Towering above the elevated section of the M4 in Chiswick, Vantage London is a building seen by tens of thousands of motorists every day as they make their way between Heathrow airport and Central London.
Offering the largest office space in West London, the building occupies a prominent location facing Kew Gardens and sits a mere five minute walk from Chiswick Park tube station. The building has undergone a major refurbishment over this year, and key to re-launching this landmark building was a range of exterior signage that would powerfully reflect the outstandingly modern and vibrant interior.
Architectural signage specialist, Signbox’s proven ability to deliver quality high-elevation signage on this scale meant it was the natural partner for this complex and high profile job. The company was first approached by the contracted architects, Spratley Studios, in late 2014 to provide initial technical assistance to resolve issues relating to the location of large, high-level signs to both of the existing curtain-walled glazing and cladding systems. Signbox was then invited to competitively tender for the works in November 2015 and was awarded the external signage, which was then delivered between January and May of this year.
The first step in the project was to update the building’s existing gantry sign. All decorative tubular steel was removed and the entire gantry re-dressed with aluminium cladding over a new, bespoke structural steel framework with large illuminated lettering. Further external works required the designing of a specialist bracket system to attach a reinforced flex-faced box to a Schuco curtain wall at the 13th floor level, directly above the elevated section of the M4. Bespoke large fabricated letters, located flush to the cladding, were also designed and installed to ensure the fixings took all of the weight load back to the building structure.
A 16×6-metre mesh lettings banner, digitally printed in full colour, was located on engineered fixings that can be removed if required at a later date with recourse to remove the cladding panels. It also featured ‘bump stops’ to prevent the banner making contact with, and damaging the paint finish to refinished cladding.
The complexity and very high cost of re-accessing elevated signage meant that Signbox also designed and installed a complete secondary LED circuit with all control switchgear sited remotely within the building, ensuring that most future issues can be simply and immediately addressed without the need to access the exterior signage. In addition to the primary exterior signage, Signbox has also removed and replaced all car park wayfinding with stainless steel effect dibond, with printed detail as part of the project.
Workman LLP, the management company for the building are delighted with the quality of the work delivered by Signbox and have subsequently ordered additional internal signage – including directories, reception works, tenant signage and wall graphics – all of which have now been completed.
Signbox Senior Project Manager Andrew O’Hara concludes: “Signbox was delighted to have the opportunity to work on such a high profile and architecturally challenging project – the delivery of high-elevation signage that is seen by tens of thousands of London motorists on a daily basis. The project required strict adherence to deadlines and close cooperation with multiple contractors. We were ultimately able to deliver a high-quality finish befitting this landmark building, and the success of the job immediately led to further project work for this client.”
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