The Greenwood Centre has reopened in Dreghorn following an extensive £1 million revamp.
Completed in May 2012, the project comprised the complete strip-out and refit of the building along with the construction of a new extension and the installation of a brand new heating system. As part of the project one former plant building – located on the site – was converted into a double garage, storage area and plant room, whilst 87 new car parking spaces were also constructed to extend parking provisions.
The Greenwood Centre is a teacher training facility that is located adjacent to the Greenwood Academy in Dreghorn. In addition to providing a facility for teacher training, the building also houses a number of community resources including library books and the local library bus. The work on the Centre was implemented by North Ayrshire Council in order to improve services for staff at the building.
Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd was the main contractor for the project, whilst David Watts was the architect, the Clancy Group plc was the mechanical and electrical consultant and ATK Partnership were the civil & structural engineers.
Work began in September 2011 with the complete strip-out of the centre. This was followed by a number of internal alterations to provide the building with space for additional training rooms, a conference hall, office space and toilets.
The electrics in the building were then completely rewired, whilst a brand new heating system was installed to cut energy costs and reduce the centre’s carbon footprint. Following this, a new extension was constructed from a steel frame and completed with a brick exterior and metal sheet roofing.
External work included the reworking of one plant room into a double garage that will house the community library bus.
As Greenwood Centre is located adjacent to the Greenwood Academy, all efforts were made not to disrupt the daily activities of the school. This included scheduling all site deliveries around the school’s opening and closing hours.
Ashleigh (Scotland) Ltd Project Manager, Jimmy Phillips, said:
“This was a great project to be involved with and we are pleased to see it completed for North Ayrshire Council. We strive to complete the job to the best of our ability and that’s exactly what we did on this project.”
