The client behind a £600 million “super laboratory” has drafted in PLP — the practice formed by former partners of KPF’s London office — to overhaul the design because it is worried the original by HOK is not good enough.

HOK beat Rafael Viñoly and NBBJ to design the UK Centre for Medical Research & Innovation in August 2008, a groundbreaking facility in central London, developed by clients including the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK, and backed by the government.

But planners at Camden Council have expressed concern with the current scheme’s impact on the surrounding area, and delays on design development have already pushed back the building’s completion date by a year to 2015.

One source told BD that the centre “felt the design wasn’t heading in the right direction and in the end lost confidence in HOK… They don’t want to see it knocked back at planning.”

At one point, the problems with HOK’s design became so grave that the firm’s president Bill Hellmuth jetted in from the US to try and rescue the project.

“The States ran the bid and when HOK won it, they left, leaving London on its own,” the source added.

In a huge coup for new firm PLP, which set up last autumn, the client team has now instructed the practice to completely rework HOK’s designs ahead of a planning submission in late summer.

The building borders the British Library and the Somers Town residential area, and the council has claimed HOK’s design did not improve its surroundings.

A spokesman for the centre said Camden “want to make sure the building is appropriate for the surrounding area. They wanted to see a little more permeability.”

The council’s comments follow earlier concerns raised in a Cabe review last summer, which is understood to have flagged up worries about the mass of the building and pedestrian issues.

PLP president Lee Polisano said: “We were asked to propose some ideas and we’re going to take the lead role on the outside of the building.”

HOK is now expected to focus on designing the laboratories themselves. Larry Malcic, the design director at HOK’s London office, said: “We often work with other practices. It should yield a good result. It might be helpful if [the centre] had more options.”

Last week prime minister Gordon Brown viewed the plans himself and pledged £250 million of funding for the scheme.

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