New town hall architect revealed

The Old Royal London Hospital, a grade II-listed building on Whitechapel Road is to be redeveloped, turning it in to the new town hall. The council bought the historic building for around £9 million last year after the completion of a new £1bn hospital nearby.

The council ran a competition with more than 100 expressions of interests. They were then reduced to 23 bids at the next Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) stage, before being reduced further to six strong final bids which were invited to tender.

The successful bid had to demonstrate their expertise and experiences in a number of areas including working on new building and refurbishment projects of a similar complexity and scale, including redeveloping listed buildings.

Bidders were also required to ensure that they could provide strong project management throughout the contract and ensure that work would be delivered within agreed costs.

Following the final evaluation and scoring of the tendered bids, AHMM came out as clear winners having shown how they met the criteria across a number of areas.

As part of the winning tender AHMM has also agreed to provide a range of wider community benefits including providing access to jobs and work experience for residents.

Will Tuckley, Chief Executive at Tower Hamlets Council said: “I am pleased to announce that the experienced AHMM team have been appointed to lead the architectural design and consultation stage of our ambitious plans to create a new Civic Centre in the heart of Whitechapel.

“The Civic Centre will be instrumental in our vision for transforming services. The council is keen to introduce new and more efficient ways of working whilst, together with our partners, delivering excellent front line services.

“Whitechapel as a whole is undergoing massive changes and the Civic Centre will be a key building contributing to the regeneration of the area and securing the future of a building of heritage importance for the borough.

“We are also pleased that a firm with a clear and proven award winning design flair will be at the helm of what is both a grade II listed and much loved landmark building in the East End of London.

“I know that they will relish the particular challenges that the building will bring and look forward to working with the team to deliver a truly fantastic new civic and public service hub for the borough and our residents.”

The new town is earmarked for completion by the end of 2021.