£22m college extension opens
12th September, 2014
LAW firm Ward Hadaway and project management consultancy Turner & Townsend have played their part in the creation of a £22m extension at Sunderland College.
Experts from Ward Hadaway’s Construction and Engineering, Banking and Procurement teams provided legal advice on the extension to the college’s Bede Campus on Durham Road in the city while Turner & Townsend’s project expertise helped to keep the scheme on schedule and within budget.
The campus extension sees the college greatly expand its facilities for teaching its sports curriculum and its range of visual and performing arts courses.
A new sports hall has been built, alongside a new fitness suite, sports laboratories and teaching rooms.
The scheme also includes a new performance hall, dance and drama studios, music recording studios and a digital film lounge.
In shape – (from left) Ralph Wrighton, Sarah Jones and Neil Williamson of Ward Hadaway with Paul Humble of Turner & Townsend and Sunderland College Director of Facilities Karen Wade inspecting the fitness suite at the new Bede Campus at Sunderland College.
Work on the expansion started in Spring 2013 and completed in August 2014 in time for the new academic year in September.
Ralph Wrighton, Partner in the Construction team at Ward Hadaway, led the law firm’s team providing legal advice to Sunderland College on the development with support from Procurement Partner Sarah Jones, Construction Solicitor Neil Williamson and Banking Partner Imogen Holland.
Ralph said: “We are delighted to have worked with Sunderland College on this important development for the future of its sports and arts education programmes.
“It is great to see this extension finished and I am sure it will be of immense value to Sunderland College students for many years to come.”
Paul Humble, Associate Director at Turner & Townsend, said: “Important projects like the extension of the Bede Campus call for in-depth planning and management to ensure they are delivered successfully and within planned budgets and timescales.
“It is our job to co-ordinate this process and to make sure that this expansion delivers the improvement in facilities and physical environment which Sunderland College wants to deliver for its students.
“The Bede Campus extension was completed on time and is now ready for students to start making the most of the state of the art facilities.”
Turner & Townsend, a global consultancy which employs 120 people in the North East, has advised Sunderland College on a number of previous projects.
Turner & Townsend also recently advised Rolls-Royce on its new factory in Washington and is currently advising on the building of the new Durham Police headquarters at Aykley Heads in Durham.
Ward Hadaway and Turner & Townsend are also advising Sunderland College on plans for a new purpose-built campus at Holmeside in Sunderland city centre to deliver courses in advanced engineering, automotive trades, construction, hair and beauty and hospitality and catering.
Sunderland College Principal Anne Isherwood said: “We feel that our students deserve the best – they deserve to learn in an environment which gives them access to the latest facilities and equipment, preparing them for future training, education and employment.
“This extension to the Bede Campus will provide them with real state of the art facilities which will enable them to pursue their studies and make the first steps towards what will hopefully be successful careers in a wide variety of fields across the sports and arts sectors.
“We are grateful for the help and support of Ward Hadaway and Turner & Townsend whose expertise has helped to make the vision of the college for the future of our sports and performing arts courses a reality.”
Sunderland College provides a wide range of range of school leaver, adult and higher education courses as well as courses for international students.
Please note that this briefing is designed to be informative, not advisory and represents our understanding of English law and practice as at the date indicated. We would always recommend that you should seek specific guidance on any particular legal issue.
This page may contain links that direct you to third party websites. We have no control over and are not responsible for the content, use by you or availability of those third party websites, for any products or services you buy through those sites or for the treatment of any personal information you provide to the third party.
