Northumberland House

Situated on Northumberland Avenue in London, this project involved the transformation and restoration of Grade II* listed Northumberland House into a modern business hotel and student accommodation. The project entailed adding 15 new stories over three separate wings. The building was built in 1878 as the Hotel Victoria and has been occupied by the MOD for the last 60 years. The hotel comprises a 260-room Club QuartersTM hotel, 380-bed student accommodation for the London School of Economics, a separate restaurant, banqueting, and conference facility.

Elementa Consulting provided full mechanical, electrical, and public health design, energy and sustainability strategies, and options appraisals. The challenge was to integrate modern services in a commercially viable way. Across all project elements, the client was keen to reduce energy wastage and future operating costs while keeping installation costs on budget. Existing air-conditioning and ventilation systems were carefully reviewed and upgraded with modern technology as part of the new scheme.

This delivered a saving in embodied energy as well as in installation cost. Elementa Consulting’s design scheme also delivered several simple and practical energy reduction measures. These included improved air tightness, the Whitehall district heating system, and effective, easy-to-use control systems throughout the building. These measures helped to deliver energy usage well below the benchmark for a hotel of this size.