design magazine

With this multi-phased development now complete, the significance of the King’s Cross Station redevelopment is finally revealed. The transformation of King’s Cross Station for Network Rail involves three very different styles of architecture: re-use, restoration and new build. The train shed and range buildings have been adapted and re-used, the station’s previously obscured Grade I listed façade is being precisely restored, and a new, highly expressive Western Concourse has been designed as a centrepiece and the 'beating heart' of the project.

John McAslan + Partners began work on the project in 1998 and established the overall master-plan for the development in 2005. As a result the practice has played a key role in the wider transformation of the King's Cross area - infrastructural, social and commercial changes that now connect the station with the massive King’s Cross Central scheme north of the station as well as to St Pancras, the London Underground, and the surrounding urban context. The architectural ambition of JMP’s scheme has been to create a new iconic landmark that will function as a key catalyst for the ongoing regeneration of this new London quarter as well as providing striking new facilities that will accommodate the 50 million passengers now passing through the station each year.

John McAslan CBE was born in Glasgow in 1954. He was educated at Edinburgh University, obtaining a MA in Architecture in 1977 and Diploma in 1978, along with the Diploma year prize. He trained in Boston USA with Cambridge Seven Associates before joining Richard Rogers and Partners in 1980 where he was a Project Architect on two built schemes. In 1984 he became a founding partner of Troughton McAslan, and formed John McAslan + Partners in 1996.

John McAslan is Executive Chairman of the practice and is active in all of the practice’s work. In 1997 he established the John McAslan Family Trust, which, as a registered charity, provides support for arts and educational projects both in the UK and overseas. Beyond his UK affiliations, he is a member of the Japan Institute of Architects and an International Associate of the American Institute of Architects.