Eland House In September 2014, Erith were awarded the contract to soft strip and partially demolish Eland House in Bressenden Place, London SW1. Erith won the project by demonstrating to the client that the works could be completed by removing the glass curtain walling and roofing system without the use of external scaffolding, offering the client a substantial saving in cost and time. The building, originally completed in 1996 and of RC construction, was eight storeys at one end, rising to eleven storeys with a tower structure and two large internal atria. Both external walls and roof were clad in glazing panels. Erith installed a temporary works system to support 2no 50m jib tower cranes to be located at the 7th-floor level. Swanton Consulting, Erith’s temporary works engineers and part of the Erith Group, designed a system of bolting a support arm to the existing columns of the building and fixing the other end of the arm to the slab directly beneath the cruciform plates of the tower cranes, transferring the load down through the structure of the building. When the tower cranes were erected, a safety handrail system was installed around the whole of the external envelope of the building. As each section of the handrail was completed, Erith’s team of specialist glaziers and abseilers detached the glazing panels from the roof and, moving progressively around the building, removed the glass cladding from the building in its entirety. These were lowered into the atrium areas and processed into separate waste streams for recycling. The glass from the panels was taken to a specialist recycling facility which recycled the materials back into glass products. Following on from the glazing and glass panel removal, the supporting steel frame above the eighth floor and supporting structure were also removed. Erith then demolished parts of the RC structure, segregating the materials into waste streams at floor level and lowering the waste to the ground floor by crane for loading and removing to an appropriate recycling facility. Erith recycled in excess of 98% of the waste materials on this project. Location: Bressenden Place, London SW1