The shortlisted teams include UK-based practices Allies and Morrison, Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt, Feix&Merlin and Alison Brooks Architects.
Among the international names involved are New York City-based Ennead Architects, Danish practice 3XN and US firm Studios Architecture.
Located on the corner of Aldwych and Kingsway, the 1910s building once hosted the Air Ministry before becoming home to television stations, when it was known as Television House, and later Exxon mobile.
The proposals, which went on anonymous public display last week, include a proposal to create a ‘vertical urban campus’ connecting previously disconnected parts of the 110-year-old block, alongside ‘cascading spaces’ around an atrium.
Another design aims to cut a double-height ground floor out of the current structure and an atrium running the length of the building, which the unnamed design team says will deliver ‘transparency’ and ‘openness’.
A third competition proposal would add a contemporary canopy to the building at ground floor façade, facing Kingsway. This, the consultation exhibition boards say, will recreate the ‘buzz’ of its former use as Television House.
The fourth proposal features a rooftop garden and a landmark spiralling timber-clad staircase that runs through a central void cut out of the existing floorplate. This, according to the consultation, will provide landings for working, collaboration, and a casual stage for special events.
Finally, the fifth scheme says it takes a ‘behavioural and emotional’ approach, which retains a red spiral staircase inside the building and features spaces suited to different personality traits.
When complete, the winning scheme will create accommodation for academic departments and research centres for LSE, which reportedly bought the site for £170 million in May this year from a China-based investor.
The five shortlisted teams were chosen from a 19-strong first round to retrofit and transform the 17,558m2 of existing retail and office accommodation into another set-piece building for the LSE.
The LSE is currently overseeing a David Chipperfield Architects and Feix&Merlin-designed retrofit and extension of another building on its Holborn campus. In 2022, the LSE opened the doors to the Grafton-designed Marshall building, also on the campus.
Following the acquisition of 61 Aldwych, 19 architectural practices took part in the first stage of the competition run by the LSE.
The public exhibition closed last Friday and the contest jury panel plans to meet this Friday (27 August) to chose its preferred team.
The official winner is expected to be finalised by mid-September 2025.
The shortlist
Ennead with 10 Design
Studios Architecture with Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt
Beyond Space with Allies and Morrison
Feix & Merlin with Alison Brooks Architects
3XN with Adamson