Coatbridge College is currently in the second phase of a £3.2m project to refurbish and extend the existing North Building on the Kildonan Campus in Coatbridge in order to address the DDA issues of the campus and make the facilities more accessible.
Established in 1891, Coatbridge College is Scotland’s oldest college and has over 250 members of staff and 7,000 students. The college provides a diverse range of courses for students in continuing education, from catering for students with special needs to music and drama and the hairdressing and beauty therapy industry.
Barr Construction are the main contractor for the project, with Richard Murphy the architects for Phase 2, Hardies Construction Consultants the project manager, Hawthorn & Boyle was the Mechanical & Electrical Consultant and Struer was the structural consultant.
Works commenced in June 2011 and are expected to be complete in February 2012.
The works to the 1960s North Building are the second phase of an overall college redevelopment masterplan that has already seen the completion of a new entrance link space between the existing north and south buildings and the comprehensive refurbishment of the south building.
The North Building internal works are split into two phases – 2A and 2B.
Phase 2A works (being undertaken by Hardies Construction Consultants) encompass the wholesale internal demolition and refurbishment of the existing hair and beauty salons which occupy the majority of the first and second floors of the North building. Students have remained on site whilst this work has been carried out, therefore temporary hair and beauty salons have been constructed.
Phase 2B works (carried out by Richard Murphy Architects as part of their overall masterplan proposal) endeavours to connect the North building with the new Atrium entrance via a new circulation ‘street’ to be constructed within the heart of the existing building. This street will give the salons area a new front door and reception directly into the college.
Phase 2 external works are concentrated along the east facade to Park Street. Here a new steel framed extension is proposed that will provide an alternative entrance and foyer which links to the existing Theatre space within the North building. Currently unused, this space is intended to be brought back to life as a state of the art conference centre as well as a modern performing arts venue. Additional function rooms associated with the conference venue are proposed along with a comprehensive refurbishment of the adjacent kitchen and refectory areas.
Minor external landscaping is proposed to link the new foyer extension to the existing street, whilst the car parking provision has been modified under the previous Phase 1 alterations.
Works are approximately three weeks behind schedule due to the combination of design changes to the brief and the discovery of bats roosting in the existing theatre. Currently the internal phase 2A works are at second fix whilst the steel and ground floor concrete work for the external Phase 2 work is complete.
A particularly interesting aspect of the design is the new steel framed foyer structure, which has an expressed tree form column that supports a new mono-pitch roof. The structure is effectively self-supporting as the structure and fabric of the adjoining existing North building is considered too unsubstantial to provide any additional support.
Richard Murphy Architects have considerable experience in the Arts, Education, Housing, Health, Public and Community use and Masterplanning. The practice was founded in 1991 and has won an unprecedented 19 RIBA Awards. The project for Coatbridge College was won following a competitive interview between four other practices and was awarded on the strength not only of their initial design concept but also on the practice’s recently completed work for UEL in London which was amongst the building case studies visited by the Coatbridge client body.
Our core business is the installation, repair and servicing of water tube boilers and associated balance of plant. We first worked in the environmental energy sector with TAKUMA CO, LTD. of Japan at the Lakeside project near Heathrow, where we successfully completed the installation of two energy from waste boiler lines, achieving class leading standards of safety and quality, on time and on budget in the autumn of 2008.
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Notwithstanding a number of technical and cultural challenges, and the requirement to resequence our works to accommodate changing site conditions, the boiler hydraulic test was completed on time. We have recently completed the balance of plant works scope, as extended, and are confident that we will receive approval of our works from the Notified Body, RSA, on a right-first-time basis.
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