Former IBM Pilot Head Office (now Lynx House)

The building is a former office building, constructed between 1970 and 1971 by Foster Associates, with structural engineering input from Anthony Hunt Associates. It is a single-storey pavilion built upon a mesh-reinforced concrete raft and featuring a steel frame with a fully-glazed neoprene gasket wall.

The steel frame is a grid of 600mm welded-steel lattice girder beams, spaced at 2.4m centres and bolted to square-section steel columns. The roof incorporates a servicing zone, with hollow columns used as cabling ducts. The building’s design prioritised a compact, economical layout, resulting in a deep plan without a courtyard.

The interior is largely a single volume, designed to allow for flexible partitioning. Originally, the space was divided by a central spine and a perimeter walkway, separating a large office area from specialized zones including an entrance lobby, reception area, staff cafeteria, computer suite, and two service cores. While some of this original layout has been reconfigured, the central spine and main office area remain. The entrance and lobby have been relocated to the south, with other specialized functions rearranged.

The exterior presents as a long, low rectangular box entirely clad in 4x2m tinted glass panels, some of which have been replaced. These panels are held in place by black neoprene gaskets within aluminium box-section glazing frames. The steel columns and lattice beams (originally painted yellow-brown) are visible through the glass. Full-height mullions are supported on steel angles bolted to the concrete raft. Pairs of tinted glass doors are set within black anodised aluminium frames.

A later addition to the south-east elevation is a Portland stone portico with a glass pediment that is not considered to be of special interest. The rear wall of this portico incorporates part of the original glazed wall. Rooftop air-handling units, railings, and CCTV cameras are present; these are excluded from the listing.

The glazed perimeter wall is the main focus of the interior, characterized by the regular rhythm of full-height mullions against the more widely-spaced steel columns. Internal finishes such as floor surfaces, suspended ceilings, partitions and furnishings are largely later replacements. A service zone exists above the suspended ceiling. With the exception of the structural members, the interior is not of special heritage interest.