Mollie’s bedrooms feature Conran furniture and lighting, oak lined walls, terrazzo tiles and chrome finishes. Indulgent cotton sheets and handcrafted Hypnos mattresses deliver a restful night’s sleep. Bathrooms are fitted with powerful rain showers, luxurious Cowshed products, fluffy towels and the latest Dyson and GHD hair appliances. The Mollie’s app opens a raft of benefits for an enhanced guest experience, including free access to the hotel’s on-site Electric Vehicle high-speed charging bays, and Mollie’s Diner is a modern all-day hang-out serving up contemporary, seasonal cooking for solo travellers or families, friends and lovers. With a setting that hints at a classic diner style, but reinvented with elegant vintage inspired lighting, sleek tiling, comfortable banquettes, warm wood and chrome fittings and lots of natural light, Mollie’s has guests covered. Guest-focused Technology The whole customer journey has been carefully thought through, with an effortless, digital-led experience that simplifies the entire guest journey and stay. The Mollie’s app opens a raft of benefits for an enhanced guest experience. Guests can check in online or via the app and have their room key delivered to their phone wherever they are and when it’s convenient for them. Electric Vehicle charging bays can be pre-booked, free-of-charge, before arrival and there’s 24-hour online chat support with the friendly reception team, in multiple languages.  In-room, 50-inch Smart TVs come as standard. Guests’ phones automatically pair with the TV as a remote, casting their personal Netflix or Spotify account directly to the screen and syncing with the super-fast complimentary Wi-Fi, for the ultimate and seamless relaxing at-home experience. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Construction specialists Urban Group (York) Ltd has completed a six-figure project on Darlington covered market, transforming facilities for the traders and visitors alike. Phase Two of planned works to the iconic Victorian market, situated between High Row and Horse Market, started in August 2022 and has just completed. This transformational project is part of a successful masterplan from operators Market Asset Management Darlington Ltd and Darlington Borough Council for the venue to grow as a food, retail, and live entertainment destination. Urban’s Interiors Division has renovated the shop front fascia and entrances, added a new shop floor café, new public and trader toilets on the ground floor and new toilets to the basement of the market, which remained open throughout the revamp. The work has also incorporated a full renovation of the abandoned basement which has been transformed to create a Prohibition-themed bar and live music venue named The Vault, which is due to open as early as Spring 2023. Darlington town centre has been home to a covered market since May, 1864, where the very first purchase recorded was leg of mutton bought by the local landlord. Over 150 years later the covered market is still proving to be a popular with shoppers, with the recent renovations ensuring it is ready to become a key regional destination providing a wide range of retail, food and leisure facilities. Urban Interiors’ Operations Director, Kevin Keogh said: “This has been a fascinating job for the team. When we were stripping and repurposing the basement for the 1920s themed bar, we uncovered the old cells from the former police station that used to be on the site. He added: “We wanted to try and maintain as much of the heritage as possible with exposed metalworks still evident as part of the interior, and we’ve incorporated elements such as the old banana racks that were used to allow the imported fruit to ripen that had been left behind by traders from the 1960s.” MAM’s Darlington General Manager, Michael Harvey said: “The Phase 2 development is already having a positive impact and it has been great working with Urban Group (York) who have managed to keep disruption to traders and customers to a minimum while carrying out such a transformational scheme as part of MAM’s commitment that Darlington Market is a place where people love to shop, eat and drink and enjoy entertainment.” Councillor Jamie Bartch, cabinet member for economy for Darlington Borough Council, said: “The market is rightly considered one of Darlington’s jewels and the work that has been carried out by Urban means that it shines brightly once again. I hope people take the time to visit and see for themselves the improvements that have been made and support the established traders and the new food and drink outlets. The Vault, in the cellar, is an amazing transformation of an unused space. “The aim has always been to bring the market up to modern standards, while retaining its traditional charms, and I think the work carried out by MAM and Urban has achieved that.” As part of the contract, five new jobs were created in the Darlington area and, wherever possible, Urban used local sub-contractors and suppliers for the works. The next chapter comes amid exciting times for the market and follows the successful first phase of the revamp which opened to the public in August 2021. It saw one third of the shop floor transformed into a street food scene with independent food traders offering cuisine from around the world from purpose-built units and a large communal seating area. There is also the Market Tap bar and an events stage. As well as its amazing global cuisine and independent retail offering continues to shine as an events venue. Popular events have ranged from hosting the North East final of the prestigious Young Traders Market to its much-loved Pease Pudding events on the first Thursday of the month in Darlington Market Square. It also regularly welcomes charities and hosts the hugely popular Food and Drink Festival each year. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

