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HWM ASTON MARTIN - During 2004 the owners of HWM Aston Martin in Walton on Thames, Surrey, made the strategic decision to dedicate the entire site to sales and servicing of Aston Martin cars, partly as a result of the resurgence of Aston Martin as a brand and its evolution into a world class volume luxury car maker.
The New Zealand Avenue site had had an interesting history, having started life during the 1920s and '30s as film studios (indeed - at least one Charlie Chaplin film was made there). The site had hosted a number of different marques of car over the years including Renault, Facel Vega, Volkswagen and Audi. The current occupiers of the showroom and workshop were Walton Audi. A project manager was required to undertake the refurbishment of the building, design and install the new showroom interior, in accordance with the Aston Martin blueprint, and manage the entire construction, refurbishment and relocation tasks. Gifford Grant, from Fleet in Hampshire, was selected, largely on the basis of its ability to offer a single point of contact for the entire operation, incorporating design consultancy, structural engineering and both the building and interior works.
Initial works including the stripping off of the old asbestos roof and its replacement with an up-to-date insulated covering, were carried out with the Audi operation still in possession, partly in order to maintain the rental income stream. Subsequently Walton Audi moved out into temporary offices on the outside display area to enable internal demolition and refurbishment to begin. This phase entailed considerable investigation and remedial works to the structure of the building, which had survived numerous owners and consequent changes of use over a large part of the 20th Century. Concurrent with this phase was incorporation of the standard Aston Martin Retail Design Programme into the traditional shell at the same time as renewal of outdated drainage and other services.
Energy efficient heating and air conditioning was installed; Gifford Grant took advantage of differing floor levels in the old showroom to install some underfloor heating, with the controls inter-linked, to supplement the main air conditioning system in winter months.
Specialist interior finishes including book-matched Travertine marble, covering the entire showroom floor, plus specialist lighting and frameless glass partitioning for the sales offices. Gifford Grant's designers also enabled the retention and incorporation of one of the main roof trusses from the old structure within the new showroom providing a dramatic feature and hinting at a link with the past history of the marque.
The showroom was opened by Dr Ulrich Bez, the CEO of Aston Martin, in the presence of a large number of invited guests and new and old customers of the business, in a festive atmosphere. Dramatic exterior lighting was designed and installed together with a state of the art security and monitoring system, adequate for the high value of the vehicles displayed.
Andrew Harting, dealer principal of HWM Aston Martin said: "We were delighted to work with Gifford Grant on this project. We needed to implement a fixed design template within a legacy structure and that task was a challenge. We also wanted to bring in modern services, including air conditioning, in a discreet way. All that needed to be done in the context of appropriate (but nevertheless burdensome) statutory obligations. Gifford Grant's expertise tied these conflicting elements together and allowed us to concentrate on what we do best. They brought us a showroom to be proud of and the working environment my team deserves."
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