This project running from 1985-1990 at 1 Embankment Place, Villiers Street, London incorporated an air rights development over the existing train line at Charing Cross. In 1990 most of the area over the British Rail platforms was covered by Embankment Place, a post-modern office and shopping complex designed by Terry Farrell and Partners.

The project was technologically innovative, involving suspension of seven to nine storeys of offices above the railway tracks, to isolate the space from railway vibration. The resulting bowstring arch over the tracks was supported on 18 columns rising through the platforms. The uninterrupted office space was constructed from a series of floorplates rising nine storeys. Retail and restaurant accommodation was distributed in the vaults below the station and in a new infill building which completed the streetscape to the adjoining Villiers Street.

This development led to the replacement of most of the 1906 roof. The rear two spans of this structure, immediately adjacent to the existing concourse roof, were retained as part of an enlarged waiting area. In addition the original retaining side walls of the station which once supported it remained in near complete condition.

The original Charing Cross masterplan also included suggestions for improvements for the Hungerford Bridge as part of a series of environmental improvements to pedestrian circulation. In 1990, a proposed scheme was submitted which included redevelopment of the land between Embankment Place and Carrara House at the corner of Villiers Street. There are some plans within the Charing Cross project files that may relate to the Hungerford Bridge development.

Client: Greycoat Plc

Initial outline proposals submitted in 1999 and included the redevelopment of Ministry of Defence accommodation on the existing Chelsea Barracks site. The initial brief was to maintain operational efficency and access to married quarters, alongside private residential developments.

Farrells also submitted a later proposal to be lead masterplanner in 2009, where it appears that the Ministry of Defence decommissioned the operational barracks and sold the land after 2006. The stage one submission included engaging with the context of the neighbourhood, completing blocks of residential housing, adding key buildings to corner boundaries, such as hotels and leisure complexes, highlighting formal set pieces, such as the gardens around the Chelsea Bridge road. Material in the archive also has this phase of development as project code: CBB2.

Project Partners:
Client: Regalian Consortium

Active project dates: approximately 1989-1992.

Chiswick Park is a business park located within an existing built-up area on a brownfield industrial site of the former Chiswick Bus Garage. In 1988 Stanhope Plc and Trafalgar House Plc formed a joint venture to develop this site, forming Stanhope Trafalgar Chiswick Ltd. In 1990–1991, architects Terry Farrell & Partners designed a masterplan on behalf of the consortium for the site with buildings designed by Foster Associates and Peter Foggo around the main piazza, and others by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and ABK Architects around a smaller square to one side. Outline planning permission was granted in 1991 for 11 buildings to be constructed.

In 1996, Kværner took ownership of the site, selling it in 1999 to the Chiswick Park Unit Trust led by Schroders and Aberdeen Property Investors with Stanhope Plc as development manager. At this point Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners were commissioned to prepare a new master plan.

The original Farrell design was an attempt to avoid the "A4 Death Valley syndrome," where office building as real estate investment was isolated along a transport artery. Instead, the masterplan was developed in dialogue with local residents and businesses, aiming to provide benefits to people both working and living at or near Chiswick Park. Planned facilities included a sports club, child day care centre, a running track and events area.

Relating to Sir Terry Farrell's role as a member of the Civic Trust Building for Life Steering Group 2001-2003.

Clifton Nurseries, Bayswater. Bishops Bridge Road, London, 1979-1980. This was the first of two buildings built by Clifton Nurseries as part of their policy of revitalising vacant city sites that were temporarily derelict. The project grew out of the adjoining Colonnades development where Terry Farrell and Company had been commissioned to design a new library which had fallen through. Integral to the brief was that the building should convey the visual pleasure of plants and gardens, whilst remaining contemporary to the late 20th century.

The undulating structural form was derived from the use of large sheet plastic materials recently made available for certain types of agricultural greenhouses. Stemming from work with Ralph Lebens on alternative energy, the Bayswater Clifton Nurseries building demonstrated ventilation and energy conservation ideas, which became integral to its architectural identity. Double-walled polycarbonate sheet for cladding was used for the first time in Britain, fixed to a demountable steel frame. Winter heat losses are controlled by insulation of the polycarbonate; summer heat gain controlled by blinds on the south elevation and by a self-ventilating and heat-regulating system based on the principle of a solar chimney. This was the first project completed by Terry Farrell and Company following the spit from Farrell/Grimshaw and a chance to experiment with new materials.

The collection also contains references to an adjoining storage hut project, November 1993, with Terry Farrell then working under the Terry Farrell Partnership.

Construction Partners:
Client: Clifton Nurseries

Clifton Nurseries, Covent Garden. Covent Garden, London, 1980-1981. The second temporary building occupied by Clifton Nurseries was developed at a prominent site by the Covent Garden Opera House. Whilst retaining the focus of the earlier Bayswater site on the exploration of new technologies, the Covent Garden site was also notable for the influence which the surrounding streets and buildings had on the final design. Since land was only available on one side of the axis at Kings Street, permission was obtained for the facade to be extended along a narrow strip on the other side purely as a screen, to complete the symmetry and hide car parking behind. A classical portico based on the numerous porticos of nearby buildings, was adopted and extended in a temple "form" to become, in a light hearted way, the underlying image of the design. The side elevation was a 'rusticated' glass and timber wall. The roof was fabricated from Teflon-coated glass fibre and was one of the first buildings to use Teflon-coated fibre glass at this sort of scale in the UK.

Construction Partners:
Client: Clifton Nurseries

125 Park Road was completed in June 1970 for the Mercury Housing Society. The Mercury Housing Society developed from a co-ownership scheme involving Sir Terry Farrell where the 40 co-owners who lived in the building also collectively developed it. The 10-storey block for the Mercury Housing Society provided 18 two-bedroom flats, 18 one-bedroom flats, 4 ‘penthouse’ one-bedroom flats, a caretakers flat and basement laundry.

The plan form developed out of basic ideas on flexibility. It consisted of a central core with multi-access points to a surrounding ‘living’ zone. This zone, free of structural walls and with continuous perimeter glazing, heating and electrical sockets, allowed maximum flexibility of sub-division. External cladding reflected this need for flexibility, with a regular grid capable of accepting a wide variation of internal layout, whilst maintaining good views out of the building.

The block was designed without balconies, but mid-way through the design process the Farrell/Grimshaw practice persuaded the Housing Corporation on the cost-effective impact of adding an extra two feet of space around the whole building, making all the flats more generously sized. Corrugated anodised aluminium cladding was also selected, to allow for flexibility in curved design, whilst being lightweight, aesthetically acceptable and economically viable. One of the main design exercises was to get as many living rooms as possible to have a good view of the park. Rather than compromise with what the architects termed ‘oblique glimpses’ it was decided that three of the four flats on each floor should have a straight-on view of the park; the fourth, whilst having good orientation to the sun, would not overlook the park at all and this would be reflected in the rent. The result was a simple plan form in which the block was flanked by the 2 two-bedroom flats each running from front to back of the building, with a large living room overlooking the park and the sun to the rear. A single bedroom flat occurred between these two flanking flats, one overlooking the park and one overlooking the Marylebone Goods Yard.

General correspondence files, and correspondence files with specific stakeholders.