Battersea Power Station Phase 3
London, UK

The Client

Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) / ChapmanBDSP

The Architect

Foster + Partners & Gehry Partners with Adamson Associates as their executive architects.

The Project

The iconic Grade II* listed building and the surrounding area, which has been sitting abandoned for at least 30 years, is being brought back to life as one of Europe’s most exciting and innovative mixed-use neighbourhoods. A place for locals, tourists and residents to enjoy a unique blend of restaurants, shops parks and cultural spaces.

Comprising a total of seven discrete construction phases the site covers 42 acres, will boast more than 3,400 new homes, the restoration of the power station building itself and 2.5 million ft² of office and retail space.

The Brief

D2E were appointed by ChapmanBDSP to provide vertical transportation (VT) design services for the whole of Phase 3.

The Solution

The most challenging element of Phase 3 is the numbers.

Firstly, Phase 3 has two world-renowned architects. Foster + Partners are designing the west side of the Electric Boulevard, a 160-room hotel, six cores of residential homes and retail areas in a single structure. Gehry Partners are on the east side of the Boulevard with five separate residential buildings in Prospect Park. In addition, Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) are responsible for the interior design of the Hotel.

Secondly, in the spring of 2017 BPSDC announced that Bouygues would not continue as construction manager on Phase 3 beyond the pre-construction stage and Sir Robert McAlpine took over. This change and subsequent handover meant the VT procurement process needed to be repeated as quickly yet robustly as possible to ensure design and cost certainty, whilst minimising the impact to programme.

Finally, in 2017 Phase 3 was split into Phase 3A, 3B and 3C due to the significant challenges experienced interfacing with the Northern Line Extension works.

The Outcome

A close and honest working relationship with the Employer, with our Client and the other key stakeholders, has allowed D2E to stay with the project through the pre-construction phases. A VT scheme of 68 lifts and 12 escalators has been designed for the entire phase, of which Phase 3A (43 lifts and 8 escalators) was successfully tendered and procured between March and July 2019.

Phases 3B and 3C are at earlier design stages and D2E continue to provide design advice and solutions to support the changing building strategy.