70 St Mary Axe, London
70 St Mary Axe is widely known as the Can of Ham due to its distinctive shape is a truly distinctive landmark on the London skyline. Completed in 2019 the unique modern design is situated on the same street as 30 St Mary Axe, ‘the Gherkin’, in a grouping of impressive high-rise buildings in the City of London.
70 St Mary Axe is a multi-use building with 28,000 square metres of office space on its upper 20 floors and 430 square-metres of shops on the first, ground and basement level. The characteristic building reaches 90-metres in height and features two, curved facades and flat front and rear glass facades stretching the full length of the building, which create the shape resembling a large tin of ham, hence its nickname the ‘Can of Ham’.
“70 St Mary Axe is engineered for the changing shape of modern business, with robust specification and the highest quality finish. Smart and efficient, elegant yet effective.”
Ref: St Mary Axe 70stma.co.uk
PAD Contracts was appointed by Mace to design and install a range of bespoke Architectural Metalwork on this prestigious project. Manufactured in their factory in Waltham Abbey PAD Contracts produced sleek staircase balustrading and handrails, glazed balustrades to the entrance foyer, roof gantry platforms and balustrading together with a variety of miscellaneous back of house fabrications in the basements and loading bay.
Phil Pagan, PAD Contracts explains:
“The focus of the project was very much regarding the curved roof triple height space which, whilst fully enclosed, is glazed on all sides and visible from neighbouring properties. The roof cladding was designed to slide on hydraulically operated opening mechanisms to allow the building maintenance unit (BMU) gantry fully access and to enclose all the buildings major plant on gantries with double height walkways and platforms, which all had to look aesthetically pleasing due to its visibility.”
To ease and optimise the work which needed to be carried out on a busy site, the gantries and walkways were designed and prefabricated in suitably sized sections and delivered to services contractors for pre fitting before delivery to site. This process by PAD Contracts also helped to reduce the site installation period.
The fitting of the staircase balustrading required PAD’s experience and knowledge to ensure a trouble-free installation. The process involved tailored design and fitting of the balustrade panels to the steel stairs, and considerable drilling on site. PAD successfully achieved the request to investigate a design which reduced the amount of time to install the balustrading whilst retaining the overall Architectural concept and aesthetics.
Colin Ayres, Managing Director, PAD Contracts comments;
“It’s great to have been part of such a prestigious project and such an iconic and modern building design. Working on projects of this nature is testament to our abilities and experience, we have a portfolio of work over many years containing some of the most well-known modern buildings on the London skyline.”
PAD Contracts are architectural metalwork specialists and provide a range of high-quality solutions. The team has experience of working on a vast range of projects, mostly bespoke work on applications such as external and internal staircases, balustrades, gates, handrails, security screens, even bespoke sculptural artwork pieces!
For more information on our architectural metalwork, fabrication and installation services, contact us today.