The retrofit of an existing building presents a different kind of design challenge to a new development. The structure is already there. What changes is the ambition you bring to it, and how far through the project that ambition is allowed to reach.
At Woolgate, a landmark office building in the heart of the City of London, Gillespies worked as landscape architect on the sustainable redevelopment of approximately 350,000 sq ft of commercial and retail space. The brief was not to add greenery as a credential, but to coordinate planting and green infrastructure as a genuine part of how the building performs, from street level to rooftop.
The City of London is not a straightforward place to do this work. Streets are tight, ground-level footprints are constrained, and whatever occupies those spaces needs to earn its place across several agendas at once: biodiversity, climate resilience, public amenity and everyday use by people working in and around the building. Gillespies' approach addressed this by working vertically as much as horizontally, treating each layer of the building as an opportunity rather than a constraint.
At street level, new trees and planting extend the building's reach into the surrounding streetscape. Species were chosen for their suitability to an urban microclimate, their capacity to support pollinators and invertebrates, and their resilience as conditions continue to shift. Pocket parks and garden spaces at ground floor level create a calmer presence along the building's edges. These are not ornamental gestures. They offer a genuine pause in a part of the city where outdoor space at human scale is in short supply.
Climbing frames integrated into the façade carry planting up the building's face, contributing to an ecological layer through an otherwise dense urban grain. The roof is planted for biodiversity, providing habitat where a conventional rooftop would offer none.
At the upper levels, amenity terraces and grow gardens give occupiers somewhere to step outside, eat and engage with growing plants. The relationship between people and living material in a workplace has a practical effect on wellbeing and the quality of the working day. It is increasingly part of what occupiers expect from a City of London office.
Woolgate reflects the City of London's longer-term ambition for a more verdant, animated and climate-resilient urban core. The project makes a clear case for what a serious retrofit can achieve when landscape is treated as infrastructure, not finishing.
The building is complete and occupied. As the planting matures and establishes over the years ahead, the living fabric of Woolgate will continue to develop. That long view is part of the design.
Project details
Title
Woolgate
Client
Stanhope
Gillespies team
Stephen Richards, Emily Sutherland