Leatherhead wins best commercial building 2009
Unilever's headquarters office in Leatherhead has been announced as the winner of the Brick Award's "Best Commercial Property of 2009". The planning and development of this prestigious 157,500 sq ft building was led by developer and asset manager Landid and constructed by main contractor Bowmer and Kirkland to a design by architects dn-a.
Chris Routh of Landid said, "The development was praised for the balance between glazing and solid facades which has been achieved with elegance and economy; fully glazed elevations were rejected on environmental grounds. We are delighted to learn that the judges were unanimous in selecting this building as the category winner".
This building, which includes an impressive 12,300 sq ft atrium, is located on the western edge of Leatherhead Office Park and includes a 7,000 sq ft ancillary building incorporating a gymnasium and cafeteria as well as benefiting from planning consent to extend the existing building by a further 14,500 sq ft. Overall total parking at grade and within the undercroft is 525 spaces.
The building which has achieved a "Very Good" BREEAM rating and Grade B, EPC, is highly energy efficient and incorporates solar thermal panels and a closed loop ground coupling system to achieve in excess of 10% energy provision from renewal sources.