Last week, we posted Christmas cards to wish you all a cracking Christmas. 8 days to go and we are looking back at 2019 and highlighting the best that happened.
The recent CAT A refurbishment and extension of 13-20 Settles Street in Whitechapel offer approximately 25,000 sq ft of contemporary commercial office space flooded with daylight and stunning architecture. The development boasts a great location with a quick connection to the City of London. The ambitious scheme was designed by Thirdway Architecture and brought to life by Thirdway Contracts. The project recognises the rich heritage of the building whilst creating a forward-thinking workspace with a stunning street presence.
This year was the year of the pig. In Chinese culture, pigs are the symbol of prosperity. Pigs choose to enjoy life and so we choose to be cheerful, however gloomy the political situation and the shadow of Brexit may be. And there is plenty to be cheerful about this year!
We have grown the team bigger and stronger than ever. Flexing our muscles, we are working alongside the best people in the industry, delivering projects larger than £300K on a regular basis. The internal capability of our team is becoming more solid project by project and this year we have proven that we can venture well beyond the standard. With projects like Glen House, The Bower or Cally Yard, we really stand out as the Light Engineers.
If I were to choose one word that would describe 2019 it would be COMPETENCE.
More and more women are joining our team and these young bright women are taking on serious technical roles, designing, managing projects and developing products. As a woman myself, I am very proud to see this happening. We have given more young people work opportunities at 299 than any previous years, which is also something to be cheerful about.
Looking back, we have delivered some great work this year and we have some exciting projects coming up in the coming year.
So, what has 2019 been all about? Here is a short summary of the most memorable work this year.
January
An hour before we closed the office for the Christmas break last year, we received the order for the general office lighting for our largest project to date in Bristol. “The Eagle has landed” was the official tweet that went out immediately. A lot of work went into this and the team delivered amazing results working alongside Box Twenty and Stride Treglown. Eagle House is our first large project featuring connected lighting using Philips EasyAir. The project has been successfully delivered and installed. We are now eagerly awaiting the photoshoot, scheduled for the coming January.
The team is not resting on their laurels, and we are landing another fantastic CAT B refurbishment of a Victorian warehouse in London with Thirdway Architecture. The Provost Street scheme celebrates the Victorian heritage and adds some contemporary additions. The scheme was completed in June 2019 and we will be featuring the project in our case studies shortly. Looking at the pictures of Provost Street, we are having some serious office envy!
Eagle House, Bristol.
Provost Street, London.
February
Following the great success of Labs House, we are being trusted with delivering more work for the trendy co-working leader LABS. This time, we are also supplying the beautiful decorative globe pendants from VISO. The photos of the space look really nice!
At the same time, the technical team is putting together a cool CAT B scheme using some recessed LED panels at Sanofi in Reading. The panels have a black edge and create a skylight effect. Some panels are also ‘obstructed’ with some beautiful joinery details, turning into a real visual feature. So yes, we can do LED panels, we just like to do them in a cool way. In the background, we are starting work on some linear lighting systems for the British Museum, a fast-paced heritage refurbishment in London. The team is not slowing down and we are rolling up our sleeves and starting to work on a trendy CAT A and CAT B office fit out at 71- 73 Carter Lane, a new Boutique Workplace location. At the same time, we are landing an interesting project for a tech giant in Reading. Their new office features over 20+ variations of the linear system Rio with custom corners. It’ was a bit tricky to quote, but all are being sent to the site pre-labelled to match the specification sheets. Check out 100 Brook Drive for more details.
90 Holborn LABS, London.
Sanofi, London.
March
The work on the new website is slowly coming to an end and we are enduring a two-day photo shoot. It is a lot harder than it sounds. With a little 4 months old baby in tow, we take photos of each member of staff, some creative shots using architectural lighting and some stock images for the new webpage.
The technical team is working on 42-44 Gerrard Street in London’s Chinatown. The scheme connects two neighbouring buildings together and celebrates a raw industrial look with the exposed brickworks, untreated walls, all framed with a cool metal frame staircase. The client’s focus on energy efficiency is a driving factor of this project, so we are using integrated PIR sensors to keep energy use in check. The results are fantastic and we love seeing the pictures of the finished office space.
42 - 44 Gerrard Street, London.
42 - 44 Gerrard Street, London
April
We are populating and testing the webpage as it is going to go live in the next few days! The excitement is mounting!
Meanwhile, the project team is working on a CAT B fit out in Cambridge for an undisclosed client. This is a very interesting project where we are working with the existing concrete ceiling and trying to find solutions that would fit the existing holes and blend in. We are using the recessed Segura Trim and suspending it. The result is a stunning ceiling with a lot of character. Sadly, we won’t be able to feature this project in a case study, as the client wishes to remain undisclosed.
May
We are wiping our brows. The new page is going live on the 1st of May. The team delivering the webpage is relieved and we can now start focusing on building a strong Member zone. This is where you find all product Datasheets, Photometric files and BIM files.
We are working on the impressive Royal Liver Building in Liverpool with Corstorphine +Wright and CBRE. The 16 storey granite waterfront building is an iconic landmark and is predominantly used as office space. Our technical team worked on the CAT A situated on the lower ground and ground floor. We supplied an impressive 239 Glyde Suspended’s. This is the largest project to date using the Glyde Suspended, so we are very eager to see the images and share a case study. The boarding is coming down as I am writing this and the new building with its atrium will be revealed very soon.
