A former Victorian railway station, Exchange Station, Liverpool, recently won the Fit Out of Workplace category at the British Council for Offices Northern Awards. Exchange Station is the result of a £5 million project to revitalise the former Mercury Court office building located in Liverpool’s central business district. The building has been rebranded and refurbished to position the development firmly within Liverpool’s commercial property market and the project provides 22,000sq ft of Category A office space, along with common facility areas.

Optelma worked closely with Hilson Moran consulting engineers and architects BDP to ensure that the common areas, including the concourse, lift lobbies, corridors and WCs, are contemporary and bright.

Neil Makin, Project Manager, Optelma Lighting, explains: ‘With fully glazed entrances to the front and rear, the Concourse allows maximum transparency and views across the space. Squares of light in the entrances, created by Optelma’s made-to-measure Quad 62, reinforce the clean, elegant design, while assisting in delineating the space. This extruded aluminium profile successfully adds visual interest, providing a direct lighting solution with excellent performance and glare control.’

Quad 62 is also recessed in the lift lobbies, corridors and WCs thereby ensuring continuity, while wall-mounted Quad 62 uplights the magnificent original station arches, which form the entrance to the building, thereby neatly tying the scheme together. In areas with high ceilings Optelma’s Tatoo 62 gives direct and indirect light, bringing a stylish feel to the interior.

Photo credit: BDP