A new sophisticated café and executive lounge at the top of a City tower

The challenge

The re-imagining of the executive floor on level 22 has been at the heart of the St Helens tower refurbishment since the project inception in 2016. The floor hosts the CEO’s private office suite, the Chairman’s and a number of other executives’ offices and meeting rooms. The CEO’s vision was to transform the old dated and corporate spaces into a new luxurious lounge, with a visitors café, as well as a variety of meeting spaces, from informal semi-enclosed seating areas to the CEO’s private snug and meeting rooms. The existing staircase also needed replacing to create a new elegant transition to the floor above.

The approach

The refurbishment of level 22 is the final piece in the visitor’s experience that started with the ground floor entrance and the auditorium facilities in the basement. The design language employed is the same as in the St Helens’ more public spaces: sleek grey concrete floor tiles, warm rich timber slats ceiling, crisp stainless steel rods in polished and shiny finishes for the staircase and the privacy screens to the sitting areas. However the attention to textures, materials and lighting is even more luxurious here, with the objective to create spaces that feel rather like a boutique hotel than a corporate office.

The result

The floor appears completely transformed: not only all the facilities and spaces required by Aviva have been neatly relocated in the existing floor plate, but the space has impacted their users and attitudes. The lounge is open to all Aviva’s staff who have external visitors and is well used. The executives office space is more collaborative and exciting for a company that is proud to offer a truly unique experience to its visitors.