Opera

Building on the success of last year’s inaugural volunteer day, we once again stepped away from our desks for our second annual volunteering day at Jessop Primary School. We were entrusted with building integrated seating with planting, sanding and painting the existing furniture to enhance the outdoor space. The team rolled up their sleeves and created a uniform and calming environment that will support the students' learning and well-being. A heartfelt thank you to our volunteers for dedicating their time and energy to make a positive impact. We also extend our deep gratitude to Groundwork London for facilitating this day and for our ongoing partnership. Your support has been instrumental in helping us give back to the community.

Last Friday saw nine of the Opera team compete in the 17th annual JLL Property Triathlon, marking our second time participating. It was a fantastic day, made even better by raising significant funds for WWF. Huge thank you to JLL for organising and bringing together participants from across the property industry for a day filled with challenging races. Congratulations to all those who participated, and we're eagerly looking forward to next year's event!

Fantastic to see that our Chancery House project for The Office Group has been awarded with Mix Interiors' Project of the Year - Workplace 70k+ at the #MixAwards24. Testament to the creative vision of dMFK, Norm Architects and The Office Group - a truly stunning, best in class example of the future of flex.

We're thrilled to support Landsec de-carbonising their portfolio by overseeing the delivery of all six retrofit schemes, with a fantastic team of consultants and contractors from across the industry.   The first heat pumps in the programme landed on the roof over this winter and are up and running cooling the buildings; this summer sees the first of the old gas boilers in the basement being decommissioned and replaced with water source heat pumps.   We look forward to the rest of the phased delivery of this scheme over the next few years!

This month saw the Opera team descend on the quiet and tranquil village of Castle Combe in the Cotswolds, for our latest annual conference. It was the turn of a 'home' conference, having travelled to Spain last summer and with the company's further expansion and growth over the past 12 months (eight new joiners!), there was much for us to consider as a business. The opportunity for all of us to take some time away, to pause and reflect not just on the achievements of the past year, but on how we continue to grow in a way that upholds the standards we set ourselves - whilst safeguarding our culture - was not wasted. The levels of engagement, team spirit and passion for the company were once again fantastic and we are hugely grateful to all of the team for their energy and enthusiasm. A particular highlight was our guest speaker, former Paralympian and gold medal winner Danny Crates PLY. His inspiring words and story were warmly received, especially by our many enthusiastic runners, and left a lasting impact on us all.

We are delighted to announce that full planning approval has been secured for the extensive refurbishment of 75 London Wall. This landmark project and our first collaboration with Castleforge and GAMUDA LAND, promises a significant enhancement, augmenting the building by 40% with approximately 200,000 square feet of additional GIA and adding five new floors to the existing structure. The brief champions sustainable, low-carbon design principles, with a strong emphasis on retrofitting to preserve the building's existing structure and its distinctive limestone façade. With 89% retention of existing building fabric, the development is targeting BREEAM 'Outstanding', WELL Core 'Platinum', NABERS UK '5 Star Design For Performance'; setting a new standard for sustainable office space in the City of London. We're also committed to enhancing the local community by significantly upgrading the public realm and streetscape. With main contractor Multiplex also appointed under a PCSA, this marks a critical milestone for the project, and an important step in bringing this significant development to market for Castleforge and Gamuda Land. A huge congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the project to date. Orms, Hoare Lea , London Structures Lab, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Gardiner & Theobald LLP, DP9 Limited and our extended team of specialist consultants.

A team of fit and hardy Opera dragon boaters competed in the 2024 Construction industry dragon boat challenge in aid of CRASH - Construction Industry's Charity last week. This event, hosted at Surrey Docks, brought together 39 teams from across the UK construction and property industry for a day filled with thrilling races. Our amazing team put in an incredible effort and achieved a place on the podium, finishing 2nd overall! A huge thank you to the organisers, for such an incredible event. It was a fantastic day on the water, made even better by raising significant funds for CRASH. Well done to all the teams who participated, and here's to Gold next year!

We are delighted to see that The Black & White Building was recently honoured with TWO awards: a RIBA London Award 2024 as well as RIBA London Client of the Year 2024. Both awards reflect the vision and confidence embodied by Charlie Green in pursuing such a bold and innovative brief. The project had many challenges along the way, which the team overcame through collaboration with great passion, to create a beautiful building. This project is an exemplar of visionary sustainable design, achieving low embodied and operational carbon. It is also the tallest engineered timber office building in central London. A huge congratulations and thanks to the entire team involved. The Office Group, Waugh Thistleton Architects, Parkeray Ltd, Gardiner & Theobald LLP, Daytrip studio, EEP - Environmental Engineering Partnership, Eckersley O'Callaghan, Engenuiti

Fantastic to see our 3 Sheldon Square project for British Land take a starring role at FOOTPRINT+ this month, as members of the team discussed the 'Acceleration of Low Carbon Retrofit'.   The principles of reuse and circular construction have been at the heart of the refurbishment scheme with a significant proportion of materials and all primary structure as well as finishes, floors and doors retained - resulting in just ~124kgCO2e/m2 of embodied carbon. The building now operates as an all-electric building achieving an EPC A, and is on target to be BREEAM Outstanding and NABERS 4.5*. The unique balconies designed by Morris+Company and Heyne Tillett Steel have been cantilevered from the existing roof structure as an innovative way of providing quality outdoor amenity - whilst retaining the façade - to improve the wellbeing of building occupiers. This project represents a real success story: it was completed on time, within budget and was fully let on completion. Our special thanks to the superb team that have contributed along the way: British Land, 8build, Morris+Company, Heyne Tillett Steel, Ramboll, Arup, Equals Consulting, Sweco, The Fire Surgery, Gillespies, Speirs Major Light Architecture and many more.

Opera continues to grow! We are delighted to welcome Hannah Carey, Michael Burke, Robert Green MAPM, Louis Worth and Izzie Cronin, who have joined our growing team. Each brings valuable skills and fresh perspectives from their varied backgrounds, further enriching the blend of talent operating across the business.  2024 continues to see us grow throughout our core markets, in keeping with our tradition of sensible and steady growth, with more to come!