Above the concourse of Victoria Station, embedded in the complex structure of London’s infrastructure, a new layer has been added with uncommon restraint.
The original office buildings at 123 and 151 Buckingham Palace Road, completed in 1991 by Arup Associates under Peter Foggo, exemplify late high-tech architecture—precise, modular, and robust. An ambitious program to mediate between transport infrastructure and public space.
Morrow + Lorraine’s intervention, Sky HUB, is an architectural addition that connects and oversails the two original blocks without disturbing their structural integrity. It is a significant new volume: three storeys and over 10,000 square metres of new workspace. Yet its presence is handled with care. The new mass doesn’t demand attention. It completes a composition rather than disrupts one.
Sky HUB’s structure is independent but finely calibrated to accommodate the subtle movements of the buildings beneath. A prefabricated, unitised façade system, ensures both precision and resilience. These are not stylistic choices but technical imperatives, resolved with clarity.
The new offices themselves are adaptable, divisible for up to twelve tenancies, and anchored by their own entrance and vertical circulation. At sixth-floor level, two outdoor terraces provide generous amenity and a continuation of the ecological strategy. The landscape, by BBUK Studio, is conceived as a vertical extension of the ground plane: irrigated lawns, native species, and integrated biodiversity features connect rooftop and street-level in a coherent environmental narrative.
Sustainability credentials are substantial but unforced. Operational energy sits at 74.66 kWh/m²/year—61% below the London Plan baseline—and the embodied carbon of the new structure is measured at 377 kgCO₂e/m². Photovoltaic panels produce 27,000 kWh annually. The building is all-electric, BREEAM Excellent, and designed for longevity.
Perhaps most impressive is the surgical precision with which the work has been carried out. The commercial floors of 123 Buckingham Palace Road remained occupied for the full 42-month construction period. This level of logistical complexity rarely invites design ambition; in this case, it seems to have sharpened it.
Morrow + Lorraine describe their intervention as “somewhat background in nature”. Although admirably modest, it undersells the genius of the architectural moves. Sky HUB does not compete with Foggo’s architecture. It observes it carefully, understands its logic, and extends it. The result is an architectural solution that is not rhetorical, but rigorous. A building that completes a thought, rather than introducing a new one. Peter Foggo might just have been delighted.
Gaw Capital Buró4 Peter Dann Consulting Engineers Gardiner & Theobald LLP Infinity Façade Consultants Ltd
