The Acre is a 260,000 sq ft transformation of the brutalist 90 Long Acre office block in the heart of Covent Garden, retaining around 80% of Richard Seifert’s original 1970s structure rather than demolishing it outright. At its centre sits a seven-storey glazed atrium — ‘The Heart’ — fitted with a frangible roof designed to disintegrate in a controlled way at high temperature, venting heat and doubling as the building’s natural ventilation strategy.
Developed by Northwood Investors and designed by Gensler with Arup, the retrofit halved the embodied carbon of an equivalent new build and added eight roof terraces overlooking the London skyline. Construction was delivered by Lendlease, with practical completion reached in early 2025.
