London city centre office block

Two of the four lifts which were to be reinstalled in these open atrium shafts had to go to basement floor level.  This meant that the piles and ground beams supporting the back and central walls seen here had to be cut and re-cast one storey lower in the ground.  Another firm had postulated a scheme with an 11 tonne steel frame and six hydraulic jacks to support the dead weight of all this concrete.  We argued that with minimal bracing in the lift doorways (at three levels only) the structure could support itself while the foundations were reconfigured, and that is how it was done.