黑洞社区

One of the candidates vying to redevelop London鈥檚 Hyde Park Barracks with a high-end residential scheme has named a number of contractors he is keen to work with on the project.

Former banker Bruce Rippon is behind proposals to replace the Sir Basil Spence-designed barracks with a classical French-style apartment building designed by architect Francis Terry, along with a new barracks.

Rippon said his firm, SD&B International, was 鈥渞eady to rock and roll鈥� with the project but was waiting for the Ministry of Defence to make the next move on the sale, which is expected to net at least 拢650m.

He said Sir Robert McAlpine, Ardmore and Mace would be among SD&B鈥檚 preferred contractors.

鈥淔or example Ardmore, who built the Corinthia Hotel, have a particular talent to build classical architecture,鈥� he said.

But Rippon stressed there were many contractor opportunities on the project.

鈥淭enders would be going out to three or four parties for each part. We wouldn鈥檛 just use one contractor for the whole thing.

鈥淚t would be a formal process. They would all have to tender and come up with decent ideas and then we鈥檇 get them in a board room and decide who we thought we could work well with.

鈥淲e would want a blue-chip firm, it goes without saying.鈥�

Rippon is believed to be among 20 developers keen to win the barracks redevelopment job.

Last week it emerged Dixon Jones has been hired by the property developer Cheval to design a rival mixed-use proposal backed by money from Dubai. The practice replaced Rogers Stirk Harbour on the stalled Chelsea Barracks development.

Rippon said he wasn鈥檛 intimidated by reports of 20 rivals, dismissing them as 鈥渢he usual suspects circling鈥�.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got a world-class team and we鈥檙e the only party to come up with a credible proposal or design,鈥� he said.

Rippon anticipates that hiring 鈥渙ne of the world鈥檚 greatest architects鈥� to design the interiors of the new residential building, with the design team working under Quinlan and Francis Terry鈥檚 QFT practice.

A version of this story was originally published by 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title BD. It can be viewed .