The Apex building completes
The first phase of the Tribeca development, The Apex, has reached practical completion and will gradually open its doors for new tenants and the public over the coming months. As a blend of new occupiers settle in, they will breathe life into this once neglected and closed off part of the city, creating a welcoming place for everyone to enjoy.
The ground floor of the Apex will function as a public foyer, café and events space for meeting, eating and gathering. The glazed façade will serve as a shop front that interacts with the street and invites people in; on warm days, large partitions can be opened up, allowing the space to connect with the canal and the central square, which will be delivered in phase 2, bringing a buzz of activity to the area.
The upper levels of the building will accommodate state-of-the-art laboratories for the London BioScience Innovation Centre (LBIC) and The Francis Crick Institute. Both organisations will offer much needed grow-on space for young and innovative bioscience companies, creating a globally competitive location for entrepreneurship, technology and ideas generation. The Francis Crick Institute will also operate a Charity Training Space in The Apex, which will provide life science training and skills development for people at different stages of their career, from college students to skilled professionals, forging new pathways and stepping stones into bioscience. Overall, circa 500 people will work in the building, creating a new focal point for life science at the heart of the King’s Cross Knowledge Quarter.
One of the guiding missions of the Tribeca development is to deliver impactful and lasting benefits to local communities. Since work commenced on site in summer 2021, construction apprenticeships have generated new job opportunities in the local community, offering aspiring professionals a chance to acquire valuable trade skills in electrical installation, plumbing, carpentry and joinery without having to commit to long and expensive degrees.
Apprenticeship have the power to increase earning potential and life chances; nine Camden residents secured long-term employment after their completed apprenticeship terms at The Apex.
Students from built environment courses in London and the South were invited to partake in the Bright Futures Student Challenge to learn about construction first hand and compete for work placement opportunities with The Apex construction company VolkerFitzpatrick.
The Apex will set a high standard for sustainable development – the building spearheads circular approaches and has been designed to minimise carbon emissions during construction and operation. More than 95% of demolition waste has been reused or recycled; concrete was reused in the piling mat and steel components were repurposed as structural elements during temporary works. Surplus concrete and steel were sent to a local manufacturer to be recycled in other projects.
Working with hyper-local materials shortens the supply chain, which increases oversight of the manufacturing process and can help ensure sustainable and ethical practices. The basement of The Apex is partly constructed with Earth Block – bricks cast from excavated subsoil from the construction site – which can be deconstructed and reused at the end of its lifecycle, or returned to nature. This hyper-local product has saved 84% in carbon emissions and 93 cubic metres of waste.
All spaces at Tribeca will be “WELL-Enabled”, which means that they will meet all the pre-conditions for occupiers to achieve WELL Gold Building Standard, to support human health and wellbeing through the provision of quality indoor air, clean and safe water, healthy food options, appropriate lighting, natural movement, thermal and acoustic comfort, healthy materials, mental health support and spaces for social interaction.
The Tribeca landscape, once completed in 2026, will inject much needed greenery, boosting the ecology and biodiversity of the site whilst creating a healthier microclimate for people. The public realm will stitch together a sequence of existing and new open spaces to form a high-quality public realm that links to the surrounding area. Naturalistic rock terraces, planters and other landscape features will interlace to bridge the level change between the canal and St Pancras Way and create a social and playable landscape for people of all ages. A new pedestrian bridge across the canal, due to open to the public in 2026, will strengthen the connection to King’s Cross and its many open spaces.
At ground level, an eclectic blend of new ingredients – shops, bars and restaurants, studios, wellness suites and a mix of new homes, including affordable provision – will be added to future phases, which will make Tribeca an integral and joyful new neighbourhood for north London.
