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Conversions, Rehabilitation and Extensions

In this country we have a long and honourable tradition of adapting and enlarging buildings, from cottages to castles, to suit our new and changing needs. Indeed, much of our tourist industry depends on it.

Honourable in its own right, and certainly more economical, it saves all the hidden cost of finding and moving to new premises, or of starting afresh on the proverbial green field site.

Working with an existing building presents a special challenge. It needs sympathy and understanding of the original structure, and perhaps its earlier uses, - and an imagination to grasp what is required in the new arrangement so as to create a happy fusion which will form a new building with its own pleasing and coherent personality.

This is a job for the professionals - and for those members of the architectural profession who are genuinely interested in old buildings as well as new - and with a special interest in problem solving of an unusual kind.

There is an excitement in the idea of reviving a building which has come to the end of one working cycle, and perhaps become an inconvenience or liability, - and in helping it back to life, set on a new useful or productive cycle sometimes different from its original purpose.

We can help you with

Giving practical advice on the rehabilitation of derelict or abandoned buildings, the conversion of those which have come to the end of their present useful life, or the extension of those which need enlarging to meet new circumstances.

Investigating what alterations will be permitted by the local Planning Authority, availability of services, and generally what alternatives might be possible, - including the possible pros and cons, and range of likely costs.

Turning problems into opportunities, - devising ways of preserving the best of existing character and features, and grafting in the new improvements to create a new building with its own integrity, good appearance and up-graded value.

We can prepare diagrammatic ideas sketches for discussion, develop selected proposals to a more detailed Sketch Scheme, prepare Applications for Planning and Building Regulation Approvals, advise on builders and procedures and see the job through to completion and final accounts, - or give assistance up to any intermediate stage a client might require.

Our experience includes

A wide range of buildings, many interesting challenges, eventually overcome in many completed schemes, ranging from the creation of the VIP Lounge at London Airport to the extension of Duke of Sutherland cottages in Shropshire.
A coach-house converted and extended to form an up-market granny-house; a New York traditional Brownstone' converted to large Iettable apartments; rehabilitation of an old stone manor house for Lord Beaverbrooks ·right hand man; of Victorian and Edwardian pump houses to an award winning Visitor Centre at Conduit Head, Shrewsbury, - even schemes for converting a Victorian pile near Windsor to a harem for short-term leasing by wealthy Eastern visitors, - and another in Wales to multi-use hotel complete with helicopter landing pad.