Quadrant Arcade, a previously underused shopping arcade on Regents Street, central London, has been opened up into a vibrant arcade that links Regents Street and Soho and is now open to the public. We worked alongside Forcia as structural temporary works engineers to devise a scheme for the complex and significant temporary works to the Arcade, which would enable the removal of a large central column carrying 200 tonnes of live office floors above, from the front façade to create a new much larger welcoming entrance.

A new transfer beam, itself weighing 9 tonnes, would carry the building load allowing the removal of the existing central column.  This needed to be lifted into position above the new double height opening, whilst the existing central column was in position and carrying the load of the building.  Carefully phased temporary works were designed with monitored jacks to accurately establish the exact load in the existing structure and transfer the load of the building temporarily whilst the column was cut.  The load was then transferred into the new permanent one metre deep torsion beam through controlled jacking into two cantilevered jacking arms.  Real-time monitoring was carried out throughout the whole process to survey any fluctuation in movement of the historic facade.

Terry Crawford, Construction Director at Forcia summarised “working hand in hand with our trusted engineering partners Civic Engineers, we were able to develop an intricate sequence to get the substantial structure into place before the load transfer process was implemented. The now evident success of our work together is that people will assume that the column never existed”

Gareth Atkinson, Director at Civic Engineers on the project said “This project was three years in the making.  Due to the arcade being part of the famous Grade II listed Regent Street façade, the proposed architectural interventions were going to come under close scrutiny by Westminster City Council Conservation Officers.  The Crown Estate engaged with ourselves and Forcia from early in the planning processes to assess and prepare a temporary works design to prove that the proposed alterations could be done without adversely effected the exiting building.  Civic Engineers have a long standing relationship delivering complex existing building alterations with Forcia.  This project is up there with the best of them.”