Tyler Goodwin, founder and CEO of Seaforth Land, reflects on breathing new life into Richard Seifert and George Marsh’s 1968 Space House, the UK real estate community’s lack of appreciation for mid-century modern buildings and bonding with Amin Taha and his dog.
What sets Seaforth Land apart from other developers?
From an architect’s perspective, I would think it’s our true belief that better design and architecture is accretive to returns and our approach to enabling our designers and consultant teams to innovate.
What made you set up shop in London?
Prior to London I lived in Hong Kong where I was a Managing Director at JP Morgan and moved here over 11 years ago to be the founding CEO of Lodha UK.
What projects are you proudest of?
8 Bleeding Heart Yard and Space House. Both are market setting examples of the power of experiential offices.
And what’s the one that got away?
I’m not really one for looking backwards, but I recently tried to work on a massively innovative hybrid construction, passivehouse tower development near Kings Cross with Thomas Heatherwick that I thought would be great for London but required a more progressive approach to policy and got shot down. Computer said no. It’s incredibly challenging to make the numbers stack up in London these days.
How did you come to buy Richard Seifert/George Marsh’s 1968 Space House?
It was first brought to me back in 2017 as a ‘quirky 1960’s building’. From the first time I toured it, I saw the opportunity, but it took six months to secure it at the right price. I remember at the time how surprised I was by the general lack of recognition in our real estate community of the importance of this building. As a Canadian who has lived, worked, and studied on both sides of the border, mid-century modern buildings are cherished and celebrated as an optimistic post-war period of architecture that today represent the some of the West Coast’s most celebrated buildings – the TWA terminal in New York, TransAmerica Tower in San Francisco, Capitol Records in LA, the Space Needle in Seattle and (my personal favourite), the HR MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver.
A member of the public turned up to a public consultation meeting with original photographs of Space House, one of which showed a terrazzo floating stair at the north end of the block. This has been reinstated as an important feature of the building.
What were the biggest challenges involved in retrofitting and extending the project?
I’d say there were three critical challenges:
- The greatest challenge was also the greatest opportunity – creating a bespoke chilled beam solution that fits up into the radial pre-cast concrete coffered ceilings. The result is extraordinary – when you look across the ceilings you experience a perfect, peaceful symmetry that celebrates the repeating nature of the exposed patina’d concrete. There really is nothing like it.
- Getting to BREEAM Outstanding was an equally important challenge that represented a massive opportunity. We were told by pretty much every expert that it was impossible. Before Space House there were no BREEAM Outstanding freestanding listed office buildings in the UK – let alone a massive structural façade concrete building with no insulation and concerns for thermal bridging.
- I could talk about Covid, and the 40% + inflation in construction costs, but really the third greatest challenge was managing a fear of failure. Some people get very uncomfortable when you set goals with no proof of precedent and rather than embracing the challenge and the opportunity, they can distance themselves from the objective and undermine the process, which can be insidious. We got there in the end, but not without making a few changes and breaking a few eggs in the process. We couldn’t have done it without Patrick Bellew at Atelier Ten, Tim Gledstone at Squire and Partners, Chris Gearey at G&T, and Dennis Lopez at QuadReal all of whom are pioneers in their own rights and know what it takes to lead and win.
Where there any surprises?
Yes! During our public consultation a gentleman showed up with original B&W photos of Space House in 1968. One of the photos showed a beautiful terrazzo floating stair at the North end of the block that matched the preserved South stairwell. We had no documentary evidence of that original stair, but with this we went back to Camden and Historic England to see if we could reinstate it. It is now an important feature of our building.
The ground floor reception with its terrazzo flooring, Sapele-clad walls and the recreated version of the original stair.
What’s your view on the British approach to heritage/conservation, and to what extent have the associated organisations been a help or a hindrance in the work you have to do?
