Challenge

Hull New Theatre first opened its doors as a theatre in 1939 and has since been the home of production companies from around the world.

Hull City Council were looking to remodel the Grade II Listed theatre to attract larger productions to the city. This meant the need to increase the capacity of the theatre seating, ancillary facilities such as bars and toilets, installing more dressing rooms, as well as increasing the height and load capacity of the fly tower.

Sewell Construction was appointed through its long term relationship with Hull City Council and Hull Esteem Consortium.

Development

The process of the scheme development through Esteem necessitates a collaborative approach with the client through extensive amounts of engagement, which took place from the issue of the project brief and all the way through the construction phase.

Because of the way the scheme was developed, this enabled a collaborative approach with strategic supply chain elements such as the mechanical & electrical and other installations which had the biggest impact on the project and all of which had to be designed and installed to meet the requirements of the Conservation Officer and to keep the character of the Grade II Listing.

The building was not in use throughout the project, although there was an operational fire station for part of the build period behind the existing building alongside the site entrance, which required access and egress to be maintained at all times in order that response times weren’t affected across the city whilst the fire station was operational.

The significant amount of asbestos removal and demolition of existing buildings was carried out in a condensed period of time, necessitating detailed planning and tight control measures to be implemented so as not to affect the surrounding Kingston Square buildings and residences in the Georgian Quarter of the City Centre

Results

The scheme was delivered on time, on budget and with zero accidents.

74% of spend in the Yorkshire Region.

The refurbishment of Hull New Theatre was highly commended and recognised at the RICS awards in May 2018.