Larry Ellison envisages site as gathering place for ’some of Oxford’s greatest minds’
Foster + Partners is working on plans to transform a former chapel in Oxford into a high-end restaurant for Larry Ellison, the world’s sixth richest man.
The Chapel and Lodge scheme is envisaged as a meeting place for scientists working at the Ellison Institute of Technology’s (EIT) neighbouring research campus, which is currently being built by Laing O’Rourke and is set to complete next year.
The campus, also designed by Foster + Partners, is transforming part of the former Littlemore Hospital site and an adjacent plot on Oxford Science Park into 300,000sq ft of research laboratories and education space.
EIT said the restaurant, which would be located a short distance from the main campus, would offer a “unique opportunity to host and gather some of Oxford’s greatest minds to share a drink, enjoy a meal, and connect”.
Foster + Partners is acting as lead architect and landscape architect on the scheme, with others working on the project including heritage practice Donald Insall Associates.
The proposed site is an unlisted 19th century former chapel and an adjoining lodge which previously served as the former hospital’s superintendent’s house.
The chapel was converted into offices in the late 1980s, while the lodge has served as the headquarters of the Berkshire Bucks Oxon Wildlife Trust.
Under plans submitted by EIT at the end of last year and validated by Oxford city council last month, the site would be extensively remodelled with the lodge becoming an entrance and bar area with a series of small lounge spaces.
This would be connected via a new glazed walkway running around the edge of a “secret garden” to the chapel, which would be transformed into a larger bar and restaurant space.
Fosters, which has also designed a landscaped route linking the restaurant to the campus, said it had sought to devise a “thoughtfully designed sequence of spaces that elevate the guest experience from the moment of arrival to the moment guests are seated at the table”.
While the lodge would retain its “warm, domestic character”, the chapel is envisaged as a “liberated, uplifting volume re-imagined as a vibrant dining destination for all to enjoy”.
The scheme is the latest in a string of small projects which Fosters has designed for EIT as adjuncts to the main research campus, including the restoration of the grade II-listed Eagle and Child pub in Oxford.
The practice has also submitted plans to transform a grade II and grade II*-listed building on St James’s Square in central London into EIT’s new headquarters.
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