Bradford College’s plans for a new, £50 million building have been given the go-ahead today by the Skills Funding Agency, the Government organisation responsible for the funding and regulation of further education.
Work on the new building will commence in the summer of 2012 and it is hoped the building will be ready by September 2014. Measuring 23,000m2 in size, it will be built on the College’s existing city centre site (Westbrook Building) and on the site of the former Randall Well Building.
The estimated cost of the project is £50 million and will be solely funded by the College in the form of £35 million bank loan and £15 million cash reserves accumulated from past and future years up to 2013.
The new build is the second phase of Bradford College’s Accommodation Strategy. The first phase involved the development of Trinity Green Campus in 2008, a state of the art building which houses the Engineering, Construction and Sport curriculum areas. The College’s sports facilities now feature in the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for the Olympics in 2012.
The aim of the College’s Accommodation Strategy is to achieve efficiencies by reducing both the number of sites and overall quantity of space that it occupies by 33,000m2. Currently the College occupies 11 buildings with the vast majority requiring considerable investment to either improve their physical condition or their suitability for the changing needs of the curriculum.
The College’s new build will replace the Westbrook, McMillan, Appleton and Old Buildings. The Westbrook Building will be demolished and the remaining buildings will either be sold or put to other use. The College plans to retain Lister Building, The Grove Library, Bolton Royd and Trinity Green Campus.
Bradford College Principal and Chief Executive, Michele Sutton, OBE said:
“It’s a very exciting time to be part of Bradford College. Our new, iconic campus will revolutionise our current estate, add to the regeneration of Bradford and provide a superb student experience. Students will benefit from the bringing together of facilities and curriculum into a single location, new styles of learning which embrace cutting edge technologies, realistic work environments that will be open to the public and opportunities to showcase learning activity through open plan areas.”