George Osbourne opens new Nomura EMEA headquarters
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19/04/2011
It’s not everyday that a well known figure opens a Como project to the public, but on Monday 4th April 2011, the Chancellor, Rt Hon George Osborne MP did just that by officially opening global investment bank, Nomura’s impressive new EMEA headquarters at One Angel Lane.
As one of the largest fit outs in Europe, and quite possibly one of the fastest, the 546 000 sqft at Watermark Place was fitted out in just eight months. After acquiring Lehman Brothers, the investment bank had an immediate need for this amount of space and with leases running out, the team had to pull together to achieve the near impossible.
The brief was challenging and the scope of works included additional escalator installation, atrium in fills to extend floor plates to accommodate over 1800 dealer desks and installation of associated infrastructure to provide 2N resilience. Further main elements included were high quality executive and client areas, private dining, commercial standard catering facilities, broadcast studio, 220 seater auditorium, medical centre and gym. At its peak, total operative numbers on site hit 1580 per day and monthly valuations peaked at £22.8m. Regardless of the challenge, client Tony Bartle handpicked a team who rose to the challenge and the result was a resounding success.
How did we do it?
Ask anyone involved and they will all have the same answer – teamwork resulting in good relationships and communication. The client, consultant team, Steve Root, Como managing director and Como project director, Henry Tammaro had worked together before and by ensuring everyone was based on site any issues were resolved rapidly.
Henry Tammaro, director in charge of the project commented, "This project was a huge challenge but everyone from the client to the subcontractors pulled together and made every effort to achieve success on this landmark project. Como was delighted to be asked to work on this project and it will remain a highlight in the organisation’s history for many years to come."
Interesting facts:
- On track for BREEAM "Excellent" rating
- Over 500,000 square feet of space, with enough carpet to cover 228 3-bedroom houses
- High numbers of site personnel and man hours – it would take 1 man working alone 676 years to complete the project
- Four power generators – producing equivalent output to power 1,600 houses
- 1.4km Wila lighting. Each unit has 48 LED lamps inside – enough to illuminate Piccadilly Circus
- 250 metric tonnes of steel – equivalent to a 28th of steel used to build the Eiffel Tower
- 2500 km IT cabling with enough copper to stretch between London and Barcelona
- 1.5km chilled beams which would stretch around One Angel Lane 4 times
