Skanska’s £273m Broadgate office revamp: structural reuse and carbon lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Skanska has begun a £273m structural refurbishment of Broadgate’s One Appold Street in the City of London, retaining the existing 1980s concrete and steel frame while adding six new floors and expanding the floorplate to create a 14-storey, 360,000 sq ft office building plus 48,000 sq ft of leisure and hospitality space. The scheme, for the British Land–GIC Broadgate joint venture, includes a new façade aligned with neighbouring Broadgate assets and full in-house MEP installation. Target ratings of NABERS 5–5.5* and BREEAM Outstanding put strong emphasis on circularity and embodied carbon reduction, with completion due in Q1 2029.
Technical Brief
- Structural strategy is a deep refurbishment, with the 1980s concrete and steel frame “largely retained”.
- Retention of primary frame avoids demolition arisings and new steel fabrication, directly targeting embodied carbon.
- Skanska is both main contractor and MEP installer, using its in-house mechanical, electrical and public health team.
- Contract value is £273m, let by the British Land–GIC Broadgate joint venture as client.
- Construction is already under way, with a long programme running through to completion in Q1 2029.
- Sustainability brief explicitly centres on “circularity”, driving reuse of existing structure rather than full redevelopment.
Our Take
Skanska’s push for a 5–5.5‑star NABERS rating at One Appold Street aligns with its recent UK work on low‑carbon infrastructure, such as Anglian Water’s constructed treatment wetland, signalling that it is building a strong in‑house capability around operational carbon and whole‑life performance rather than just construction emissions.
With completion not expected until Q1 2029, this long programme in the City of London gives British Land and GIC a hedge on future office demand, contrasting with Skanska’s shorter‑cycle transport and water schemes in our database, and suggesting a deliberate balance between cyclical building work and more stable public‑sector infrastructure.
Among the 671 Infrastructure stories in our coverage, Skanska UK appears frequently across rail (HS2 Euston tunnels), highways (Clifton railway bridge over the M6) and now prime London commercial, underlining its position as one of the few contractors able to carry both complex urban refurbishment and mega‑project civils in parallel.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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