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© Mr John Roper
IoE Number:
428675
Location:
WILLIS FABER BUILDING, FRIARS STREET
IPSWICH, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK
Photographer:
Mr John Roper
Date Photographed:
16 April 2002
Date listed:
25 April 1991
Date of last amendment:
25 April 1991
Grade
I
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
The following building shall be added:-
TM 1644 SW FRIARS STREET
3/493 Willis Faber Building
I
Office building. Designed 1970-71; built 1973-5. Foster
Associates. Concrete frame with bronzed glass cladding and turf
covering to flat roof which has a hedge slightly set back from
the perimeter. Irregular plan with curved external wall, which
follows the perimeter of the site. Three storeys, plus a further
storey in the form of a glazed rectangular pavilion set back from
the perimeter. The building is fully glazed in bronze tinted
glass which is hung from the edge of the perimeter cantilever at
main roof level above the second floor. It is secured at
intermediate floor levels and is without mullions; each floor is
two panes of glass deep and the junctions between the panes are
each covered by a pair of rectangular fixings. Three revolving
doors set close together, of bronzed glass in simple circular
black frames, to Friars Street. Interior: Designed as a whole by
the architects. First and second floors are laid out as flexible
open plan office space, sandwiched between fixed service
facilities on the ground and third floors; these include a
swimming pool, a cafe and computer and plant rooms to the ground
floor and a restaurant to the third floor. An 'atrium' rises
through the centre of the building containing three pairs of
escalators set in line. Top-lit tubular metal space frame roof
above. Circular reinforced concrete pilot is painted white. Floor
covering to ground floor of green studded rubber, and to upper
floors of green carpet (with continuous runs of access panels for
power and telephone distribution) all chosen by the architects,
as was the whole colour scheme. Polished alumunium ceilings and
glare-free lighting to office areas, designed by the architects;
white painted waffle slab to ceiling at ground floor level.
Swimming pool designed so that the water is flush with the
surrounding floor surface; stainless steel bars to access steps.
Modular Steel partitions in yellow, enclosing service areas. An
exceptional building of its period. Architectural Review
September 1975; American Institute of Architects Journal April
1981; RIBA Journal September 1990; New Society October 6 1977;
High Tech Architecture, C Davies, 1988; Norman Foster: Architect:
Selected Works 1962-84, 1984.