is delivered by a large team; Ian led the detailed design and of the superstructure and Denmark Street, the box in box, much of the basement, and had a key role in monitoring the construction of basement and superstructure areas.