Project Gallery

Admiralty Arch, London

THE DEVELOPMENT

Admiralty Arch was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of Queen Victoria and completed in 1910 by architect Sir Aston Webb, the creator of The Mall and the main facade at Buckingham Palace.

The Grade I listed building, which spans the entrance to The Mall from Trafalgar Square, has been vacant for years and is undergoing a major renovation to become a five-star hotel for Waldorf Astoria London, private members’ club and serviced residences. The hotel is expected to open in 2025 and will feature 96 rooms and suites, a rooftop bar, spa, a ballroom and several restaurants.

THE BRIEF

Embrace were appointed to work with the main contractor Knight Build and developer Reuben Brothers to disguise the building works completely, and instead maintain and enhance the appearance of the magnificent property.

THE SOLUTION

The CGI artwork was created by the Embrace Building Wraps’ creative team, who used historical online references and selected the most suitable images of the building to create a lifesize replica of the elevation facing Buckingham Palace. We then applied various effects and techniques to create a realistic and consistent image that considers the natural and ambient lighting, the time of year and day, the weather conditions and the shadow fall out. The artwork also captures the fine Victorian architectural detail from the statues on the bullnoses, the crests above the arches and the text on the centre of the arch.

The digitally-printed wrap, which covers an area of approximately 155m wide and 19m high, is made up of five printed wraps attached using five separate offset frames accommodating the concave arch. In total the printed scaffold wrap measures almost three thousand square metres.

The section on the loading gantry above the three arches is set forward 2.5m from the main wrap and this structure has been clad in plywood and dressed in printed graphics using a mix of a spirit flex frame at the top and two thirds down the columns. The lower parts are wrapped in hard-wearing printed ACP panels.

To enhance the visual impact, the visible scaffold set back and faces Trafalgar Square on the upper roof line has been clad in a printed fire rated scaffold sheeting in a blue-sky design.

The stunning project was delivered on time and to budget by Embrace, the UK’s leading specialist in printed building wrap solutions.