Speeding along the M1 many of us will be familiar with the bridge restaurant straddling the motorway at Leicester Forest East services designed by Howard V. Lobb & Partners. Perhaps less familiar is their work at 76 Portland Place, refurbished by Theis & Kahn in 2015 for the RIBA for use as offices – note the RIBA Headquarters on the extreme right in this image.
Built for the City and Guilds of London Institute the design of this elegant, steel framed building clad in Portland stone was determined by the need to fit height-wise with existing buildings and limitations on window size. Core to the building’s current use is the ground floor staff “Forum” dining and meeting area which before being roofed over was originally a loading bay complete with vehicle turntable to turn mail vans in the restricted space.
For more information about 76 Portland Place and for more images of the work of Howard V. Lobb & Partners click on the links. All of the images are available to download, purchase or license.
Feature by Jonathan Makepeace.