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"For people living in the area, it has become a gathering place and a focus. This gives the area a very strong identity," says Pierre Baillargeon, principal, HOK International Ltd., London. The it is London's new O2 Centre, an entertainment and retail complex dedicated to the pursuit of leisure. With an inventive use of finishes and space planning, O2 Centre has renewed an underutilized business region and fathered a new trend in recreation in Europe.
Located on Finchley Road, a major arterial street in the Swiss Colony area of central London, the original site was given over to derelict Victorian shops and rowhouses. The developer and owner, Burford Group, London, held a competition among a small collection of major architectural firms to gather ideas on the eventual use of the long-neglected site.
HOK won the commission with a dynamic space that houses a playful mixture of recreation activities, entertainment, and retail spaces.
O2 Centre offers an uncommon experience. "Basically, we are not a shopping center. Retail is not the main focus," explains Lance Stansbury, centre director, London, "O2 is an unique space, completely dedicated to lifestyle - not shopping." At the first level, a large supermarket on the site's east end and a standalone, do-it-yourself warehouse facility on the west serve as anchor stores, drawing in customers to the center. These facilities offer full access to the facility's central 560-space carpark. Leisure and entertainment functions are organized above these major retail facilities.
The building's second level is the main pedestrian level; all of the leisure and entertainment areas occupy the second and third levels. They also share...