Historic Buildings
Our historic buildings service records, scans, and analyses building fabric to support planning and development projects.
Our specialists record, analyse, and interpret historic buildings, whether in use or in ruins. We advise on incorporating heritage assets into development projects, advise on conservation for future work on the building, and produce reports for planning submissions.
Using our data, we can create 3D models to support project visualisation and community engagement. We can also assist in obtaining listed building consent and liaising with conservation officers to find practical solutions. Our survey expertise ranges from detailed hand drawings to total station, metric and GPS surveys, and laser scanning.
Historic Buildings Case Study
We were commissioned by York Conservation Trust to carry out a Historic Buildings survey at 14 Lendal, York, a building dating to around 1714. It also incorporates a 15th-century stone doorway of an Augustinian Friary in the basement. Over the years, it housed notable figures, including Alderman Henry Baines, Lord Mayor of York, and talented astronomer John Goodricke, Fellow of the Royal Society.
From 1911, the premises were occupied by the firm Robson & Cooper, evolving from a saddle and harness manufacturer to a luggage retailer and repairer. Our survey refined the broad phasing identified by the Conservation Trust, showing the building’s development from houses to commercial premises. Surviving features include original staircases, fireplaces, chimney stacks, architectural mouldings, and other decorative details.
Unique features of the building include a pair of strongboxes relating to its later commercial life, a Walker Ironworks Foundry range excavated in 2005 in the basement, WW II-era graffiti, and 1970s newspaper cuttings of popstars. These details reveal the building’s life as a working space and its evolving social history.
Our survey documented these features as the building entered a new phase, ensuring both its architectural and cultural significance are recorded.