Exciting plans to build Birmingham City University’s flagship campus are gaining real pace – with two significant milestones being announced.
Detailed designs to build the new City Centre Campus have been submitted to planners for their approval – and the quest to find contractors to make these ambitious plans a reality is nearing a conclusion for the stage one appointment.
A detailed planning application – known as ‘reserved matters’ - has been submitted for phase one of the project to Birmingham City planners. This initial phase will cover 28,000m2 at the Eastside area of Birmingham, the city’s most important regeneration zone.
“The submission of the reserved matters application is a huge step forward in our commitment to delivering a new City Centre Campus,” said Project Director Peter Cochrane at Birmingham City University.
“There is no doubt that Birmingham City University is contributing something exceptional to boost the regeneration of Eastside.”
Mark Alexander, Advantage West Midlands’ team leader for the Eastside regeneration project, added: “This is another key development for the regeneration of Eastside around the City Park, which is being promoted and funded by AWM in partnership with Birmingham City Council.
“We are delighted with the progress of the City Centre Campus project, and look forward to the announcement of further milestones in the future as this area of the city is transformed.”
While planners are looking at the detailed designs the University’s search to find the right contractor to build the proposed campus are also gaining pace.
After inviting bids from interested firms, the University created a shortlist of five potential candidates to manage phase one of the build – and this is set to be reduced further to the final two choices by January 2010, said Peter Cochrane.
He added: “Once we have made this last selection we will have reached another major milestone in the project.
“We’ve looked at some excellent bids and we’re having to make some very important decisions – but I’m confident we will soon have the right people to make our vision a reality.”
The state-of-the-art development will include fully operational television studios, a library, performance theatre, 250-seat lecture theatre and a learning resource centre. Incorporated inside the iconic campus buildings will be cutting edge technologies to enhance the student experience and support business engagement.