Work has now finished at The Holiday Inn at Gatwick Worth.

Pearl Holdings, owners of the existing 200-bed hotel, obtained an ‘conceptual’ planning consent in 2016. The proposal allowed for the re-build and expansion of the hotel’s bar and restaurant, banqueting hall and outdoor dining area and added 40 guest bedrooms in two new wings to the building.

It was Method Architect’s job to re-work the designs to make them fit-for-purpose and deliverable, coordinating both consultants and interior designers. Planning permission and IHG approval for the revised designs was achieved by Method in 2018.

In total, the project has added around 35,000 sqft to the existing hotel building and created superb new dining and leisure facilities at this popular destination.

“probably the most perfect meal I have eaten in a restaurant in more than 20 years as a critic…It is a breathtaking space into which you emerge…The specialness, the quiet theatricality, the beauty of the man and his cooking. Everyone will want to be here”. Giles Coren, The Times, 16 March 2019

In 2019, Method Architects completed the Endo at Rotunda exclusive sushi restaurant in the glass drum atop the iconic former BBC Television Centre building in White City.

The restaurant has received one Michelin star in 2020 and is currently featured in Michelin’s guide to the Best Japanese restaurants in London.

Method reapprised their enabling architect role to work with acclaimed Japanese practice Kengo Kuma Associates who were the interior designers.

“The place is beautiful, too, painted in a high-gloss sage green that brings to mind Victorian gin palaces” Marina O’Loughlin The Guardian Sep 2017

Method Architects was appointed by the Hong Kong-based Great Eagle Group as architects and project managers to work on a project at central London’s prestigious hotel The Langham in Portland Place.

The project was to create a new ‘traditional British’ bar and restaurant, The Wigmore, with a new spa and health suite, (totalling about 5,000 sqft), and oversee major upgrades in the hotel’s environmental management systems.

Local authority consents, included Listed Building consent for works to the Grade II Listed former banking hall, were gained by Method Architects working alongside Bidwells planning consultants.

And the team responsible for delivering the project included the industries finest: Martin Brudnizki Design Studio as interior designers,  Arup for structural engineering, Capita as cost consultants and Jaysam as the contractor. 

Works on site started at the beginning of 2017 and The Wigmore has now been trading since the summer 2017. The Chuan Spa refurbishment, on the lower ground floor, is now also open to guests and visitors. 

“A smart Scandi spot with raw appeal” The Evening Standard 8 December 2016

Method Architects has helped to bring the renowned NY modern Nordic restaurant, Aquavit, to Piccadilly. 

Method Architects was drafted in to create a bridge between the beautiful Scandinavian themes designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio and the rough-and-ready retail shell-unit provided by Mace at the high-profile St James’s Market development just off Regent Street.

The challenge was to incorporate the huge air-handling and other fixed-services infrastructure into the minimal spaces behind the elegant panelling and wallpaper over four floor levels - and for it all to appear effortless and invisible.

As ever, the key to our service was to have an appreciation of the spirit of the interior design and to work hard with the implementation team to achieve it. We helped MBDS on some of the more challenging aspect of the design: staircases, panelling, lifts, dumb-waiters, mezzanine flooring details, means of escape, etc.

And a fabulous result was achieved.

It is Method Architects’ pleasure once again to lead the design team for this new Lord Simon restaurant and to deliver the vision of French interior designers Gilles & Boissier. It will be a scheme of the very highest quality, as befits a central Mayfair location, arrayed over three floors of an Edwardian mansion block.

And the food offer? We can assure all gourmands that the cuisine will be of the very highest order, having sampled the chef’s excellent work in a pop-up version of the restaurant in Clerkenwell earlier this summer.

But you will have to wait to find out more…watch this space.

“The most lavish restaurant in years” The Telegraph 26 Oct 2015

The latest spectacular restaurant by client the Caprice restaurant group has now opened in Berkeley Square in the heart of Mayfair.

Described by Wallpaper magazine as “gleeful sumptuousness”, the glamorous interior by designer Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, features Esmerelda onyx from Iran, a French lava stone bar,  iconic shimmering Fish Lamps by Frank Gehry above the bar and a Damian Hirst bronze relief mermaid and shark adorning the wall.

Method Architects was the co-ordinating architect on the project, carefully taking the existing site – a former Natwest bank – through the planning process which included permissions for the general layouts on two floors, external elevations, outdoor seating and complex kitchen services runs in the existing 1930s office building.

Working to tight deadlines, in conjunction with the client, planning consultants Bidwells and project managers Acacia Consulting, the architect’s design delivered an impressive 190 cover ground floor restaurant with generous back of house areas and a private dining room, on the lower ground floor, complete with two enormous live coral reef fish tanks.  

Interior images:   1. James McDonald for MBDS  2. Mark Brumell  3. Paul Brown  4. James McDonald for MBDS

‘a handsome redesign…the centrepiece of the refreshed interiors - a striking timber and blue leather-clad bar, which commands the main dining room’. Wallpaper, 25 May 2018

After ten years of success at The Langham hotel in Central London, Roux at The Landau restaurant by Michel Roux Jnr decided it was time to reinvigorate its offer, by creating the ‘Counter at the Landau’ - a new dining concept involving the installation of an oval cold counter in the centre of the dining room.

