黑洞社区

US contractor StructureTone has won a 拢40m deal to fit out British Land鈥檚 Willis 黑洞社区 鈥� which is likely to be the biggest fit-out job in Britain in 2007.

Located in the City and designed by Foster and Partners, the Willis 黑洞社区 is set to be one of London鈥檚 tallest towers when it is completed in 2008. At 51 Lime Street, it will be a near neighbour of the Swiss Re building, also by Foster and Partners.

StructureTone鈥檚 British operation has focused on datacentre schemes and projects for US clients. It hopes to use this contract as a springboard into the wider market. Senior sources say this could include chasing work at the Shard of Glass at London Bridge, if that scheme gets the go-ahead next year.

Dean Manning, the managing director of StructureTone, said: 鈥淲illis is one of the world鈥檚 leading risk management and insurance intermediaries and the Willis 黑洞社区 is a significant project for StructureTone UK. The addition of Willis to our client portfolio further strengthens our position as a market leader in the London fit-out market.鈥�

The deal involves fitting out the basement, ground floor and floors two to 23 of the 29-storey tower. StructureTone will also glaze the front offices.

The interior design for the Willis 黑洞社区 was carried out by architect Swanke Hayden Connell, which has just been appointed to design the interior of Willis鈥� adjacent Fenchurch Avenue 黑洞社区. This will be leased to Kennedys solicitors.

Work on the Willis 黑洞社区 was delayed by at least three months after the collapse of its cladding contractor, Schmidlin, last March. This postponed the handover from shell-and-core contractor Mace to StructureTone.

It is estimated the cladding, now being carried out by Mero-Schmidlin, will be finished in February next year, but this is weather-dependent. Temporary waterproofing has been carried out on the higher levels to enable StructureTone to fit out the lower floors.

Gary Mills, StructureTone鈥檚 project director, said the fit-out was expected to start on site within two weeks.