Work is progressing well on the recladding of two occupied residential towers in central London.

As principal contractor for the project, Century Facades is leading the complex scheme to replace the external cladding as part of the fire safety works at Chapter King’s Cross for Greystar Kings Cross Unit Trust to ensure the structures meet current building regulations.

The buildings - part student and part private rented/affordable housing - comprise two interlinked 16-storey towers (height 59m). Located just 10 minutes from King’s Cross Station, the towers were constructed in the 1970s as offices for NatWest Bank before being converted into student accommodation in 2007. Working with the façade and envelope consultants Arcadis, quantity surveyors Stace LLP and structural engineer Waterman Group, Century Façades were appointed to design, supply and replace the existing blue and grey spandrel glass sandwich panels on both towers, leaving only the clear vision glass undisturbed. 

The replacement cladding is a bespoke blue/grey aluminium composite panel that is being glazed into the existing Schueco unitised curtain wall system. Similar in appearance to the original glazed spandrel panels, it complies with current building regulations. Planning approval was achieved by Greystar following a lengthy review with Islington Council to ensure an acceptable colour match between the original glass spandrel and the new aluminium composite spandrel panels. With circa 5,000 panels to be changed, most of which are located at a high level, suspended access cradles were deemed the only way to conduct the works externally without causing disruption to Chapter King’s Cross business.

“We are operating 11 cradles around the building at any given time. Cradles have their own constraints, be it the weather or safe working loads, which had to be considered when deciding how best to remove and replace the panels using suspended vacuum lifters. But once the operatives got used to the methodology, the works ran smoothly and progress increased” explains says Senior Project Manager, Nigel Richards.

The location and accessibility of the site also presented some challenge initially. “The towers are fully occupied so coordination was key to client/student relations and the assistance of Melisa Cubillos (Chapter Kings Cross Community Manager) and her team was vital to works progressing well. We also engaged with local business and the wider community each month to ensure good two-way communication and to minimise disturbance” he says.

The project sits on a red route, there are traffic restrictions on the narrow side streets leading to and from the site and a junior school lies just north of the project. “We implemented a detailed logistics plan with directives of our traffic movements and restrictions that our supply chain strictly adhered to in order to prevent works impacting the school’s activities” says Nigel.

“As principal contractor we are enrolled on both the Considerate Constructors Scheme and CLOCS Scheme to thoroughly risk-assess the project’s potential impact on the community. These schemes ensure site arrangements enable the safest fleet operations including ‘last mile’ routing, level access/egress, stable loading/unloading areas, effective delivery management systems and competent site access traffic marshals. We achieved a very high standard during both our Considerate Constructors Scheme and CLOCS audits, again minimising the impact on the local community.”

To further reduce the inconvenience and disruption of large vehicles in and around the locality of the site, 90 per cent of all the project’s materials were initially delivered to the Century Facades Logistics Centre in Edenbridge, Kent. From here, they were transshipped on small vehicles each day or as the project required, as just in time deliveries to minimise the impact on the community. This also ensured materials were always available in advance at Edenbridge for call off to site to meet the stringent time schedule of the project.  

The project is due to complete in spring 2023.

‍