The Waterside building in

Harmondsworth Harmondsworth is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon in the county of Greater London with a short border to the south onto London Heathrow Airport. The village has no railway stations, but adjoins the M4 motorway and the A4 road (the ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness Greatness is a concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular place or area. Greatness can also be attributed to individuals who possess a natural ability to be better than al ...

, is the international

head office Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

; it also houses the operational head office of BA's parent company, International Airlines Group (IAG). The building and landscaping, which cost £200 million, is on Harmondsworth Moor, northwest of

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...

, between the M4 and the M25 motorways in the linear Colne Valley regional park. Waterside is on the western edge of

, near

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. Th ...

and

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...

, in the Borough of Hillingdon The building is likely to be demolished as part of the controversial construction of a third runway at Heathrow.

History

Construction

British Airways originally submitted a planning application to the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1990 to build what was then called "Prospect Park" on Harmondsworth Moor. This was withdrawn as the airline believed it would be declined on environmental grounds. An alternative plan was drawn up, promising that the moor would be redeveloped and much of the greenspace conserved, which was accepted. Construction started in September 1995. The project also involved clearing and landscaping the site which was derelict to create a large public park and nature reserve, with a visitor centre. The building was progressively opened between December 1997 and May 1998. The first section of the public park was opened in June 1998, with the remainder in 1999. The architects were Niels Torp, supported by RHWL. The Building Services Engineers were Cundall, the Structural Engineers were

Buro Happold Buro Happold (previously ''BuroHappold Engineering'') is a British professional services firm that provides engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for buildings, infrastructure, and the environment ...

, the Construction Managers were Mace and the Landscape Architects were LUC. The building was completed in June 1998.Myserson, Jeremy. "After modernism: the contemporary office environment" (Chapter 10). In: McKellar, Susie and Penny Sparke (editors). ''Interior Design and Identity''.

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with t ...

, 2004
200
Retrieved from

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

on 12 February 2010. , . The official opening was held that year.Our locations
" ''British Airways''. Retrieved 18 September 2009.

Post-construction

Around 2004 British Airways consolidated several offices into Waterside. Waterside's employee population increased to about 4,000. To deal with the parking situation, British Airways began limiting on-site parking to four days per week, and a Commuter Centre was established. In 2020 the majority of the employees at Waterside stopped working there. As part of a cost reduction programme British Airways chose to keep the building unoccupied indefinitely, with its top level employees working at Technical Block C at Heathrow Airport. Simon Calder of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' wrote that Waterside "is expected to be demolished if the third runway at Heathrow airport goes ahead."

Composition

Nonie Niesewand of ''

'' wrote that the site is roughly as big as

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

and that Waterside itself is "the size of a small town" and that it was an attempt by the airline to have a more international and less formal image. The building includes six sections backing onto a glazed atrium street; each section represents a continent served by British Airways. Each section has a different theme based on the continent. For instance,

Cherry tree A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus '' Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. Th ...

s are planted in the Asia-themed section,

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as ...

trees are planted in the Australia-themed section,

Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' cont ...

saplings were planted in the Europe section, and

Hardwood Hardwood is wood from dicot trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen. Hardwood (which comes from ...

saplings are planted in the North America-themed section. Nonie Niesewand of ''

'' said that the head office site is "the size of a small town, but on a site as big as

".Niesewand, Nottie.
Design: Airline takes flight to new-age headquarters
" ''

''. 5 February 1998. Retrieved 13 February 2010. The building was nicknamed "Ayling Island", after BA chief executive

Bob Ayling Robert John Ayling (born 3 August 1946), also known as Bob Ayling, is a British retired lawyer and businessman who has worked with a variety of high-profile companies and organisations. From 1996 to 2000, he was the CEO of British Airways. He al ...

, by local taxi drivers. The design includes comprising six limestone-clad four-storey horseshoe-shaped sections which all back on to an internal 'street' that runs inside an atrium. The street is paved in granite slabs and

cobblestone Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. Setts, also called Belgian blocks, are often casually referred to as "cobbles", although a sett is distinct fr ...

s, has bridges which cross it overhead, linking the individual buildings, and is looked over by balconies which lead off the bridges. The street houses a health centre, hairdressing and beauty salon, travel centre,

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

supermarket, restaurants and cafés and a 400-seater auditorium. Jeremy Myerson, author of "After modernism: the contemporary office environment", wrote that the design of Waterside was intended to "both facilitate a change in the way BA staff behave at work and to support a more customer-led culture". The gross internal area is mostly open plan offices; no personal space is assigned, although enclosed areas are available for meetings and study. (Although initially no personal places were assigned, in practice, departments have specific locations in the buildings with seat allocations, the overwhelming majority of people sit at the same desks everyday and those desks, and the surroundings, contain their personal ephemera just as in any conventional office. "Hot Desks" - those specifically not allocated for an individual - are infrequent and clearly marked.)

An office of

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

is located at the Orient House (HAA3) within Waterside.Impressum

Archive
. American Airlines China. Retrieved 24 April 2014. "American Airlines, Inc. Orient House (HAA3), Po Box 365, Waterside, Harmondsworth, UB7 0GB United Kingdom"

Awards

* Civic Trust Awards 2000, Winner *National Lighting Design Awards of Excellence 2000, Winner *

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

Best of British Awards 1999, Winner *British Council for Offices 1999, Winner *British Construction Industry Award 1998, Winner

References

External links

British Airways Headquarters
- Niels Torp
Case study on BA Waterside
at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) – accessed November 2006. *Duffy, Francis.
Working at Waterside - conduciveness as a workplace of the British Airways' headquarters in Harmondsworth, England
" ''

The Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

''. August 1998. *
BA Waterside
"

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterside (Building) Office buildings completed in 1998 British Airways Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hillingdon Airline headquarters 1998 establishments in England