In the 350th Anniversary year of the Royal Society its headquarters at 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London was featured in Country Life magazine this month.
In 1999 to 2003, Burrell Foley Fischer LLP undertook a major refurbishment of this Listed Grade 1 Nash Building to provide a coherent, high profile, architectural setting for the society’s activities. The completed development provided additional facilities for exhibitions, scientific meetings, seminars, media events and video conferencing. A key intervention was the creation of a new atrium in a former light well on the upper levels as a focus to the new offices and providing space to display an engineering model of the Ariel 1 Satellite.
In 2008 the Practice was responsible for the refurbishment of the Welcome Trust Lecture Theatre which now provides modern lecture facilities, with accommodation for an audience of 300 and of the Dining Room which has a seating capacity of 100 but is also a flexible space that can itself be used for smaller lectures or as an overflow space for the main lecture theatre.
Most recently in 2009 we were architects for the Royal Society Centre for the History of Science, which was created following the refurbishment of the space previously occupied by its Library in Carlton House Terrace. The refurbishment provides study, exhibition and meeting facilities, in an atmosphere that reflects the Society’s commitment to excellence and inspiration whilst equally providing for the safe-keeping of the collections.