Second Phase of Plans for Continued UCS Development Revealed
Jan 21 2009 12:15PM
Plans for the second phase of developments at University Campus Suffolk (UCS) were unveiled yesterday at the University’s striking new £31 million Waterfront Building.
Turner and Townsend, who led the team for the Waterfront Building with RMJM as lead consultant and architect, revealed the blueprints for phase two at a special event also attended by senior figures from the University and Ipswich Borough Council.
Plans for the second phase of UCS developments were presented by Neil Jackson, the Director of Estates and Facilities, Peter Williams, Director of RMJM, and Paul Maitland Director of Turner and Townsend with additional speeches from Bob Anderson, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at UCS and James Hehir, Chief Executive of Ipswich Borough Council.
Bob Anderson welcomed everybody; “University Campus Suffolk is very pleased to be able to announce the plans for second phase of our building developments. We hope to have the same amount of success as we have done with the Waterfront building and look forward to the near future when students can benefit from all the wonderful new facilities that will become available to them”
University Quay, which sits 300m south of the first phase building, comprises three elements which will be constructed over the next three to five years; including two student residences and an academic building. The first block of residences will consist of 600 student apartments, retail units and a UCS managed car park with 100 spaces. Construction started at the beginning of January 2009 and Watkin Jones Group is developing this element of the work.
Meanwhile, the first module of the new academic building will be completed in September 2010, to provide state-of-the-art accommodation for the Faculty of Health, Wellbeing and Science, as well as an innovative ‘iLab’, general teaching and study space and Students’ Union facilities. Future modules are planned to include extensive library and learning resources, plus general teaching, specialist and further student facilities. The adjacency of the academic building and student residences will provide the opportunity for students to live, work and study in the rapidly transforming Ipswich Waterfront area.
The Campus is designed to provide optimum student safety and accommodate the changing ways in which students now study, including the need to access learning resources 24/7. The second tranche of development at UCS also consists of refurbishment work to the existing Campus North accommodation. Changes planned for Campus North will entail a number of measured improvements, with a refurbishment programme planned to commence once Suffolk New College has moved into their new further education building. This is anticipated to happen in Autumn 2009.
Director of Estates Neil Jackson has great hopes for the future of UCS; “The shining successful of our landmark Waterfront building, and all the feedback we have received from users of the building, instils a great confidence in me for the next phase of building developments and beyond. I look forward to the continued working relationship with RMJM, Turner and Townsend and the other consultants of the campus development team on the phase two development”.
Peter Williams, Project Director at RMJM said: “After the immense success of the Waterfront Building at UCS, we are delighted to have unveiled our approved plans for the future growth of UCS. Phase One set the standard for construction in the area and revealed the future shape of student life in Ipswich. We are confident that the buildings designed for University Quays, and earmarked for refurbishment at Campus North, will raise the bar even further.”