Kings Place, London

Architect	Dixon Jones
Date Built	2008
Location	90 York Way
Description
Kings Place occupies a site beside York Way, close to King's Cross Station, and adjacent to Battlebridge Basin on the Regent's Canal. The mixed-use building is home to the offices of The Guardian and Observer newspapers, as well as a concert venue, art galleries and a restaurant. The striking building has an glass façade that undulates along York Way before continuing along Crinan Street, and is clad elsewhere in limestone. The building's website explains that the architectural practice of Dixon Jones was selected to carry out the project after a competition. They add that, "In delivering the brief, they have skilfully brought together a major arts venue and creative hub, elegantly situated bars and dining areas including a water front restaurant, an excellent conference and events centre, and a Grade A office complex. In addition to being an iconic, mixed-use building, Kings Place has been planned and designed from the very beginning as an environmentally sustainable development." The building contains two performance spaces: Hall One with a seating capacity of 420 (the first new public concert hall to be built in Central London since the Barbican in the 1980s), and Hall Two, a flexible space for both rehearsal and performance that can seat 220 or accommodate 330 standing. There are also two visual art galleries and seven floors of offices. The Rotunda restaurant looks out onto the Regent's Canal and the canal basin at the rear of the building.