Commercial Quay Phase 1

These Category ‘A’ listed former bonded warehouses, once cool offices of the 90s, were looking tired and uninspiring when our client bought them in 2019. Our brief was to create cool office space, with a bespoke café and craft beer bar useable by both the tenants and the public, along with ‘unique’ break out spaces for the tenants.A number of café, bar and restaurant operators had vacated the ground floor units, so we were faced with the challenge of incorporating the clients many different functions within these linear plans whilst the buildings were still partially occupied by existing office tenants.The ground floor’s existing uninsulated ‘conservatories’ to the quayside, were not fit for purpose, so along with the major interior refurbishment we rebuilt these, installing new insulated roofs and glazing, heating and air conditioning, increasing the rentable area with office space.Our aesthetic for the spaces drew on the buildings past as both a bonded warehouse, home to whisky casks, and the gunpowder store formerly occupying the brick vaults. The main materials for the space were inspired by the ‘charred’ timber of the whisky kegs, which we used to form booth seating, a phone booth, casual meeting and printer areas throughout the buildings. The copper used on bar top and tables and break out area shelves were inspired by the rich, sherry coloured hue of the whisky.We created bright office space installing ‘Crittal’ style screens onto the circulation spaces, with break out seating and casual meeting booths breaking up the long ‘corridors’. Fully equipped tea preps occupy these circulation areas also along with routered black timber clad recycling stations and printer booths.The plasterboard of the 1980s was stripped back and sandstone rubble walls, repainted cast iron columns and steel beams became the ‘new’ finishes with coordinated exposed galvanized services along ceilings and walls.We also furnished the entire space including artwork, planting and styling. All lighting is LED and on PIRs to save energy, desk lamps allow for individual illumination rather than lighting an entire office unnecessarily. Recycled scaffolding boards create a feature wall along with copper shelving in the main ground floor break out space and we designed bespoke acoustic paneling with spray painted graphic, installed on the rear wall identifying the ‘dedicated’ desk area. Bespoke meeting room table and reception desk complete the space, along with refurbished wcs and showers.