Crawley is one of the original eight ‘New Towns’ developed after 1947 in an attempt to halt the continued slum-sprawl of post-war London and to create employment, housing and a better quality of life in a green environment.
Dating from the 1960’s, the original Town Hall fronted the Broadway, a wide central boulevard, built for the new world of the motorcar. The existing building with its very limited floor to ceiling height, restrictive 3 x 3m structural grid and fragmented floor plan was unable to be converted to align with modern workplace culture.
We worked with the Council, their development partner and the wider master planning team, including our sister company, Cartwright Pickard, to provide an entirely new 9-storey Civic Building, a new public square, public realm improvements, significant amount of new housing with ground floor commercial space for a restaurant/café and a district energy centre.
Making use of efficiencies from open plan and flexible working, a shared foyer and sub-divisible civic chamber, allowed us to consolidate customer services space and council offices at the lower levels and commercial offices above, with the benefit of rental income to the council, lower running costs and reduced carbon emissions.
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