The build has taken more than 18-months of redesigning, renovating and refitting, by design and build partnerships, Lorenc Design, Grove Property and Meronden Ltd. The company says its aim is to provide its staff with the space, resources and facilities, needed for a dynamic special interest, content and platform company. Built in the 1930s, Eagle House sits on Colston Avenue, adjacent to the Grade 1 listed St Stephen’s Church and the Cenotaph.
Externally, a zinc clad mansard roof has been designed to expand the office space to suit staff numbers. The main entrance has been redesigned, with a perforated metal screen giving focus on the street.
Internally, a new atrium provides visual contact across all floors and a double height auditorium cuts into the ground floor, opening the basement to the rest of the building and giving the opportunity for a flexible working environment throughout. Dressing the Atrium, Tree Research suspended a 4 metre Black Olive tree, creating what Immediate describes as a stunning ‘green chandelier’ visible from all floors.
Andy Marshall, Immediate Media MD has commented, “Every aspect of Eagle House has been carefully chosen to create a space that promotes collaboration, inspires creativity and innovation, and attracts and retains the best talent. We’ve added a new floor to the building to accommodate our evolving team, transformed a once-unused basement into The Courtyard – our wonderful new communal area – and built an atrium to maximise natural light and provide visual contact across all floors. Elsewhere, careful thought has gone in to designing a host of multi-purpose meeting and breakout spaces over Eagle House’s seven floors, while our auditorium seating area provides us with a fantastic social and events space.”
“Branding and iconography for the building has been designed by in-house creative team Imagine. As this inspiring city is home to so many Immediate people, the designers wanted to celebrate Bristol at Eagle House, but to also create a unique interior theme for the new space. Taking inspiration from city, the new Eagle House iconography signifies six Bristol iconic landmarks and appears throughout the way-finding systems, window manifestations and other environmental, interior graphics. To compliment the primary Eagle House iconography, Imagine also developed a series of graphics to symbolize the core Immediate magazine brands and passions.”
Julian Cook Director of Burston Cook, Chartered Surveyors & Commercial Property Agents commented, “Burston Cook were appointed to search for, identify and acquire a suitable building in Bristol City Centre to meet Immediate Media’s particular requirements to rehouse their Bristol business. Immediate Media’s brief was to secure a landmark property which could be specifically adapted and refurbished to create a dynamic and inspiring working environment to accommodate the best team in their field. Burston Cook worked closely with the Immediate Media project team, advising them at every stage for a period of almost 2 years before finding Eagle House and securing the acquisition. Not only have Immediate Media created an incredible new office space for their business, but their focus to remain in central Bristol and refurbish an iconic building in Colston Avenue, has greatly enhanced the vibrancy and success of Bristol’s original central business district, putting it once again on the map as a prime office location.”
Andrew McCarthy, Associate Architect at Stride Treglown added: “Eagle House has been an incredibly rewarding and absorbing project for us to work on. The whole team has worked closely to transform what was previously a dated and illegible building into a stimulating, contemporary office environment. Highlights for us have been designing the water cut bronze entrance screen, which serves as a focal point on the Colston Avenue elevation, and achieving permission for a sensitive rooftop extension that has made the building an attractive location for Immediate Media’s Bristol office.”
Charlie N Marsden, Lead Consultant & Director at Tree Research says: “The height of the atrium and the view onto it from each floor lent itself perfectly for the installation of a hanging tree, one that could be moved up and down to enable new views onto it from each floor throughout the year. The tree needed to be suspended in a pot that formed a sculptural feature, that would be viewed not only from the side but also from below, this lead me to find a geometric form that suited the long term growth of the tree and was visually impressive. I settled on an icosahedron, a form comprising 20 triangles of the exact proportions, known as the Platonic solid symbol of Water, which seemed a fitting design to sustain the tree, being that water is one of its leading requirements for survival. I have looked into this and believe it to be the only tree of this sizes and at this height that is suspended in this way in the UK. I was really delighted to be involved with Immediate on this – it’s been a pleasure from start to finish.”
Since forming in 2011, Immediate’s Bristol division has doubled in size, and now employs around 500 people who work across a wide range of professions; from journalism, sales and design, to video production, digital and app development. Immediate Bristol is home to a number of popular consumer brands, including BBC History Magazine, BBC Focus, BBC Wildlife Magazine, BBC Countryfile, Mollie Makes, BikeRadar and Cycling Plus. It is also home to Immediate’s Branded Content team, who produce print and digital content for an array of brands, charities and universities, including: English Heritage, RSPB, Cineworld and Plymouth University.
