A collaborative Grade A 22,700 sq. ft. office space in Nottingham has now reached completion, providing space for growing firms to expand their research and development facilities near like-minded businesses, creating an effective hub of commercial activity within Nottingham’s Science Park.
The now complete Elizabeth Garrett Anderson building – delivered by contractor Willmott Dixon – has been named to honour Britain’s first female doctor and celebrate collaboration and innovation on the site. The project includes a café, an 80-space car park and a conference space, allowing companies to host conferences and events, creating a central hub for networking across the entire Nottingham Science Park site.
Procured via Major Works England and Northern Ireland, a part of the Scape National Construction framework, the project is visually striking thanks to its design by CPMG Architects. The building incorporates a daring and dramatic cantilever at its entrance and the façade is a pattern of modules in a combination of glazed elements and aluminium cladding panels, the latter finished in contrasting dark grey and gold colours.
Stuart Kerr, operations director for Willmott Dixon in the East Midlands said: “We are really proud to have helped deliver this important scheme for Nottingham and Nottingham City Council, which will really shape the city centre and create a hub for research and development. As with all our projects we aim to give back to the local community, making a difference to real people.
“During the project, we teamed up with social enterprise Think Big Academy to deliver a careers event on the live construction site, this attracted 100 young people and resulted in over 20 work experience enquiries. We also created jobs for an additional six local people on the scheme, alongside having seven apprentices on the site while also providing work experience opportunities for students of Nottingham College.”
Throughout the project Willmott Dixon also hosted a series of mental health events on the site delivering Mental Health First Aid training for its own people, partners and the general public. The project has boosted the local economy with 100% of contractual spend being within 40 miles of the site and the contractor donating 640 hours of its peoples’ time to support local causes.
Stuart added: “In tandem with the project, our site team worked with Nottingham’s Emmanuel House – by helping it secure funding and refurbish its dilapidated facilities – we donated hundreds of Willmott Dixon hours and secured support from our partners including CPMG to deliver a fantastic result. We are also incredibly proud that Katie Butler, our commercial lead on this project, won in the Women in Construction category at Nottinghamshire Live’s Women in Business Awards 2019 for her amazing work locally.”
Willmott Dixon worked together with Perfect Circle, a property, construction and infrastructure consultancy comprising of Pick Everard, Gleeds and AECOM, via The Scape National Built Environment Consultancy Services framework. Construction of the new building has been part funded by the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Councillor David Mellen, leader of Nottingham City Council, said: “Nottingham has long been a city of scientific innovation with the MRI, ibuprofen and the legacy of Jesse Boot and expanding our reputable Science Park supports our ambitions to continue to be a city of innovation and creativity.
“Providing more Grade A office space in the city is a long held ambition of the city to meet the demands of potential tenants and so far it looks as though there’s been good interest in the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson building, given its proximity to the Boots Enterprise Zone, University of Nottingham, the tram, the M1 and the city centre.
“As a Science City, we know scientific research and new innovations like fintech can create jobs, stimulate growth and keep talented graduates in the city and are committed to this with our £2bn Southside regeneration programme.”
Richard Flisher, managing director at CPMG, said: “We are really proud to have been working on such a prominent scheme on behalf of the council. Nottingham has a fantastic science history and we’re very happy to contribute to the next chapter of that history, and to the changing face of Nottingham’s built environment. It’s especially encouraging to see large-scale projects such as this having a positive social impact through community engagement work, and we are delighted to have been able to assist Willmott Dixon in its work with Emmanuel House.”
