Pictured above: The current front of St James Street, London

Marchini Curran Associates (MCa) has begun work on the refurbishment of a period building in St James Street in London.

The Nottingham-based architects have re-configured and extended the ground floor and basement to form an enlarged retail unit. The upper floors will be renovated to provide office and storage space for potential retailers.

MCa has designed the building to have a new well-proportioned painted timber and glass shopfront. This will ensure that it fits in with other properties in the sought after street, which boasts retailers including Fossil, Swarowski, Dune and Jesire.

Ben Bowley, project director at MCa said: "Although the building is relatively modest in size the project is really quite complex. A number of key constraints have affected our approach to the project. 

"The existing structure is around 250 years old and is set within the Covent Garden Conservation Area. We made the conscious decision to design a shopfront that would be sensitive to the beautiful original façade above; which is how the buildings on either side have been preserved. It will hugely improve the appearance and hopefully attract a high end retailer.

"A further constraint was the fact the building is set upon a site of archaeological interest. One of the conditions of the project was that during the works to lower and extend the basement we needed to have an archeologist present at all times; to ensure  that anything of any historic or archaeological value isn't damaged."

The James Street project is one of a number of projects MCa have been working on with client KBC Asset Management. 

Adam Smith of KBCAM said "In these challenging times we need to continually keep on top of our portfolio to ensure that we maximise its potential. Working with innovative but commercially aware architects like MCa has helped to make this possible".

The project started is due to be completed by late December.