Six-storey office and conference centre scheme to be located close to pharma giant’s HQ completed by Mace five years ago
Cambridge council has approved plans by Jestico + Whiles for an office and conference centre building set to form the latest expansion to pharma giant AstraZeneca’s headquarters campus.
The six-storey scheme, approved by councillors earlier this week, will provide nearly 12,000sq m of floorspace including offices for more than 700 staff, a 200-person conference centre and a 450-seat auditorium.
It would be located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus just south of AstraZeneca’s Herzog & de Meuron-designed headquarters, which was shortlisted for last year’s Stirling Prize.
Mace was construction manager on the job, having taken over from Skanska following design changes and cost increases on the job. Initially expected to cost £300m and finish in 2017, it was completed in 2021 at a cost of more than £1bn.
Jestico + Whiles is lead architect on the scheme with Herzog & de Meuron acting as masterplan and design architect alongside landscape architect Gillespies.
The project team also includes Ramboll on civils and structures, MEP and transport, Bidwells on planning, MFS on facades and the Fire Surgery on fire.
Plans for a commercial building on the site were included in an outline application for the wider campus submitted in 2010 and were originally intended to be brought forward with a reserved matters application.
However, the consent expired in 2021 meaning AstraZeneca has submitted the proposals as a standalone full application while still being shaped by the principles set out in the original consent.
The scheme sits directly east of the Hawkins\Brown-designed Rosalind Franklin building, which is currently being built by Mace, and about 150m from the new Cambridge South station set to open this summer.
The 2.2ha site is currently used as a temporary car park and offloading area for the construction of the neighbouring Rosalind Franklin building.
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