International investment bank headquarters

The creation of a genuinely state-of-the-art headquarters building incorporating a data centre and 2,400 dealer positions over two floors in the city of London was a considerable feat involving demolition, new build and the refurbishment of existing buildings. The logistics aspect of building directly above a network of tunnels formerly used by the Post Office for mail deliveries added a level of complexity that was compounded by archaeological finds dating back to Roman times. Mace successfully accommodated the archaeological investigation within the agreed programme without losing any time, while also observing the stringent construction restrictions imposed by the City of London.

A principal element of the whole was a main computer room comprising 35,000 square feet of air-conditioned racked IT space, which had to be handed over to the client 18 months ahead of project completion to allow for the extensive IT roll-out of 2,400 dealer positions plus 2,000 support positions. To meet the schedule, the room was constructed in isolation in the building's basement with the chillers, UPS and associated networks and risers installed and commissioned early. Innovations were applied to building services with floor voids fully utilised to serve both the data centre and the offices and achieve efficient cooling. Time and resource were saved through the use of a prefabricated, modular façade.