23.03.2020, 11:51
World Class Digital Connectivity
One Centre Square, a commercial development at the heart of the regeneration of Middlesbrough in North East England, has joined the Empire State Building and The Shard London Bridge after its digital infrastructure was certified to Wiredscore’s Platinum standard.
Wired Certification is a commercial real estate rating scheme that empowers landlords to understand, improve, and promote their buildings’ digital infrastructure, and One Centre Square is only the second building in Middlesbrough, and the third in the North East, to achieve its top rating.
Of 384 buildings and developments assessed in London, only 16 per cent have been assessed as meeting the criteria for Platinum certification.
Commenting on the certification, William Newton, WiredScore President and Managing Director, EMEA, referred to the development as an “investment to provide the highest level of digital infrastructure demonstrated an ambition to create a dynamic and productive environment for business”.
Centre Square developer, Mark Ashall, added:
“We set out to create a high-quality office working environment which provides all the features a modern occupier wants, including sustainability, flexibility, energy efficiency, space efficiency as well as excellent connectivity”.
The building’s digital infrastructure has been designed to cope with the increase in future demand for secure access to data.
Measures to ensure companies can carry on working in the event a major incident, such as a fire or a flood, have also been provided.
Two climate controlled underground universal communications chambers – housing equipment and cable intakes – have been built on different sides of the building. If connections are disrupted to one, the second one provides a seamless back up.
The Centre Square project was launched five years ago after the influential think-tank Centre for Cities concluded that Middlesbrough town centre needed Grade A offices to attract large companies offering well-paid jobs which, in turn, would have a beneficial impact on the local economy.
In July Two Centre Square, a three-storey 35,000 sq ft office building, was completed. One Centre Square followed two months later and is larger, with 60,000 sq ft over four storeys and a large space for a restaurant/café on the ground floor.
Both buildings have been shortlisted for the inaugural Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Social Impact Awards which recognise the built environment’s “positive and transformational contribution to society”.
They have also been nominated in the British Council of Offices’ Best Commercial Workplace Award.
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