Willmott Dixon has been appointed by the University of Birmingham to refurbish a building known as the old gymnasium to create new teaching and office space, including a lecture theatre, as well as transitional space for other departments while wider campus regeneration work continues.
Last month the company announced it had won projects worth £66m at Warwick University, Coventry University and University of Birmingham. This included two projects at the University of Birmingham worth £15m to create the 'Green Heart’ and a new research data centre on its Edgbaston campus. [See previous report here.]
Built in the 1940s, the old gymnasium, also on the Edgbaston campus, remains in use partly as a gym, with offices on the first and second floors. Initially scheduled for demolition as part of estate renewal works by the university, it will now be retained and modernised, including adding a two-storey extension on top of the gym area to enhance the useable space.
Working with Associated Architects, Willmott Dixon aims to complete the modernisation work by September 2018 in time for the new academic year.
This latest university contract comes a few weeks after Willmott Dixon was picked to build RNN Group’s University Centre Rotherham as well as the first undergraduate School of Medicine in Essex for Anglia Ruskin at its Chelmsford campus.
The company is also currently building the new Town House for Kingston University, the Sibson building for University of Kent, plus refurbishing the Dreadnought Building for Greenwich University and adding the Computational Foundry at Swansea University.
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