Willmott Dixon has added to its recent haul of university work in the Midlands by securing a £7 million contract for a third project at the University of Birmingham.
This follows the recent announcement that Willmott Dixon has won projects worth £66 million at Warwick University, Coventry University and University of Birmingham.
This included two projects, worth £15 million, at the University of Birmingham to create “The Green Heart” and a new Research Data Centre at Edgbaston Campus.
Willmott Dixon has now been appointed by the University of Birmingham to refurbish a building known as the old gymnasium, also at the Edgbaston Campus.
The building will be converted to include new teaching and office space, including a lecture theatre, as well as transitional space for other departments while wider campus regeneration work continues.
Built in the 1940s, the old gymnasium remains partially in use as a gym, with offices on the first and second floors. Originally 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 sympathetically enhance the useable space.
Peter Owen, managing director of Willmott Dixon in the Midlands, said: “We are naturally very pleased to secure our third project for the University of Birmingham, adding to its transformational campus redevelopment. These projects are fantastic for the Midlands, positioning it as a world leader for education.”
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 follows Willmott Dixon’s announcement that it will build RNN Group’s University Centre Rotherham to boost skills growth in the region, as well as create the first undergraduate School of Medicine in Essex for Anglia Ruskin at its Chelmsford campus.
The company is also 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.