June
We are turning 10! It’s time to pause and look back. Starting from a kitchen table in our house and coming to a point where we have a solid team delivering amazing projects gives us a sense of achievement. Plenty of people helped the business to get to this point and we are thankful.
This month, we are approached by the facility manager of Tottenham Hotspurs Training Centre in Enfield with the request of updating their existing linear lighting in the gym. The gym boasts an impressive 15 m ceiling height and we supplied new linear recessed lighting Lopen. The new lighting has just been installed and we should receive the new images in the New Year. We are also working on the 3rd floor of 25 Gordon Street in London. It is a breakout space fitted out with miles and miles of track lighting. With a bit of luck, we might get hold of the images of this one for next year.
Tottenham Hotspurs Gym
Tottenham Hotspurs Gym
July
The project team is rolling up the sleeves and we get cracking on the oh so cool Cally Yard development at Caledonian road in Kings Cross. Somewhere between 150 and 200 design hours were racked up to get this project out of the door! The 24 units feature the very new Arno Suspended and we just can’t wait to see the project shots. The Cally Yard is a three-stage project that carries on through August, keeping the internal team suitably entertained throughout the summer.
Cally Yard, Caledonian Road.
Cally Yard, Caldedonian Road.
August
The “Squiggle project’ as we internally call it - The Bower at 207-211 Old Street in London was delivered with Lecter Associates. Very unique in shape to fit the space and sit around the air conditioning and services, it is something we are all eagerly anticipating to see when completed and fitted out. The playful squiggle made of bespoke suspended linear profiles enhances the office amphitheatre. We managed to organise the first photoshoot of the lighting system later in the year and still waiting for the project to be photographed professionally. This is something we are very proud of this year.
The Bower at 207-211 Old Street in London
The Bower at 207-211 Old Street in London
September
Back to fashionable Soho, we started working on the cool 82-84 Berwick Street in London. Beautifully refurbished five floors of high spec creative office space, the Berwickworks is still an ongoing project and currently in the capable hands of our design team. We shall be looking forward to seeing the project completed hopefully in the early part of the new year.
At the same time, we are starting work on the Settles Street in Whitechapel. It is a mix of a 5 storey new build extension and a complete refurbishment of the main Victorian building designed by Thirdway Architecture. The ceiling in the main building has been removed and an impressive ceiling height of 7m has been created by the architect. Suspended linear lighting was specified for the main general office lighting. The project is happening as we speak and is due to completion in the early part of 2020. Looking at the project visuals, this is something to be looking forward to.
Settles Street, London.
Settles Street, London.
October
We are designing a super cool CAT A fit-out scheme for The Hudson at 350 Kennington Lane in Vauxhall with byds +Associates and Sapphire Electrical. This characterful warehouse-style building features exposed concrete ceilings and services and boast plenty of natural light. We supported the design team with a full lighting design and calculations for the entire building. The suspended lighting works really well with the exposed services. We are looking forward to seeing the images and featuring a case study! Keep your eyes peeled for this one next year.
The Hudson at 350 Kennington Lane.
The Hudson at 350 Kennington Lane.
November
The team is back in The Maltings, Cardiff. We are doing more work supporting this great co-working space with more consultancy, lighting design and of course, some great lighting. We are also closing an interesting project with Thirdway Architecture - 44 Fetherstone Street in London. The architect’s proposal shows a complete remodelling of a tired 1960’s style building. Keep an eye on this one next year!
We spent the last day of November in the great outdoors and faced our fears high up in the trees of Forest of Dean. It’s a surprise team building day for the team and we have been totally blessed with beautiful weather! Fun, scary and challenging at times, it was a superb day out, the Go Ape adventure was a success!
December
We are starting the month off strongly- sponsoring the BCO Christmas Drinks at the Pata Negra in Bristol. It was a great event and we prepared a little Christmas surprise for the guest- our brand new notebooks! The design is based on an actual real project The Bower. Keep an eye on this one next year.
The work on the Geometric range is well underway. We are adding 7 new exciting shapes of linear lighting to our product range and hoping to see them on specifications next year. The first snapshots of 40 Berkeley Square in Bristol are here, as the project is nearing completion. The atrium - featuring 18 Omni-directional Nile Suspended is looking stunning! Watch out for the professional photos and case studies next year. The Nile Suspended 360 degrees will be included in the range next year.
The team has just finished working on the Forge in Woking with Thirdway Architecture. An exciting project to reveal next year!
If you have been good for the whole year, you might have received a Christmas card featuring our Crackernut ™ this month! We are totally Nutcracker obsessed in the office. According to German tradition, they are symbols of good luck, frightening away malevolent spirits. You might want to keep this one out for the whole year!
All in all, it’s been a good, plentiful year. It was full of interesting projects keeping our design hungry minds occupied. We have proven that we can work on large projects as there is some exciting work on the horizon for 2020, with wireless controls and more made-to-measure luminaires.
We would like to say a huge “Thank you” to the whole team, to our clients and to our suppliers. And even the competitors for keeping us on our toes and being the best we can be.
Here is to the "full hopper" in 2020!!
The year in figures:
801
Total number of jobs we worked on this year
271
Total number of jobs we’ve won this year
218
Active jobs in the system…
Made to measure - at the speed of light.
From product selection to complete project delivery, off-the-shelf to one-offs, we do it all. We are the Light Engineers.
Made to measure - at the speed of light.
From product selection to complete project delivery, off-the-shelf to one-offs, we do it all. We are the Light Engineers.
From product selection to complete project delivery, off-the-shelf to one-offs, we do it all. We are the Light Engineers.