Client

Park Lane Properties

Location

Leeds City Centre

Project Value

£3.0m

Architect

Browne Smith Baker

Contractor

Park Lane Properties

Project Brief

The project involved demolishing a former mill building on site which was surrounded by neighbouring properties, and the construction of a new six-storey building to be used as serviced apartments. The building facade required careful structural detailing to provide clear spans over ground floor retail units. Requirements also included shallow structural floor zones to keep within building height limits whilst incorporating services and minimal vertical bracing. The construction was completed in 2009.


Solution

A detailed pre-demolition structural survey and risk assessment was carried out to ascertain details of party walls and methods for the demolition of the existing structure and the construction of the new foundations and their impact on neighbouring properties. Adept liaised closely with the party wall surveyor to resolve all issues efficiently and safely.

The new building consisted of six levels, including a partial basement, and was framed in structural steel. The roof was constructed from composite sheeting, the upper floors from concrete metal decking and the outer leaf of masonry was supported from stainless steel brackets at third and first floor levels. The ground floor was a suspended 225mm thick reinforced concrete slab supported on reinforced concrete ground beams.

The basement was constructed from a contiguous piled wall using 350mm diameter piles. A reinforced concrete wall faced the piles and a 300mm thick basement slab supported on ground beams completed the basement envelope. All facing concrete to the basement area had a XYPEX crystalline waterproof additive in lieu of a membrane which fulfilled the waterproofing requirement.

Due to poor ground conditions the structure was supported using a continuous flight, auger-piled foundation solution.

Lateral stability was addressed by a combination of cross flat vertical bracing generally with the addition of portal bracing. The project was completed on time and to budget.