Lucent is an amazing building. From the outside, it looks like several different buildings. But on the inside, it is just one.
It has been 11 years in the making. The space behind the world-famous Piccadilly Lights had lain vacant for decades after several schemes failed to get past the planning stage.
In 2012, Landsec, Europe’s largest property company, unveiled an ambitious proposal to transform the entire block by unifying 13 original buildings into a single mixed-use development. The design by Fletcher Priest Architects would accommodate commercial, retail and residential space and a rooftop restaurant, encompassing 144,000 sq ft over seven storeys and the excavation of a three-storey basement. Planning permission followed in 2016, demolition work began in 2019, and the building was completed by late 2023.
Like me, visitors to the building today cannot fail to be impressed by its size and scale and the quality of the workmanship. The offices have been completed to a Category A finish and the floor plates on three levels are exceptionally large even for central London, extending to all sides of the site’s footprint.
The building is designed around a central open-air atrium, complete with a full-sized tree, that floods all floors with natural light. The 20 roof terraces offer stunning uninterrupted views across the city. Nestled behind the Lights, there is a three-storey internal green wall and glazed roof, creating a tranquil garden space for office workers to enjoy. Features such as on-demand ventilation, providing optimal indoor air quality while saving energy, have earned the building a BREEAM Outstanding certification.
It’s just a great place where people can work, live, eat and shop.
Lucent W1 combines best-in-class offices with retail, hospitality and residential spaces to create an exciting new destination directly behind London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights. RLB’s cost management experts played a key part in this landmark building’s successful regeneration, a role which required them to call on their skills in collaboration as much as calculation.
Craig Bowie, Senior Associate Cost Manager, RLB
Working as one team
RLB was the cost consultant for the project, a role which involved managing all costs, specifications, documentation and legal contracts on a day-to-day basis from inception to completion. We constantly reviewed input and operational costs, provided Landsec with regular financial and cash flow reports, forecasts and economic advice, liaised with contractors, and supervised invoicing and payments, making sure our client was always paying the right amount and getting good value for money.
On Lucent we deployed our own in-house ROSS 5D software, which interfaces with building information modelling (BIM) files created by designers and consultants. ROSS 5D – which represents the five dimensions of space, plus time and cost – helped us to prepare accurate and timely estimates and bills of quantities from BIM models, and keep them updated as the project progressed.
Being an effective cost consultant, however, does not just involve dealing with quantities and numbers and money. In fact, it’s more about forging relationships and fostering collaboration.
A cost management team has to be responsive to change, fluid in its thinking, and able to solve problems and plan ahead – and you can only do all of that if you work closely with everybody. Throughout the project, we met with Landsec and the design leads every two weeks, and with the project managers every week, so there was a lot of communication.
For a complex project like Lucent, with its multiple stakeholders and site constraints, it was imperative that everybody worked as one team. It’s how we work at RLB, combining our skills and knowledge in different disciplines to find innovative, cost-effective solutions that lead to the best outcomes.
We tried to nurture this ethos as much as possible on Lucent and we built some really close working relationships, which ultimately contributed to the project’s success despite the many technical challenges and additional pressures we faced.
Coming through the pandemic
The pandemic hit the project at the worst possible time, just as we were demolishing the original buildings and excavating the basement.
We came through something that had never happened before in our lifetime because we were agile and adaptive, and thinking ahead of the curve. A week before the lockdown was announced, we had already taken steps to manage the entire project remotely.
We also changed the communication strategy, so we spoke every day with Landsec, at the same time first thing in the morning, and quite often we’d speak again at night. We had a fallback plan for all contingencies such as somebody falling ill. Everyone’s health and safety were always the top priority and we managed to avoid an outbreak of Covid and keep the project going.
Then, just as the main redevelopment work was starting, the virus hit again. We were back to square one, but the site still never closed.
Preserving heritage sustainably
A unique aspect of this project is that it combined new build with the preservation of historically important structures. Three of the original facades were dismantled brick by brick and transported to the quarry in Portland, Dorset, where the stone had originally been quarried.
The design team, Landsec and I went down to the quarry and together we went through literally every brick on the building to work out what could be reused, what would have to be cleaned and repaired, and how much it was going to cost. The recycled stone was then transported back to the site and used to rebuild the facades, but stretching them by three floors to align with the top of the Piccadilly Lights. Dismantling facades and rebuilding them is quite common in London but not to the extent that we did on Lucent.
It was painstaking work but it provided huge cost savings and was very sustainable. Out of 1400 tonnes of waste produced, 99% was diverted from landfill and recycled.
This was accomplished despite the logistical challenges of working on an island site in one of the busiest parts of London – it is estimated that every year around 200 million people pass through Piccadilly Circus.
What’s more, there were three on-site tenants, all fully trading, including the highest-earning Boots pharmacy in the country. These retail units, just as the Piccadilly Lights needed to remain fully operational, had to stay open throughout the redevelopment – and we achieved that.
Iconic in its own right
Lucent’s office space is now fully let, which underlines that demand for premium space in the best West End locations remains high. It is the kind of innovative, amenity-rich space that businesses are looking for to attract and retain the best talent. Lucent is now one of London’s landmark buildings.
I worked on this project for nearly seven years and it has been the absolute pinnacle of my professional career to date. It’s a once in a lifetime project and I’m incredibly proud that RLB was part of the exceptional team that delivered it.
Watch our video case study on Lucent here:
Lucent at a glance
- 110,000 sq ft offices
- 30,000 sq ft retail
- 3,000 sq ft residential
- 20 roof terraces
- 7 floors
Craig and his team were a constant on the development, really understanding what we were trying to achieve, adapting to the often-challenging circumstances and being integral in the success of this eminent building.
Jess White, Senior Development Manager, Landsec
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