- Location : St. Helier, Jersey
- Date : 2015 - 2018
- Client : Channel Islands Co-operative Society
- Project Status : Complete
The redevelopment of the CICS site at Charing Cross provided an opportunity for major civic REGENERATION at this key gateway to the town centre of St Helier through a vibrant mix of active uses and significant public realm improvements.
Uses include new retail and commercial spaces at ground floor, with a 92 bed hotel for Whitbread/Premier Inn above, and the retention and adaptive re-use of a number of important Listed buildings to the rear of the site, providing smaller scale café and residential accommodation.
The CONTEXTUAL design of the building responds to the varied character and form of surrounding buildings bordering the triangular urban plot, with a more ‘civic’ stone and metal-clad treatment to the main frontages at York Street and Charing Cross, developing into a less formal, irregular character and materiality towards the retained Listed buildings at Dumaresq Street and Pitt Street.
The project also provided an opportunity for a major new public art intervention, re-imagining Pitt Street as the ‘River of Light’ that recalls Le Grand Douet stream and transforms this once dimly lit and unloved back-alley into a vibrant new pedestrian link at the heart of the Town Centre. This was realised through a combination of bespoke stone paving with carved inscriptions describing past, present and future St Helier, and a dynamic LED pavement lighting installation, creating a sense of movement and celebration.