McLaren Construction has been appointed by Publica Properties Establishment to carry out a £132m refurbishment and extension of 318 Oxford Street.
The project will see the old DH Evans department store being repurposed as a 34,000 square metre mixed-use development.
The art deco landmark was built in 1937 and occupied originally by DH Evans and then by the House of Fraser until it went into administration in August 2018. The building is badly damaged by ‘Regent Street disease’ – the corrosion of the steel frames within masonry clad buildings. The façade has been covered in safety netting since 2020.
McLaren will be responsible for repairing the Portland stone façade, reinstating architectural features and completing the Chapel Place façade.
A large proportion of the façade and structure will be reused to reduce the new building’s whole-life embodied carbon. High-performance windows and centralised building services will reduce operational carbon emissions.
The structural design relocates 10 steel columns retrieved from the demolished 5th floor to the new 8th floor. The remaining 11 columns from the fifth floor have been transported across London to be re-used within another project by the same structural engineer, Civic Engineers, working with another contractor.
Publica Properties Establishment development manager Joseph McNeil said: “The project has been a fantastic opportunity to work with McLaren Construction on a truly ‘retro-first’ approach, bringing this building back to life with the minimum whole-life embodied carbon impact.”
McLaren Construction’s managing director for London & south, Darren Gill, said: “More of these asset repurposing projects are coming through to the market. These are often familiar buildings in prominent locations. They present an opportunity to improve resilience through a variety of new uses – not just for the building, but for the area too.
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“The construction industry will increasingly need the skills to repurpose historic buildings. It’s essential if we want to balance the creation of quality spaces with reduced carbon footprints. McLaren’s investment in this expertise is paying off with a raft of high profile cut and carve projects in central London.”
The new building replaces a department store with ground floor retail (including two new double-height entrances) and office space, plus two restaurants and a gym with a swimming pool.
The 6th and 7th floors, originally designed with low ceilings for back-of-house use, will be reconstructed with the addition of a terrace. A new set-back 8th floor extension in lightweight construction is intended as a top-floor restaurant and will have a terrace.
The internal area of the northwestern and southwestern corners of the building will be demolished and reconstructed to remove staircases, lift shafts and internal divisions, creating larger and more flexible floorplates.
Public realm improvements include wider footpaths with new paving to indicate the new layout and entrance points into the building. Decorative paving will feature along Chapel Place.
The project is McLaren’s latest contribution to the reinvention of Oxford Street. It is also currently refurbishing the flagship Oxford Circus store at 214 Oxford Street. Past projects include 58-60 Berners Street, combining four buildings to create a 7,000 sq m development, the redevelopment of the former Virgin/Zavvi store to create a 13,100 sq m mixed use development and an eight-storey building between 11-12 Hanover Square and Oxford Street offering 4,500 sq m of office accommodation and 1,400 sq m of retail space.
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