Scheme will convert office space into high-end wellness clinic inspired by Mayfair’s luxury Lanserhof club
Simone de Gale Architects have won a £5m job to transform a grade II*-listed building two minutes’ walk from the RIBA headquarters.
The practice run by the RIBA board member and Building Design columnist has been appointed by healthcare provider Harley Street Healthcare Group to transform 28 Portland Place into a health, wellness and medical centre.
RIBA, where De Gale works as an honorary treasurer, is located north of the project site at 66 Portland Place.
The scheme will convert 15,000sq ft of existing office space, with the practice understood to be looking at options to extend the building at roof level and at the rear, along with basement alterations.
De Gale said the scheme will take inspiration from the Lanserhof at the Arts Club in Mayfair, a luxury wellness and ‘medical gym’ which charges members £6,500 a year.
The practice is expecting to submit a planning application within the next two months.
The building’s change of use has been made possible by Westminster Council’s 2019 City Plan, which removed a special policy area for Portland Place restricting development to schemes intended for institutional use.
The street is home to a number of institutions aside from RIBA, including the Chinese and Polish embassies, the BBC’s Broadcasting House headquarters, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Institute of Physics.
Number 28 is the central house in a symmetrical block built in 1780. Designed by the Adam Brothers, who laid out the street for the Duke of Portland in the 1770s, it is fronted by a giant pilaster order and a portico entrance.
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