Monitise Office Project - Gresham Street London

You will find our most recently completed project on our website and I am hoping you will find the story of this extremely successful project both informative and interesting.

We were engaged by Monitise to project manage and produce the initial design for their move from serviced office accommodation to a new head office facility in the City of London.

The processes involved fell roughly into 5 categories:

1. Detailed brief taking including business requirements and building selection
2. Initial design and specification of works with budget
3. Selection of a Design and Build company to develop, detail and build the agreed scheme
4. Value engineering of design to achieve budget
5. Manage the D&B company to ensure a successful project on time and on budget.
6. Selection and procurement of loose furniture.

For our first blog post on this refurbishment I hope to offer insight into the process of detailed brief taking.

I started the detailed brief taking process with Monitise during an introductory meeting with their Facilities Manager, Helen.  I quickly realised that the information I required to create a successful design was not readily to hand, indeed many of the expected expansion had not clearly been defined. A series of ‘interviews’ with department heads proceeded to flesh out the detail a far as possible, with many of the requirements extrapolated from current activities.

Current working practices were likely to be relevant whatever the expansion and on this basis a brief was formalised.  The brief identified department name, size – in terms of headcount, hierarchy, working practices, storage and meeting requirements as well location adjacencies to other departments/equipment.

A total headcount including current expansion was eventually identified at around 450 with a further requirement for 2nd phase expansion taking occupation to 500. Cellular offices, meeting rooms, breakout areas etc. were also quantified before planning could begin in earnest.

Whilst the brief taking was progressing, several buildings were being considered.  A discussion proceeded which questioned whether a single large floor plate of 40,000 sqft would be preferable to a series of smaller separate floor plates.  Various buildings offered versions of these 2 options and after some significant consideration the 4 floor office at Gresham Street was selected to produce conceptual layouts.