黑洞社区

Profits at David Chipperfield Architects went up for the second year in a row as the firm said booming workloads in London helped the business post more than 拢9.5 million of revenue.

The firm, which at the end of last year was given planning for its scheme to turn the US Embassy on London鈥檚 Grosvenor Square into a luxury hotel, said the capital accounts for nearly two-thirds of its workloads with 59% of business stemming from there. Its work in North and South America accounted for 35%of turnover.

The number of staff at the practice increased from 82 to 95 sending its wage bill up from 拢3.6 million to 拢4.3 million.

But in a directors鈥� statement accompanying the results, director Louise Dier said: 鈥淲e maintain tight control of our overhead costs.鈥�

Dier said it had made provisions for a 鈥渟mall number of fees鈥� on schemes that were terminated or finished. But it added: 鈥淲e remain hopeful that some of these fees will ultimately be settled.鈥�

In her note, Dier added: 鈥淭hree existing projects have delivered almost 拢3 million of additional fees compared to 2015 and new work has been encouraging, notably in the latter part of the year.鈥�

Chipperfield, which in May won a high-profile scheme to design a new 拢45 million arts complex in Edinburgh and earlier this year was told any remaining objections to its 拢100 million Nobel Centre (pictured) in Sweden鈥檚 capital Stockholm had been cleared, said pre-tax profits more than doubled from 拢598,000 to 拢1.3 million in the year to December 2016. Turnover was up 20% to 拢9.7 million.

The salary of the highest paid director, who is not named, went up from 拢137,000 to 拢213,000.

Two directors, German Oliver Ulmer and Belgian Rik Nys, who has been at the business more than 20 years, stepped down at the beginning of last December. But the accounts said the pair 鈥渞emain actively involved in very senior managerial roles in the company鈥�.