Practical Completion for BT Belfast’s Riverside Tower

Right at the end of last year, we celebrated the practical completion of the refurbishment of Riverside Tower in Belfast for BT Group. Originally built in 1998, Riverside Tower is an iconic 13-storey office building set within the Belfast cityscape on the banks of the River Lagan.

MLA have been working with BT since 2020, starting the process with an initial occupancy evaluation of Riverside Tower which was carried out by our consultancy team mere weeks before the start of the pandemic. Starting on site in November 2021, we have since progressed through to the Cat-A and Cat-B refurbishment of the building, working to a phased programme to allow the building to remain in use throughout.

Collaborating with BT, we created a design based on their Better Workplace Programme principles, which focuses on improving and modernising their corporate offices to better support and enhance the business. Through careful space analysis and implementation of flexible working on a larger scale, BT were able to centralise and unite their teams, consolidating their Belfast offices into this previously under-used HQ building.

The project has been a real team success, with great collaboration between MLA, the client and the design team including Faithful & Gould, WSP, Thomas & Adamson and Graham Group – to transform the building into an attractive and efficient workplace for BT Group. We are now looking forward to the completion of sister project, Alexander Bain House in Glasgow this year.