The building is located in a prominent position on Euston Road close to St Pancras International station. It was constructed for, and previously occupied by Unison who leased the building to Stanhope with the aim of maximising the net lettable floor area for office use. The existing building, although distinctive in form and appearance, had a number of constraints.

The design improves the standard of accommodation and accessibility, and transparency at ground floor. This was achieved by lowering the reception floor slab to street level and increasing the extent of glazing to enhance animation. The conference hall was removed and replaced with two storeys of office accommodation, and with a green roof. The window units were replaced with a continuous curtain walling system to improve daylight penetration and thermal performance. The original concrete panels were retained and cleaned. A new cantilevered roof structure or ‘halo’ provides the building with a striking feature. The existing building services were replaced and defined by a sub-metering strategy which encompasses on-floor plant with the aim of limiting carbon emissions to 30kg.CO2/m² with an EPC Grade B.

Following our extensive retrofit project it became the home of a world-leading pathology and diagnostics facility capable of processing over 20 million samples per year. The specialist fitout team were able to accommodate state-of-the-art laboratory facilities within the existing building’s 3.46m floor-to-floor heights. The Halo is occupied by Health Services Laboratories, a partnership between The Doctors Laboratory, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.