The new development comprised 372 apartments in two main blocks, including a 26 storey tower, with commercial space and basement car parks - together with a smaller commercial block. London Underground’s Central Line tunnels run alongside the site and under its South Western end and a Thames Water main sewer runs beneath one of the blocks.
Reinforced concrete structures on piled foundations were adopted, with reinforced concrete flat slabs in one of the main blocks and post-tensioned concrete flat slabs in the other. In order to maximise the basement car parking, substantial transfer structures were required at ground floor level. Although localised transfer structures were required in other areas, these were minimised by optimising the structural design.A steel frame was adopted, with light weight composite, metal-deck floors, for the commercial block to minimise the loads onto the London Underground Tunnels below.
The perimeter columns of the 26 storey tower had to be cantilevered over the tunnels requiring a grillage of storey-depth ground beams. To minimise the effects on the tunnels, piles adjacent to them had to be sleeved - precluding the use of c.f.a. piles, and so deep, large diameter rotary bored piles were adopted.
As the tunnels are directly beneath the Commercial Block, piled foundations could not be used and so are inforced concrete raft was adopted at basement level — the weight of the excavated material offsetting the weight of the new building to avoid increasing the load on the tunnels.
