Having previously completed a £4.3 Million refurbishment of the University of Leeds existing four-storey geography building and turning it into a state of the art facility for Fine Arts students, Sewell Construction were appointed to carry out the refurbishment work on a number of education and administration facilities across the city centre campus, to enable teams to relocate into modern, purpose built facilities.

Development

Due to the location of the site, welfare arrangements were made to install and decant the set-up in the early hours of the morning to avoid disruption to students and staff on site and maintaining access routes. Consideration was also given to completing any noisy activity out of hours to minimise impact on the adjacent teaching spaces.

The external works to the Logik Centre involved working strictly in accordance with the Arboriculture method statement as the surrounding trees were protected under a Tree Preservation Order (TPO).

Considerations were made in the construction programme regarding completion time and handover for each location across the campus. It was important that all five locations were completed on time to enable the different faculties to move from their current location and fulfil the agreed study timetables.

Delivery

The project consisted of the refurbishment of 5 separate buildings across the campus which were all completed in phases and were subject to listed building consent.

The upgrade of the existing facilities provided new and modern teaching spaces along with additional archive storage, a post room and an IT workshop. A number of the areas had previously been redundant and were improved as part of the University’s master space utilisation plan.

The building work itself included upgrading of all internal finishes such as floors, ceilings, decorations, toilet facilities and full mechanical and electrical installations across all areas.

The Bragg Cluster and Logik Centre were the larger elements of the project and also involved some more extensive building fabric changes.

Bragg Cluster work included demolition and strip out of existing internal walls, re-modelling of the space with new partitions and glazed screens. A raised access floor system and full AV installations to support 2 x teaching spaces.

All new external windows and doors, an external bin store and minor modifications to the external paving

The work at the Logik Centre included an extension to form welfare facilities, extensive re-modelling of the external landscaping to provide DDA compliant access and a modern look. A new platform lift was also installed.

Results

Work in all locations was delivered on time and to budget.

100% local spend in the Leeds area with 100% local labour.