One St Paul’s Churchyard is a historic office building adjacent to St Paul’s Cathedral. The project involves the refurbishment and retrofit of the existing office building, with the aim of modernising its services, improving energy efficiency, and enhancing fire safety measures, while preserving the architectural integrity of its heritage‑sensitive setting.
We were appointed as Principal Designer under Part 2A of the Building Regulations during RIBA Stage 3 to coordinate compliance across multiple disciplines, manage design risks, and ensure that all design decisions were fully documented and aligned with the Building Regulations.
Our role included developing a compliance strategy and managing design changes. Additionally, we assessed the developed design for compliance against Building Regulations Parts A–R, with particular focus on Part B (fire safety), Part L (energy efficiency), Part M (accessibility), and Part O (overheating). We also created a Building Regulations Compliance Matrix and a Design Responsibilities legend to track compliance and clearly define accountable parties. Regular design‑coordination meetings were held with the architect, structural engineer, MEP consultants, and fire engineer to resolve compliance issues and agree coordinated design solutions. We oversaw the change‑control process to evaluate the impact of design changes on compliance and to maintain a clear audit trail of decisions. Working closely with the client, we also helped define and agree the verification activities required for fire‑stopping, compartmentation, and service penetrations.
We delivered a fully coordinated Stage 3 design package with clear, auditable compliance routes for all relevant parts of the Building Regulations. A robust golden thread was established, including a live Compliance Matrix, Design Risk Register, and documented decision logs, ensuring traceability and accountability.
The project is due to reach practical completion in 2027.