8 St James’s Square, London

8 St James’s Square was an ill proportioned and over scaled existing inter-war building which has now been redeveloped into 65,500 ft² of prime office space. The new sustainable office building is situated in the exclusive St James’s district of Westminster, overlooking the historical St James’s Square Garden. The entrance leads into a reception space which spans the full width of the elevation. Eric Parry Architects used a rich palette of materials including walnut, leather, marble, lacquer that evoke the local traditional gentleman’s clubs of the area. The central marble lined lift shaft makes excellent use of natural daylight, allowing light to penetrate deep into the core of the building.

dpa worked in collaboration with Eric Parry Architects to deliver the lighting design to the external façades, reception, lift lobby, feature lift shaft and semi-scenic lift cars and external terraces. The principles were to create a warm welcoming well-lit space that highlighted key features while revealing the rich material pallet. The reception was lit with various layers of light that included bespoke linear inground uplights and pendants. No ceiling recessed luminaires were used within the reception and lift lobby to respect the clean lines of the detailed ceiling profile.

Client: Green Property Ventures
Architect: Eric Parry Architects
Photography: Dirk Lindner