- Location:
- Leicester
- Services:
- Budget:
- £30m
- Client:
- Mabble Ltd
- Sector:
- Residential - Private
Hospitality & Conference
Comprising an eight storey hotel and a fourteen storey apartment building, the development sits on a prominent corner, in a sensitive transition zone.
The design responds to the location through stepping profiles that respect the scale of the existing environment, with massing changes from the two storey smaller scale on the Church Gate frontage to the larger facades on the Eastern side, finally culminating in an elegant tower fronting the ring road.
Modern and contemporary in appearance it addresses the changing street scene of its surroundings. Carefully selected materials provide for texture, solidity and modulation, to create a high quality facade treatment that sits well with its environment, at both low and higher levels.
The use of brickwork for framing elements of the facade with lightweight infill panels creates a cultural form that appears to be crafted from a pierced block, encouraging the viewer to perceive the robustness and strength of the vision.
The zones adjoining the hotel and the residential entrances are paved and landscaped to provide an attractive interface between the public and private areas.
The 171 bedroom hotel features bay windows at street level, allowing views into the interior spaces creating the feeling of interaction between the inside and outside areas.
The 142 apartments have car parking and cycle spaces provided at ground level. A communal exterior space for the residents has been created above the car park, with soft planting and street furniture. This useable outdoor courtyard not only provides an attractive outlook for the lower apartments, additionally the planting provides privacy to the first floor windows and screening from the hotel bedrooms that overlook the space.
Buildings of this quality are few and far between in Leicester and a development of this nature completely transforms the environment around it, lifting the spirits of the city, creating a cosmopolitan environment, whilst bridging the gap between the character of a Conservation Area and a city ring road.