Firm appointed to build new teaching facility
Kier has been appointed to design and build a new higher education teaching facility for University College Birmingham (UCB).
The £29m project is the latest phase of the University’s £100m redevelopment of its Jewellery Quarter campus in the centre of Birmingham.
Kier will build a new four-storey, 8,500m² undergraduate and postgraduate teaching building, with on site works due to start later this month.
As well as teaching space, the facility, which is set to be open to students for the 2019 academic year, will include an indoor running track, lecture theatres, learning areas and teaching staff offices. A new 160-space multi-storey staff car park will also be built on the site.
The first and second floors will house eight classrooms, and three 100-seat lecture theatres, with the third floor set to home the 35m indoor running track. The top floor will also house a gym, which will be open to the university’s higher education students.
There will also be a large communal area featuring a coffee shop and a US-style diner that overlooks the courtyard with outdoor seating.
The new building will also house UCB’s careers, employability and enterprise service, as well as the placements and apprenticeships teams.
This contract is the latest in a string of wins in Birrmingham for Kier, where it delivered the first building to be constructed on the Snowhill development in the city centre as well as Goodman’s £12m Eastside Locks development.
It is also working with Birmingham City Council’s Municipal Housing Trust on a £40m mixed-tenure housing scheme to provide 300 homes in the area.
Kier is currently involved in the on site delivery of more than £100m of teaching facilities for universities across the country, including the University of Cambridge, University of Warwick, University of Edinburgh and University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
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