This new contribution to St James’s Conservation Area sits on a prominent corner site just off Piccadilly. The completed building (‘The Marq’), comprising 46,000 sq ft new office floors, retail and restaurant space for The Crown Estate has now settled into its context and become a strong but playful addition to Jermyn Street, a historic part of the West End.

Jermyn Street and the surrounding area is well known for its association with fine tailoring, food and wine merchants, restaurants and art galleries. The building is therefore finely detailed and ‘tailored’ with attention to every detail to befit its historic location. Just like Beau Brummell, the streets original Dandy and whose statue greets visitors, The Marq continues to turn heads and capture the attention of on lookers, with its gilded corner artwork and striking entrance gates.

What is not immediately apparent from the outside is the building’s remarkable performance credentials. For the client, health and wellbeing are central guiding principles to their purpose. In response, the building has been designed in collaboration with Watermans Structures and Watkins Payne Partnership, specifically to achieve a Gold rating for WELL Shell and Core Certification. The Marq is one of only two completed WELL ‘Gold’ shell and core buildings in the UK.

The Marq achieved BREEAM ‘Excellent’ for the retail units, and ‘Outstanding’ for the larger office component, as well as a 60 per cent improvement against building regulations targeting CO2 emissions. Roofs are landscaped with biodiverse planting, bird and bat boxes. Rainwater is harvested, filtered, and reused to supply all WCs for flushing purposes throughout the building. Renewable technologies consisting of air source heat pumps, photo voltaic and solar thermal panels contributed towards The Marq’s EPC A.

Rolfe Judd remain committed to developing beautiful buildings, working with their client’s and industry professionals to illustrate how excellent design, technology and development can become carbon neutral.

High efficiency MERV 13 equivalent filters are used within the fresh air handling unit. A fully automated building energy management system allows full integration of the plant operation and energy meters with consumption of fuel, power and water being monitored throughout the building. There is a facility to remote monitor the system.

All the elements have low or zero VOCs. This is crucial to ensure high air quality within the building. An extensive process with the client and design team was required for material selection. Rigorous reviews, mock ups and sampling has resulted in a high quality end product. ‘Sustainability was high on the agenda from conception and the building has shown a 60 per cent improvement against Building Regulation Part L2A:2013 target CO2 emission rate. The Marq, has become the first new-build project.

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