Internationally-renowned interior designers David Collins Studio provided the concept and Method Architects delivered the project on-time and under budget.

Method Architects developed the feasibility and detailed design of how to install a fully functioning island bar in the centre of the fine-dining restaurant. Working closely with the chefs and the Food & Beverage team at the hotel, a full-sized mock-up was made and installed on a Sunday to check the size and impact of the new counter on the sublime Edwardian oval dining room.

Method Architects assisted the contractor in procuring a specialist crackle-glaze Pyrolave counter-top from France and oversaw the construction at every stage.

A hugely successful project has now been serving delightful charcuterie and shellfish dishes to more informal diners and received a great reception from London’s cognoscenti - ‘a funky style dining counter’ in the ‘beautiful’ dining room, ‘slick…and resplendent’ says Time Out.

“Every city needs spectacular restaurants. Balthazar is certainly that. It's a restaurant with a Hollywood production designer.” Jay Rayner, The Guardian 2014

Described as “spectacular” by leading food critic Jay Rayner, Method architects successfully transferred restaurateur Keith McNally’s New York concept to Covent Garden by joining forces with Grayling Design in the US.

Balthazar is a joint venture between Keith McNally and Caprice Holdings Ltd, a regular Method client and owner of The Ivy, Scott’s and Annabel’s.

Method worked as coordinating architect, negotiating the permissions and regulatory aspects of an historic site and collaborating with the best specialist suppliers and craftsmen in Europe and the US for the high-end fit out.

The back of house areas have been designed to optimise the smooth running of the restaurant whilst the dining room endeavours to remain as true to the feel of the Manhattan original as possible. 

Method architects also worked with the same project team to create the Balthazar Boulangerie next door and the private dining room, situated above the restaurant on the first floor, with its own bar and lounge. 

Interior images by: 1. David Loftus   3. Sim Canetty-Clarke and exterior image 2. by Steven Joyce.

Alongside the launch of Balthazar, Covent Garden, Method Architects was commissioned to create a boulangerie in the historic building next door.

This was an enormously sensitive task involving changes to the Grade II Listed C18th house where Dr Samuel Johnson met his biographer James Boswell in 1763.

Method successfully liaised with Westminster City Council and English Heritage to ensure that the boulangerie was completed in time for the restaurant opening. The practice worked with respected heritage specialists Donald Insall Associates to produce plans and achieve planning and listed building consents.

As with the main restaurant, the interior design was a collaboration with Grayling Design Inc of New York. Every loaf of bread, croissant and patisserie is made in-house and can be delivered by the liveried Balthazar bicycle. 

At the same time, Method Architects drew up proposals and won planning permission for Balthazar’s wholesale bakery, created off-site in a railway viaduct arch at Waterloo, to supply artisan bread and pastries to both the restaurant and the boulangerie. 

“We found the Method Architect’s team very helpful at all stages of the project, and certainly instrumental in successfully getting us through this period of significant change. We found them to be very flexible and supportive in the face of some very tight deadlines that we found ourselves against, and they readily came up with innovative solutions to help us. We would have no hesitation in recommending Method Architects for similar projects of this nature.” Alan Northern, General Manager, June 2019

Method Architects recently worked on the refurbishment of a successful Holiday Inn Express – IHG’s fastest growing hotel brand. The Holiday Inn Express in Burton-upon-Trent was upgraded to IHG brand standard Gen IV in a fast-track fit-out that required an architectural service that was nimble, quick and comprehensive: tight deadlines meant a quick turnaround for information.

The hotel remained in continual operation during the works which were phased to accommodate the refurbishment of the 82 bedrooms over 4 floors, as well as the upgrading of the public spaces. Method Architects worked closely with the hotel’s General Manager to accommodate the hotel’s requirements within the timescales and with IHG design to carry out a sucessful re-modelling of the areas.

The project revitalised the hotel’s public spaces: reception, lounge and dining area Great Room with adaptations to the ceilings and walls of meeting room and kitchen, new reception area, conversion of office to luggage room, public WCs.

Our work involved space planning, design alterations to the existing layout, furniture layouts, assistance with the Hotel’s procurement of furniture and lighting, re-design of the reception to accommodate new Gen IV furniture, and the upgrade of all guest bedrooms in accordance with the Design Guide: new lighting, wall and floor coverings, case goods, bathrooms, window dressings, hotel corridors.

The project was completed in summer 2019.

Method Architects has won planning permission for the redevelopment and refurbishment of this flourishing hotel in Swindon. 

Built in 2003 on the site of a former car park the hotel is well-located in the city centre but large areas of the ground and first floors are vacant.  

Method architects has proposed the introduction of new intermediate floors that allow the expansion of hotel facilities and introduce a gym, coffee shop and parking at street level. 

Exceeding client expectations, we have managed to accommodate a further 100 guest bedrooms within the building envelope, whilst relocating the hotel reception and dining to a more convenient area on the upper ground floor. 

