Park Street Hotel

Renders courtesy of Architects: Dexter Moren

Overview 

Background:  In 2019, one of Cambridge’s main city car parks received a new lease of life when it received planning permission for its demolition and conversion into a premium (Staycity) aparthotel with 229 rooms, a public courtyard and a triple-basement car park with the capacity of 225 spaces (of which 26 will incorporate EV charge points). The redevelopment will be delivered for Cambridge County Council (Cambridge Investment Partnership: CIP) in partnership with its development partner Marick Real Estate. The project will be delivered by the best-in-class project team including lead engineering and civil consultants - Ayesa, architect - Dexter Moren and quantity surveyors - MPS Consultants. 
Demolition commenced in January 2022 and a completion date of 2025 is slated for this turn-key aparthotel, complete with a public courtyard which will improve accessibility between two main streets, and the addition of a new gym, lounge and cafe to provide vibrant, interactive spaces for guests and the local community. The new hotel will include 270 covered cycle spaces, including provision for cargo bikes on the ground floor. 

Our Role

Marick Real Estate, the Council's development partner appointed Ayesa to provide full structural, civil, and geotechnical design services in 2019. Having been novated to the contractor Gilbert-Ash we are developing the design for construction, aligning it with the client's budget. As we move into the construction stage, our team has worked closely with the contractor (Gilbert-Ash) on designing the construction and roadmap for the removal of the parking infrastructure and the erection of a new triple-basement parking structure with 225 parking spaces with EV charge points, and exterior hard and soft landscaping.

Challenges

At Ayesa, we regularly design structures on constrained and complex inner-city sites with all the associated challenges.  The numerous stakeholder wall agreements required careful predictions of damage assessments and potential ground movements in relation to the proposed construction works. We agreed upon the frequency of movement readings as per the agreed Party Wall Awards, twice monthly during and after demolition phases, foundation grubbing, and weekly during substructure and superstructure until completion. An agreed system of monitoring included a party wall tracker which will monitor compliance against the awards. Stakeholder engagement and inclusive consultation are key to the smooth delivery of this project which included the establishment of a Park Street Liaison Group to listen to the concerns of residents, local businesses and stakeholders and to agree on access requirements and timings with neighbours. Further, a sewer in the vicinity will need to be assessed for predicted ground movements as construction commences.