Transformation of Former Courage Brewery Site Complete
The transformation of the former Courage Brewery headquarters at Staines on the River Thames into a crisp, contemporary, high quality office space has been completed. Designed by ESA – part of Capita – on behalf of LaSalle Investment Management and Bell Hammer, the building (‘Strata’) comprises 89,000sqft of office space over three floors, 174 parking places, a central landscaped courtyard and extensive gardens in the heart of town. The project stripped the original 1989 dated three-storey pitched roof and banded brick cladding back to its robust concrete frame and waffle slabs. The design proposal reconfigured and projected parts of the plan to gain an additional 20,000sqft of floor space whilst reducing the height of the building which is situated within a conservation area. The aspiration to modernise the building was achieved with the distinctive white horizontal decks which run seamlessly from internal to external environments before terminating at roof level in a striking eleven metre cantilever. The effect of this is to create a building which blurs the boundary with its immediate surroundings and moves away from the ubiquitous ‘glass box’ approach to commercial office design, creating a new and dynamic design vocabulary which is also expressed well via the Strata brand. Commenting at the building launch developer Bell Hammer said: “Without wishing to appear immodest, I think Strata is the best office development seen in the Thames Valley for a long time.”
