Approaching St. Jude’s Church from Collingham Road, the imposing form of the former Ambassadors Hotel inevitably comes to notice. Uniform and plain, its blockish massing nevertheless presents a jarring juxtaposition with the Classical Order of the adjacent terraced streets. Our brief was to remodel the exterior elevations to ensure a more favourable relationship with the immediate built environment. We were tasked with making the hotel more inviting without resorting to the wasteful reconfiguration of the interior or the replacement of existing windows.
We proposed that the elevations facing Collingham Road and Courtfield Gardens be re-clad in a sustainably sourced sandstone. Its natural tones would then pick up on the soft creams and golds of the neighbouring buildings’ painted stucco as well as the stock brickwork of the townhouses lining the adjacent garden square. Insofar as the window styling was concerned, we made the case for the addition of patinated bronze metal surrounds, recognising that, set forward, these would evoke the simple form and proportions of the area’s plaster window surrounds.
Such a development promised to increase the brand optics of Ambassador and therefore drive sales. Recognising the potential for an uptick in demand, the developer requested we look at adding an additional floor. The rebuilt sixth floor and new seventh floor will adopt the understated contemporary vernacular now common in London.
