Grafton's £140m LSE building approved

Grafton Architects has got the go-ahead for its £140m building for the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) at Lincoln’s Inn.

The scheme invoves the redevelopment of the former London home of Cancer Research UK.

The project will see the current building at 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields demolished and replaced by a new 10-storey building to create 18,124 sq m of educational floor space.

Dublin-based Grafton was selected via a RIBA competition last year, beating Herzog & de Meuron, Amanda Levete’s AL_A and David Chipperfield, Diller Scofidio & Renfro which had bid with Penoyre & Prasad and Niall McLaughlin which had teamed up with Scott Brownrigg.

Demolition is due to begin later this year with the building expected to be completed in early 2021.

The new building will be known as The Marshall Building after donor Sir Paul Marshall. It will contain The Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship.

It will also house the academic departments of accounting, finance and management, teaching facilities, plus sports and arts rehearsal facilities, including a Sports England standard multi-purpose sports hall for use by staff and students.

LSE director of estates Julian Robinson said: “This is a major milestone in the delivery of our ambitious estates strategy, which seeks to create a world class estate and a university quarter fully integrated with the public realm.

“Our design brief called for a seminal university building and Westminster City Council have recognised that a combination of an outstanding architect and a committed client will deliver this vision.”