Project Description

Porthmeor Apartments

A highly technical and environmentally challenging multi-million pound development to transform an existing hotel in the heart of St Ives into a number of high quality contemporary apartments.

Having won a competitive tender process Underwild Design & Development was appointed by South West Peninsular Properties, as principal contractor for the project. The project brief included the design and erection of an internal scaffold superstructure to retain the front facade and four storey granite cob party walls to ensure the integrity of the neighboring properties of the building prior to demolition.

From demolition planning to the  out of ground construction , internal fit out and hand over of the of these luxury apartments. Situated in a highly elevated location, open to the elements yet with real access issues, making both delivery of materials and excavation work extremely difficult.

The development was completed within 12 months, with liaison throughout the project with the owner, surveyor, structural engineers, and kitchen and bathroom designers in addition to the full management of all trades on site and suppliers. With holiday accommodation surrounding, the development also had to be undertaken in a sensitive manner so as not to alienate site neighbours and businesses.

A piece by piece full demolition of the existing internal structure was then undertaken. Once full demolition had taken place, the bedrock had to be extensively excavated to to allow the development of a basement flat within the new building. A steel frame was then manufactured and dropped inside the remaining masonry walls in between the temporary building shoring. We managed the complete process from start to finish.

• Significant technical issues throughout the lifetime of the build
• Major pre-demolition planning was a critical element for the success of the project
• Location and environmental issues provided further challenges
• A JCT contract with penalty clauses in place

To achieve what we wanted the property needed to be completely gutted and rebuilt form the inside out. Underwild managed to do everything we wanted and delivered an outstanding set of apartments, each one with lovely bespoke touches giving us seven unique apartments.