4-storey mixed use, Town Centre, Suffolk

For many decades, this small, town-centre site in Haverhill stood vacant, enclosed by an ugly fence, but set immediately adjacent to the listed Arts centre (formerly the Victorian Town Hall). The brief was to create a mixed-use development, of shops and flats, that bridged the whole-storey, split-level topography while also respecting the tall, Victorian Gothic, listed building next door.

Planning permission was very difficult — officers did not want a four-storey building, but anything less on this challenging site would not be viable. We paid careful attention to designing a stepped facade, with its corner cut-away to maintain the listed building as the dominant form in the public realm.

The building was completed some years ago, but was occupied immediately and has received high praise at a local level.