Lakeshore, the former Wills Tobacco Headquarters, Bishopsworth, City of Bristol

Summary

Former headquarters and amenities for the adjacent Wills cigarette factory, now demolished, set in a landscaped site astride a lake. The remaining building was converted to flats circa 2007.

Description

DATE: work began on the site in 1970 and took five years to complete.

ARCHITECT: designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Chicago, in collaboration with Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, London. Landscaping by Kenneth Booth.

MATERIALS: a reinforced concrete-framed podium beneath a Cor-ten steel-framed block with concrete floor slabs.

PLAN: an L-shaped two-storey concrete podium, circa 168 by 102m, orientated north-east to south-west. A rectangular, five-storey block rises from the south-west wing, circa 72x33m.

EXTERIOR: the two-storey podium, set above the elongated kidney-shaped largely natural lake, is partially built into the land. The podium, originally housing the amenities for the factory workers, has strong horizontal strips of exposed aggregate forming balustrades, with two tubular handrails. It has recessed full height glazing divided by the concrete pillars of the frame. The vertical members of the frame are visible between the main part of the building and the lake below. The five-storey steel-framed block originally had shops on the first storey with offices above. The frame has the weathered, oxidised appearance characteristic of Cor-ten steel. There are 20 bays with glazing recessed by 1.8m, or approximately half a bay, emphasising the grid structures and giving an appearance of transparency. Cor-ten grilles on each floor form balconies, enclosed by glass screens, and diffuse sunlight. The large glazed areas are now divided by narrow pale panels, placed between the apartments, which echo the rhythm of the steel frame. There is an inserted vertical break of one bay part-way along the frame on the south-east and north-west elevations, emphasising the new entrances. An atrium, set back from the façades, tops the office block. Treatment, proportions and materials are uniform on all elevations.

INTERIORS: there is a stairwell within the steel-framed block with a concrete dog-leg stair with a square-tubular handrail. All other internal features relate to the new residential accommodation. Large light-wells have been inserted through the concrete slab floors of the office block and a concrete lift shaft and internal landscaping features have been added.

History

The Wills Tobacco company, which was then part of the larger American firm, Imperial Tobacco, tendered for new manufacturing facility and administrative headquarters at a site in Hartcliffe, south of Bristol, in 1969. The chosen architects were the American firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) in collaboration with Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall (YRM) of London. The site consisted of a factory building to the east, with separate offices and amenities to the west. It was, at the time, the largest tobacco-processing factory in Europe, initially employing 3500 people. Building was begun in 1970 and was completed in 1975.

To compensate for the factory's location away from an urban centre, and in response to an employee consultation, facilities including banks, shops, a post office and restaurants were part of the development. Access for employees was integral in the design; large car-parking facilities were provided, hidden beneath the factory, and a bus shelter was built, with link tunnels to the factory on one side and the offices and amenities on the other. The surrounding undulating landscape of 22.7 hectares was mindfully incorporated into the design; the landscape architect Kenneth Booth designed a parkland setting which included the planting of over 1000 trees and the damming of a stream to create a lake from which the building rises.

The site is significant in the evolution of American office building in Britain. American firms, SOM particularly, offered a quality of finish and ruthless attention to detail not found in contemporary British work. Strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, SOM were pioneers in the ‘glass-box’ International Style, with a focus on commercial buildings. Earlier SOM work in Britain includes the Research Laboratories at the Heinz Headquarters (1960-1) and the Boots Headquarters, 1966-8, both listed at Grade II*; the former Wills Tobacco head office building is more exciting in its planning and use of materials, particularly in its placement over a lake and in the physical relationship between the podium with its general functions and the more specialised offices above. The buildings were designed to have an appropriate aesthetic reflecting the image of the giant corporation: crisp, sober and austere. Internally the offices were plain in design, with the intention that they would be clean, blank canvasses for bespoke furnishings and artwork. The headquarters was praised in the contemporary architectural press as a unique example of this style of American architecture having ‘a human face’ whilst the design represents ‘a grand gesture of a breadth that English architects often find difficult to make’. The building is also noted as the most ambitious example in England of the use of Cor-ten steel, a complex alloy of manganese, vanadium and carbon steel which oxidises within three years to a tactile rust-brown finish that is maintenance free and has a life-expectancy of 800 years.

The site was vacated circa 1991 when the parent company scaled down UK operations. All glazing was removed from the building, as well as all internal features, fittings and partitioning, leaving only the concrete floor slabs, the supporting pillars and the steel frame of the office block. The factory was demolished in 1997/98 and the bus shelter in the late C20; the linking tunnels have been blocked or filled. The podium and offices have been converted to flats, involving the insertion of light wells through the concrete floor slabs and the insertion of new partitioning, services and internal landscaping. The original bronze tinted glazing has been replaced with clear glass. A single bay of the steel frame, part-way along the front and rear elevations, has been removed to emphasise the new entrances.

Reasons for Listing

Lakeshore, the former Wills Tobacco Headquarters is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: for its crisp and sober design which combines the lightness and translucency of the steel frame with the muscular strips of the concrete podium, elegantly positioned astride a lake;
* Design interest: drawing on American trends of office design incorporating work, leisure and travel facilities in a contained and landscaped environment;
* Materials: it involves an early and ambitious example of a Cor-ten steel structure, and is a celebration of the material through its bold exposed frame;
* Historic interest: it demonstrates a significant development in American office building in England, and is a complex and successful example of a building by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

External Links

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