Working closely with the experienced hotel operator the hotel has been re-modelled to offer guests the very latest in brand layout and design as well as housing valuable commercial concerns that engage the street frontages. These new uses at the base of the hotel generate activity at street level and integrate with the council's masterplan proposals for improvements to the urban grain in this locale. 

Method Architects has helped improve the fortunes of the banqueting suite located in the Holiday Inn in west London’s Wembley.

The hotel venue was efficiently transformed from a series of dated and unloved spaces, within an otherwise dynamic 1970s modernist building, into a place that is attracting numerous bookings for large weddings, breakfasts and other events.

Method Archietcts remodelled the interior by combining ‘difficult’ small rooms and removing a staircase that interrupted the overall volume of the space. Now a capacious sub-dividable space has been created that can house a host of events from 500 diners at an Asian wedding to large corporate gatherings and small meetings. 

New walnut panelling has been teamed with bespoke carpets and lighting and moveable partition walls that allow the hall to be temporarily divided. A cornice line has been introduced below a ceiling that had to be retained and rectangular Austrian crystal chandeliers commissioned from Kolarz.

The result, with its palette of rich blue, gold and silver has given the room new focus and a much-needed uplift. The project was completed on budget within a tight three-month timetable.

Method Architects worked with hotelier Monteacute House on a number of projects at their popular flagship hotel the Holiday Inn Express in Wimbledon South.

Initially the work revolved around the public offer, fitting-out redundant retail spaces, accessed from a first floor terrace, to provide a range of conference rooms and a new public gym at street level.

In a left-over paved area adjacent to the hotel entrance an outdoor coffee bar was created - with the servery accommodated in a customised shipping container wrapped in a bespoke London-themed graphic and facing a festively decked-out seating area.

For the main project, Method Architects designed a roof-top extension to a wing of the hotel, providing an extra 20 new guest bedrooms at a new fourth floor level overlooking the park to the rear of the site. The scheme was complicated by the location of overhead power lines and the proximity of neighbouring properties in the conservation area.

Planning consent was won with the aid of 3D modelling of the neighbour’s outlook to demonstrate that the proposal could not be seen. It’s surprisingly difficult to demonstrate that a new part of a building cannot be seen at all – it just looks as if you haven’t modelled it!

The new guest rooms were designed to the IHG Gen IV standard but adapted to fit within the existing structural grid below with slightly narrower bays. A satisfied guest in Room 336 writes:

“Immaculate room, brilliantly designed with a real attention to detail and all seemed extremely high quality”

(review on Booking.com July 2018)

“In the restaurant itself there has been some serious investment and the quality of the finish and design reflects this”.

Amira Hashish, The Evening Standard, 10 August 2015

Housed in the impressive Grade II listed art-deco Adelphi Building off the Strand, the first UK outpost of NY steakhouse Smith & Wollensky has opened on the ground floor. 

Method Architects was engaged as co-ordinating architects on this project.  Our work involved applying for planning consent for the exterior treatments and the appreciation of the interior design concept, by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio: how to deliver it in terms of construction details and coordination with other specialists involved with restaurant accommodation: catering kitchen suppliers, bar specialists, lighting and sound suppliers and M&E services.

Crucial to our work was the communication with the landlord's design and construction team who were working on site on the redevelopment of the whole building. 

And most importantly we were able to offer reassurance to the client Smith & Wollensky and project manager, Acacia Consulting, that the restaurant accommodation would be compliant, deliverable and function as the client intended. 

In spring 2014, Method worked with regular Mayfair client The Birley Group, owned by Richard Caring, to explore potential adaptations to the exterior of the famous George Club.

In 2013, Method worked with regular Mayfair client The Birley Group, owned by Richard Caring, to re-fashion the top floor of famous Mark's Club, a private members' dining club just off Berkeley Square.

This project refurbishes the popular but tired 1980s indoor swimming pool and changing rooms in the Holiday Inn with a pool space fit for the twentyfirst century health and fitness market.

Method architects have re-organised the compact changing rooms to accommodate opaque green glass shower cubicles and tiles throughout with cool grey stoneware by MOSA tiles and concealed lighting. The freeform swimming pool is edged with black pool tiles and sits within a high pool hall clad in a mixture of porcelain plank tiles in shades of grey and white mosaic tiling to the curved walls. An overhaul of the steam room and sauna complete the project – all to be completed during a short fixed term of closure of the facilities during the 2014 summer period.

Earls Court hotel, part of the SB Hotel Group, was refurbished and extended in 2012, with an additional twelve rooms. Four of the rooms were within the existing garden sunken beneath an intensive green planted roof, for which Method gained planning consent from the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

The construction was managed by Arcacia Conulting and the Structural engineers were Ellis & Moore.

The Vanbrugh House Hotel opened in 2013 to rave reviews and immediately achieved very high levels of occupancy.

As a result, the hoteliers contacted Method to explore ways to extend the rear of the property to create additional breakfast covers. The only available space was a small semi-basement patio area.

The design inserts a simple modern highly-glazed canopy into the hotch-potch of different rear extensions.