Staff told to leave premises last week after brise soleil panel fell from sixth floor and landed next to front entrance
A £100m government office building in Blackpool built by Vinci Building and designed by Make Architects will reopen tomorrow (Tuesday) six days after it was evacuated when a section of cladding fell from the block’s sixth floor.
Staff were told to leave the Fylde View building last Wednesday when a 4.2m-long piece of brise soleil became detached from the seven-storey building at 9.45am and hit the ground close to the block’s front entrance.
There is no suggestion that Make Architects’ design for the building contributed to the cladding failure.
Vinci Building, the scheme’s main contractor, has apologised for the incident and said it had launched a “thorough review” to establish what caused it.
A cordon was erected around the building following the incident, in which no one was hurt.
Completed in spring last year, the Fylde View building was built for a partnership between Blackpool council and developer Muse and is occupied by around 3,000 staff for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
Four additional brise soleil panels were removed last week following an initial investigation by a rope access facade contractor.
Vinci said today that all of the building’s brise soleil panels were removed over the weekend and the DWP is aiming to reopen the building tomorrow (Tuesday)contract.
The firm said: “Vinci Building apologise for the incident early on Wednesday morning when a piece of the external bris soleil fell to the pavement from the sixth floor from Fylde View, the DWP Building in Blackpool.
“Clearly this could have caused injury to anyone hit by it and we are sorry for any distress caused and the ongoing impact to the occupiers of the building.
“An external 4.2m, 200mm deep bris soleil fin fell to the pavement from the sixth floor of the DWP Building in Blackpool at approximately 9.45am. The pavement beneath the affected area was immediately cordoned off, and secure fencing with ‘no entry’ signage was erected within public spaces to create an exclusion zone around the office entrance.”
The Fylde View building is the third phase of Blackpool’s £350m redevelopment of the Talbot Gateway site around the city’s train station.
The first two phases of the scheme completed in 2014 and 2024, while the fourth phase, consisting of a higher education campus designed by Hawkins Brown, is currently being built by Morgan Sindall.
Make Architects, Muse and Blackpool council have been contacted for comment.
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