Hmmm… That sounds like a loaded question. To be completely honest, working with Camden, Historic England and the 20th Century Society has been a complete pleasure. From early on in the process, I believe they saw in our vision a commitment to deliver a globally relevant celebration of mid-century architecture and design – inside and out- brought to a state of the art standard. Starting with that sort of alignment helps and showing our commitment to execute with a world-class consultant team reassured our partners that we were serious about doing it right.
You were very vocal in the debate around the decision to demolish the Marks and Spencer building on Oxford Street. What made you get involved?
I’m still hopeful someone at M&S rises to the opportunity that Orchards House represents for their new scheme. There are few good examples of Beaux-Arts/Art Deco buildings and when you add in the fact that this is a steel framed structure – likely heavily riveted – I believe the building offers value-accretive features. These features tell a lovely story of heritage and authenticity I would have thought are valued at M&S at least as much as they are valued by the tenants that are seeking out unique, experiential offices. By the way, I’ve never been about all-or-none here from either side. The opportunity lies in the middle-ground and I hope that now that M&S are free to do what they wish, that they opt to save those features of Orchards House and by doing so improve the built environment and their standing in it.
What one piece of legislation or policy would make life more interesting/rewarding for you?
I would change the rates for listed buildings. Viability is a real challenge right now for any development. I fear most for listed buildings. Quality refurbs cost more than new build and refurbs of listed buildings cost even more than unlisted buildings and cost more to operate and maintain. Just as the Treasury has already waived vacant rates on listed buildings, they should reduce the occupied rates on listed buildings and even up the playing field. Imagine a 50% reduction of occupied rates on a Grade II listed building rising to 75% for II Star and 100% (no rates) on Grade I listed buildings. We need to attract capital to listed buildings.
Tyler Goodwin photographed outside Space House with architect Tim Gledstone from Squire & Partners.
What building/buildings would you love to get your hands on?
I guess there are two questions in there – the buildings I would like to own vs the buildings I’d like to develop:
- To own:
- Space House: Seaforth and my partners only own 10%. I’d love to own that building. I don’t think there will ever be another building like this in London.
- Pretty much any building owned by Pontegadea Group (the private real estate investing arm of Zara’s founder Amancio Ortega). No one company has been a smarter real estate investor in London. They buy iconic buildings with beautiful architecture in great locations with high amenity value – that is the best formula for resilient investing through cycles – proper core real estate. Imagine owning The Adephi in Covent Garden or Devonshire House in Mayfair.
- To develop:
- The Park Tower Knightsbridge Hotel by Seifert & Partners.
- The Ministry of Justice Building by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners with Basil Spence, but probably for hotel and residential rather than offices.
How do you select your architects?
There’s really no formula. For Space House it was after seeing what Tim Gledstone did at their HQ in Brixton – I could just see how it translated – a passion for the archaeology of buildings and an attention to detail necessary when daring to celebrate the scars and stories that historic buildings want to share. For Bleeding Heart Yard, it was because my first office on Clerkenwell Green was next to Amin Taha’s office. I’d be working past midnight and the only other light on the Green was Amin’s – he’d take his terrier for a walk and we just hit it off. I remembered seeing a maquette in his office of a failed attempt at the style we applied to Bleeding Heart Yard and thought that approach would work on our building.
What can an architect say or do that would make you think they weren’t right for you?
Every developer is in this business for profit. Profit needs to stop being viewed as rapacious or a pejorative. Find me an architect that can translate investment in good design into accretive investment returns any day. It’s just taking that extra step to show some empathy and understanding of the client and the customer.
Is the development sector attracting the right sort of talent? And if not, what can be done?
Regrettably, profitability and indeed viability is not a priority in many boroughs around London at the moment. The longer this dynamic lasts, the fewer talented developers will survive or they’ll just choose to focus their efforts elsewhere.
What’s next for you?
We’re looking for other projects and partners and looking at other sectors. Nothing we can report on, but watch for news over the next couple of months I’d say.
Source: Architecture Today
