Once a bleak and uninspiring station, Birmingham New Street has undergone a £600 million development, adopting a modern twist on the stations original 1854 glazed roof design, swamping the station with natural light. Launched in September this year, the new station is firmly in-line with 21st century living. Commuters now have a selection of fashionable eateries to choose from, including Synecore’s longstanding clients, Leon and Five Guys.
As the M&E partner for Leon, and coldroom providers for Five Guys, Synecore has proven an invaluable asset to their national expansion programmes. With its knowledge of their commercial requirements, Leon and Five Guys were confident in Synecore’s ability to complete the projects on time and adhere to the stringent procedures involved in such as large scale development.
This was the first time Synecore worked on fit-outs for Leon and Five Guys side-by-side. For this particular project the M&E firm provided a full electrical and HVAC design and installation for Leon, while Five Guys benefitted from Synecore’s expertise in creating bespoke coldrooms.
High street fit-outs for Leon and Five Guys are fairly routine for the mechanical and electrical designers and engineers at Synecore, however the Birmingham New Street site posed many challenges in terms of safety and security checks.
Paul Thomas, Managing Director for Synecore explains, “Access to site and the type of materials we used were not dissimilar to the airside developments that we carry out across the country, if not, more stringent. All our materials and tools had to packaged correctly for arriving on site and our engineers underwent an in-depth induction to familiarise themselves with the layout before they began work.”
Of course safety was a major priority for the development. With thousands of commuters passing through the station each day, the materials had to be fire resistant and low toxic, therefore materials and equipment had to be low smoke, zero halogen and fully contained in metal conduit casing. For the Five Guys cold room Synecore used Kingspan LPCB approved PIR insulated panels.
The number of security checks could have significantly hindered the programme being handed over on time, but Synecore’s perseverance ensured the two projects were complete quickly and the two fast food establishments were ready to open ahead of the official launch.
