LEEDS BUILDING SOCIETY, HEAD OFFICE : LEEDS
Client : Leeds Building Society
Having outgrown their current premises, Leeds Building Society consolidated their three current buildings spread across the city in to their newly acquired riverside location in Leeds. DLA won the commission to refurbish, revitalise and re-imagine the outdated existing riverside building to become the new prestigious Headquarters for the Society. DLA were asked, as lead designers, to help guide the senior management team through the the key steps culminating with a high quality refurbishment of their new building.
Working through a series of detailed interior design workshops with the SMT and other LBS representatives DLA have created a vibrant and stimulating refurbishment that responds to the Society’s core values of inclusivity and collaboration and accurately reflects the aspirational brief and operational requirements of the stakeholders. The design concept, which revolves around opening the the Central Atrium up at ground floor to create a cafe and informal work/ meeting space, and then creating ‘floating bridges’ in the 5 storey glazed atrium to connect the disparate wings of office accommodation at the upper levels is very much at the heart of the project. This clever introduction of the bridges suspends glazed meeting rooms, with open breakout space above, and provides new links across the atrium at all levels. The upper floor office areas maintain a simple and efficient collaborative layout, punctuated with areas of support facilities and team working areas to provide a flexible, varied and responsive working environment to suit all departmental needs.