News
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Christmas Trees Install
Its that time of the year again where on Friday night the 29th November our operatives installed eight Christmas Trees in Canary Wharf.
This is a regular annual installation taken on by us where we install four 30ft Norwegian Spruce trees within Cabot Square, one above the steps next to the Reuters Building and three at Crossrail Place.
The Cabot Square trees are lifted by a 130-tonne crane and careful planning is needed to ensure, in the first instance, that the weather is favourable as any indication of a windy day or approaching storm (such as Storm Diana which was threatening the install last year) then potentially delays are possible. The overnight installation is a recent development, this being our fourth year in doing so. The requirement for traffic management is easier at night with fewer buses so less congestion and of course not the number of public to inconvenience.
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80 Fenchurch St EC3
An orientation visit took place recently by our H&S officer and Project team in order to commence work shortly.
Our works involve us installing six landscaped roof gardens on this new construction at 80 Fenchurch Street. The installation will offer a rare alternative to City Towers through the inclusion of six landscaped roof gardens designed by Landscape architects Hyland Edgar Driver.
The immediate tasks will be setting out, laying drainage boarding, shuttering, and foundations for the planters.
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100 Liverpool Street
The initial walkround of the site took place at the end of July and since then the installation team have commenced work on installing the terrace planters.
The new 100 Liverpool Street building has five outdoor terraces which has an approximate area of 2,600m2. Commencing work early summer 2019 we are tasked in planting over 8,800 plants and 28 trees which will include Olea europaea (Olives) an evergreen tree that will add a Mediterranean touch to the terraces.
Along with the trees and plants, over 275 cubic metres of lightweight soil will need to be lifted to the terraces. Careful logistical planning for transportation to the city location and lifting will be required in what is an extremely busy area of the city.
© Image Broadgate
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Sky Garden Winner of the Best Indoor Garden
The Worshipful Company of Gardeners' Flowers in the City campaign 2019 awarded Gold for Best Indoor Garden 2019 to the Sky Garden 20 Fenchurch St along with Gold for the Green Wall alongside the building. Since the installation of both back in 2014, Willerby Landscapes have maintained the gardens and green wall.
We are delighted that recognition has been given to our maintenance operative Matt Reade who has worked closely with the client during these years, ensuring high standards are maintain throughout whilst the high number of daily visitors to the bar and restaurants enjoy the gardens and views.
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New Google HQ
Willerby Landscapes secure the hard and soft landscaping contract for the installation of landscape architects Gillespies, BIG and Heatherwick Studio's design for the new Google London HQ. The roof garden will comprise of 4,000m2 of green space with the planting of over 230 container grown trees and 55,000 shrubs and perennials.
During the tender process for the contract we were presented with the client's Four Big Challenges. 1) Safe and healthy workforce, 2) Taking delivery to the next level, 3) Reducing our environmental footprint and 4) Healthy and productive workplace of the future. We embraced these challenges and put forward our innovative ideas for Taking delivery to the next level and Reducing our environmental footprint.
We accomplished two of these challenges by developing a re-usable lifting bag for all materials to the roof which will reduce our environmental footprint. Additionally we have developed a bespoke App for mobiles and tablets so that our suppliers and operatives can monitor and check suitability of the bags before each lift thus taking delivery and safety to the next level.
© Image Google
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Royal Albert Docks Phase 1
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Teddington Riverside
The hard & soft landscaping installation continued around the build with the supplying and laying of over 1400m2 of vehicle and pedestrian surfaces along with installation of various kerbing. The site also required over 720m3 sub soil and 2,250m3 of top soil to be added.
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Rushden Lakes
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Facebook At Kings Cross
Facebook has acquired over 600,000 sq ft of office space across three buildings at King’s Cross which is located at the Western Yards of the King’s Cross estate. Willerby Landscapes has been chosen as the landscaper of choice for the 42,000 sq ft of landscaped roof gardens and terraces for buildings T2 & T3 which will become known as 11-21 Canal Reach.
T2 will be 12 storeys high at its highest point at the southern end of the site, stepping down to nine storeys towards the north. Free of mechanical plant, the roof will just accommodate gardens and planted terraces, creating a place for receptions, meetings or simply to enjoy the excellent views across Central London. The current programme is for us to be on site in February/March 2020.
© Image Bennetts Associates
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IQL Stratford S9
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The Smaller Tasks
Most of our reporting is on the major projects we have secured or are working on. Little is told on the various tasks we are daily involved in that require our services.
Recently we have been called upon to install 9 Pyrus chanticleer (Callery pear) at 48 Carey Street a new residential development in Holborn WC1; soft landscape enhancement planting at Fitzroy Place W1 for the Physics Garden; the removal of trees and grills at Canary Wharf for new construction works which also involved us purchasing replacement Acers and storing them for planting in September 2020.
Some of our soft landscaping enhancement works are on previous installations we were involved in such as 20 Fenchurch Street. The building’s new owners required the removal of existing hedging and the large Thuja root balls from the ground floor planters and then instructed us to install 67 Betula pendula’s (Silver birch), some of which are 5m high and 570 Waldsteinia ternata (Siberian waldsteinia).
One of the most interesting tasks was the uplifting of 5 Olive trees from a garden in West London, wrapping them with shrink wrap to protect them, storing overnight at our nursery and then delivering them to a location in Dorset!
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White Hart Lane London
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Reviving a Garden
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Wood Wharf London
Further to our earlier announcement on securing the works for the installation of roof terraces on two new buildings currently known as A2 and A3 within Canary Wharf’s new district, Wood Wharf further hard & soft landscaping works have been awarded for the infrastructure at ground floor level which includes irrigation and the installation of over 60 semi mature trees.
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Community Engagement
We are proud sponsors of the Otford Utd Juniors FC Wanderers Under 16s football team by providing support for the team's kit. The lads are well into the new footballing season playing within the Crowborough & District League and have had a reasonable start to the season. We wish them well for their remaining matches.
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Bat & Bird Boxes
With many new builds and landscape installations we are seeing part of the planning permission conditions include an Ecology Report on the development area. One such project we are working on, Teddington Riverside, an Ecological Mitigation and Enhancement Scheme report by The Ecology Consultancy has recommended specific measures to meet these requirements. A full report is shown on our Environment page.
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Night Time Tree Install
It is not unusual for us to install mature trees within our programme of works, just take a look at the Battle Bridge Place Oak Tree on the King Cross Development page as an example. However, being called upon to install a mature 90cm girth Quercus palustris (Pin Oak) on a bridge over a London Tube line requires precise planning and coordination with several stakeholders and involves night time work for our team. Once the necessary authorisations are in place, a date was set and at 2am in the morning our team were ready to lift the tree and place it in the previously dug tree pit at Principal Place London EC2. With an installation window of only a couple of hours between the last and first Tube we had to get it right…no room for errors!