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White City Living

London, UK

º£½ÇÊÓƵ is playing a key role in transforming an 11-acre brownfield site in the heart of West London into a vibrant mixed-use development. The project is delivering more than 2,500 homes, including 677 affordable units, a five-acre public park that enhances biodiversity, and over 60,000ft² of mixed-use commercial space.

The White City Living project comprises a new residential mixed-use development on the former M&S warehouse and Ugli Campus sites in White City, in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, close to BBC Television Centre.

White City Living will deliver a new residential 2,558-unit mixed-use development on a brownfield site in White City.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ was appointed as an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) consultant, advising across multiple disciplines.

We navigated multiple planning applications, including one for Westmont. This added 1,093 more homes than the original 2015 plan.

At Westmont, our transport and waste plan helped avoid the need for a large basement under the site, saving time and capital expenditure for the client.

Challenge

The former warehouse and office building site is making way for new homes and amenities, set within an open network of biodiverse parkland, public squares and waterways. It will be directly connected to the neighbouring Westfield Shopping Centre and Imperial College’s new campus to the north.

Whilst the initial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was prepared in 2014 by others, º£½ÇÊÓƵ has led the EIA process for the development since 2017. We were initially brought in to deliver on two fronts. This included significant amendments to the original EIA to enable the provision of an additional high-rise tower.

In addition, we delivered an EIA for a new planning application, which gained planning permission for a new part of the site known as Westmont, on the former Ugli Campus site.  Together, these consents have allowed for the provision of an additional 1,093 homes.

Accessibility was a real challenge in regenerating this landlocked site. Before work began it had a single point of access, across a narrow bridge over the Central Line. St James has invested £14m in delivering new bridges and wide pedestrian decks over the Central Line, working in close collaboration with TfL and London Underground to agree the bespoke engineering solutions and delivery approach.

One of the key technical interfaces requiring early coordination comprised transport, logistics and waste. The architects developing the scheme for Westmont (previously known as Centre House) considered two options – one with a basement and one without.

The client chose to pursue the latter design, and therefore º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s transport and waste specialists were required to find ways of using land in the adjacent already consented White City Living site to provide access for servicing and waste to Westmont, which is now part of the overall site.

Solution

In our role as EIA coordinator, our experts navigated multiple planning and amendment planning applications, with the site being rationalised and optimised for residential redevelopment. The additional homes, secured through the planning process, will assist in seeding new communities, including much needed affordable homes, in a sustainable and previously redundant brownfield location in the capital. The scheme will also provide additional employment opportunities to the local area, during both construction and operation.

Through the EIA process, º£½ÇÊÓƵ has provided design input and a series of technical assessments in support of the EIA work, which fed into the evolving masterplan. This included transport planning, noise and vibration, air quality, ecology, ground contamination, drainage, flood risk and waste management. A notable technical intervention was through a targeted ground gas investigation. This led to the remediation strategy being amended, removing the previously agreed and unnecessary gas protection measures, significantly lowering project costs.

On each iteration of the EIA work our environmental consulting team has led, no updates have been required as a result of comments or challenges from statutory consultees (Regulation 25 requests). 

On Westmont, which we were involved from the start as EIA consultant, rather than simply assessing the frozen scheme, our experts were embedded into the design team at an early stage. In this role, they actively managed and facilitated the required design input, with a particular focus on issues such as daylight, townscape, wind microclimate, ground contamination and flood risk. In doing so, a number of potentially significant environmental effects were ‘designed out’. As a result, the masterplanning process actively improved environmental outcomes and reduced planning risks for the client.

Given the client chose to pursue the Westmont design without a standalone basement, º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s transport and waste specialists were required to find ways of using the already consented adjacent basement from 2015 planning permission. This included the provision of access for servicing and waste logistics.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ worked with a range of stakeholders to ensure that this could be achieved, and it included redesigning the public realm within Arrival Square, to accommodate servicing vehicles related to Westmont/Centre House and for fire access. The overall result was a design solution that was not only functional, but saved the need for an extensive basement to be built below the development, saving both time and capital expenditure for the client.

The Westmont planning application was approved in 2020 and was determined without the need for further environmental information. We continue to work with the client and design team as a trusted advisor on the entire White City Living project, for all on-going aspects that require EIA and supporting technical support.

Value

Having extensive experience with amendment planning applications, our team provided an informed and robust EIA strategy for assessing the planning amendments sought. A comprehensive EIA addendum was prepared in 2017, and regular further updates have been undertaken for minor amendments to the masterplan and to account for changes to the EIA regulations, including new topics for assessment. The additional residential units secured through planning will assist in delivering much needed homes, including affordable homes, in London.

The development is delivering a vibrant, sustainable, community-focused regeneration to this corner of West London. This former warehouse site is now being brought to life with acres of biodiverse green space, more than 430 new trees, a new mix of natural habitats with a network of water features and streams. The result is a 63% biodiversity net gain for phases one to three.

Our work to successfully progress the scheme through the planning process by supporting the evolution of the Environmental Impact Assessments has played a key role in the realisation of the client’s ambitious vision for the site.

The º£½ÇÊÓƵ team has been a pleasure to work with on several Berkeley Group projects over the last eight years. The team has always been efficient, diligent and commercially sensitive on the EIA and ES work undertaken. With a vast range of in-house experience, you can rely on quality advice and reporting, which is vital for the large regeneration projects we have instructed them on.

Lara Brazier, Development Director, St James (Berkeley Group)