The transformation of a former post office in Warrington town centre into a luxury aparthotel has been completed with an investment of approximately £2.5million. The contracting arm of Leeds-based Priestley Group, Priestley Construction, has delivered the project on Palmyra Square through its North West Office for clients Deuce Hotels. Beginning in June 2021, the upper floors of the Grade II listed building have been transformed into 21 high-specification apartments for short-term rent. The new development has a luxury finish inside, including installation of high-tech entry systems which will enable hotel guests to enter the aparthotel using their smartphones. Whilst being modernised, the Warrington aparthotel has still retained many original features. The existing flooring has been built up to ensure acoustic separation. Like any project, there were issues to overcome. Bob Priestley, Head of Construction, explained “The after effects of the pandemic presented inevitable material delays that many have faced. Our delivery had to consider two existing tenants on the ground floor which were a bar and a restaurant. The team worked efficiently to overcome these hurdles and managed to complete the works in November. Providing a new hotel facility, this project will help encourage tourism in Warrington town centre by creating attractive places for people to stay. This will also bring more life to the town centre and therefore, a better environment for the community in Warrington. The Old Post Office Aparthotel is a seven-minute walk away from Warrington Bank Quay train station and is located within Palmyra Square where it benefits from the restaurants, venues and bars on offer, making it an ideal location to stay when visiting the town. Building, Design and Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Global modular building specialist, Volumetric Building Companies, which has recently announced its expansion in the UK, has completed a major offsite contract for citizenM’s latest hotel in London. Working with main contractor Gilbert Ash, VBC manufactured and fitted out 226 hotel bedrooms offsite for the new citizenM London Victoria Station, the brand’s fourth in the city. It was designed by architects Ica Studio and interior designers Concrete Interior Architects. The 10-storey steel-framed modular structure was installed on a steel podium in just eleven weeks, radically reducing time on site compared to in-situ construction. This is VBC’s seventh modular hotel worldwide for citizenM and follows its successful delivery of earlier projects in London Tower Hill, Shoreditch, Seattle, New York, Amsterdam, and more recently Washington DC. The offsite approach significantly reduced disruption to the surrounding residential area which is close to the Victoria Station transport hub. The fully finished hotel bedrooms and bathrooms were produced, fitted out and furnished at VBC’s European offsite manufacturing centre in Poland. Each room is designed to reflect citizenM’s signature brand with modern fixtures and fittings, and high specification in-room technology which controls climate, lighting, TV, and blackout blinds. These room features can also be controlled via citizenM’s award-winning app. citizenM’s Head of Project Management for Europe, Joao Fidalgo, commented, “There are two key drivers for offsite construction – it is faster, and quality is enhanced by manufacturing and fitting out our hotel rooms in a controlled factory environment. Our sites are generally located in city centres on very busy urban sites which makes getting materials and trades to site very difficult. Offsite construction overcomes this challenge.” “VBC has consistently delivered for citizenM, and this project was no exception. Delivery of the modules to site went smoothly, communications were excellent, and their site team performed very well. The quality of the hotel rooms is exactly as we expected.” Francesco Laera, Hotel Manager for citizenM London Victoria Station, said, “This 10-storey building has been delivered to a consistently high standard and the guest rooms are light and airy with a really good finish.” “Moving construction offsite and into a factory is a much cleaner way of working which reduces environmental impact and is ideal for a city centre location. I have lots of experience of the VBC team’s way of working and the speed of construction that can be achieved with their building solutions for citizenM is amazing. This scheme was delivered through the pandemic but was still much faster than on-site construction, allowing us to achieve revenue at an earlier stage.” Andy Smith, UK Director of VBC, said, “This project is part of a longstanding strategic partnership between citizenM and VBC, and we were delighted to collaborate with their team once again. The finished building is a credit to everyone involved and is a fantastic addition to citizenM’s hotel portfolio in London. Their innovative approach to hospitality is transforming the industry.” “The London Victoria project demonstrates the huge potential of offsite construction as well as our market leading design and engineering capabilities in both the hotel and residential sectors. By taking an industrialised approach to construction, the build programme is reduced, ensuring a faster return on investment for the client. This is a great example of the sustainable development of a highly constrained city centre site that has enhanced the locality.” Ian Burleigh, Executive Chairman at Ica Studio said, “Utilising advanced offsite technology for the guest rooms has primarily formed the main façade, creating a grid-like appearance with the fully glazed windows. This design solution successfully illustrates that modular construction does not restrict the architectural appearance of a building in any way and is still sensitive to its context whilst delivering the unique concept of citizenM.” A total of 226 hotel bedrooms with corridors were delivered to site in 161 steel-framed modules, weighing up to 22 tonnes each. These were fully glazed with floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall glass at one end and installed with integrated automatic blinds and fritted glass to conceal the bed area. Each 14 sqm room has a bathroom with a rainfall shower and was supplied with factory fitted furniture – also manufactured by VBC – and including a vanity unit, desk, king size bed frame, hanging space, mirror, privacy blind, mood lighting, and iPad-controlled technology. There were two accessible rooms per floor, and five on the 10th floor. The modules were designed to stringent fire standards and to meet a high level of acoustic performance as the building is located on a major transport route through London. Access to the site was extremely limited, with restricted working times and no space for materials storage outside the building footprint. The module installation phase required careful logistical planning and a just-in-time approach for deliveries. A tower crane within the concrete core was used to install the units. Externally, the façade follows Georgian architectural principles of proportion, symmetry and balance and is articulated with regimented bays defined by deep vertical concrete fins which express the modular nature of the building’s construction. This, together with slim aluminium vertical fins to the 10th floor, give the hotel its distinctive brand identity whilst complementing neighbouring buildings in the Westminster Cathedral conservation area, one of which is listed. www.vbc.co Building, Design and Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals