Welcome To Leeds Society of Architects

Bridgewater Place, nicknamed The Dalek,[1] is an office and residential development in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the tallest building in Leeds and the tallest building in Yorkshire, and has held this record since being topped out in September 2005. It is visible at up to 25 miles (40 km) from certain areas.

The development has been designed by Aedas Architects with the developer being Landmark Development Projects and St James Securities with Bovis Lend Lease being the contractor. The developer of the residential element of Bridgewater Place is KW Linfoot.

It was first announced in 2000 and, following several redesigns and delays with the construction process, construction of the building began in 2004 and was completed in 2007. It became the tallest building in Leeds, by a significant margin, and Yorkshire (although this does not take into account structures such as Emley Moor). Bridgewater Place has a height of 110 metres (360 ft) to roof level. Originally the tower was to have had a spire which would have extended the height of the building to 137 metres (450 ft), however this was never built.

Bridgewater Place has 32 storeys, of which two are used for car parking, ten for offices and twenty for residential purposes. There is 40,000 square metres / 430,560 square feet of floor space in the building with 200 flats and 400 underground car parking spaces serving both the residential and commercial areas of the building.

Current office tenants include Eversheds, Ernst & Young, ghd, BDO Stoy Hayward, Operon and DWF LLP. Retail tenants include Tesco, Starbucks, Nooshi, Create and Philpotts.

The atrium of Bridgewater Place hosts the 17.5 metre column sculpture called 'Hello Friends' by artists Bryan Davies and Laura Davies, which is tallest sculpture in Yorkshire[citation needed]. Created as a reinterpretation of Constantin Brancusi's Endless Coumn from Târgu Jiu, Romania 50 years after the artist's death, it houses illuminated photographs showing a science fiction narrative.

The major part of the building's construction was completed by late December 2006. The completion of the entire building was commemorated on Thursday 26 April 2007. A special episode of Look North, the BBC's local regional news programme was produced to commemorate the opening of the tower. The tower is illuminated at night with bright coloured lighting effects, colours used so far[when?] include blue and purple.

The building's shape appears to be accelerating winds in its immediate vicinity to the extent that pedestrians have experienced severe difficulties walking past. These winds have led to some of the entrances to the building being closed for safety reasons. To rectify these issues in the design may require the addition of 'vertical fins' to the facade of the building.

Shepherd Construction Ltd took possession of the site in November 2004.  The existing structure was five storeys high with a basement and was constructed using a steel frame encased with concrete panels.
The contract consists of a 20-week demolition period, including 8 weeks of asbestos removal, followed by a 60-week build period.  To minimise the overall construction period there were three main activities that had to be co-ordinated systematically during the initial 20 weeks:
•    Asbestos removal and air clearance.
•    The main demolition works.
•    Diamond drilling to the existing basement and installation of the 205 rotary bored piles.
The principle problems that we encountered with these activities were:
•    Maintaining segregation of the asbestos removal team while the other demolition work took place.
•    Maintaining fire escape lighting and fire alarms during the demolition.
•    Coring over 250 metres of reinforced concrete holes, 250mm in diameter, to enable the rotary bored piles to be cast.
•    Maintaining a reasonable relationship with the adjoining properties by working days, nights and weekends.
•    The logistical problem of removing approximately 6500 tonnes of debris off site and transporting it through the city.
•    Dead shoring to Russell House during the demolition.  The building should have been able to support itself, however this was not the case, which extended the contract by three weeks.

The construction phase
The project consists of a 7-storey steel framed structure, providing approximately 62,000 ft2 of office space with an A3 retail unit situated on the ground floor.  The building is constructed over an existing basement, which will form the new car park for the new building consisting of 32 car-parking spaces and 44 cycle spaces.

The principle problems that we encountered with these activities were:
•    Constructing the new building between the existing buildings whilst ensuring the maximum floor area is maintained.
•    Material unloading and distribution.
•    Tower crane management
•    Meeting the planner’s requirements.
•    Design co-ordination and sub-contract management.

The project was completed on schedule in July 06.