Lancaster and Morecambe College have teamed up with Ellis Williams Architects to deliver a complete redevelopment of their campus and facilities. With the delivery of some of the new facilities planned for as soon as September 2012 – this promises to be an exciting project for the College and the local community.
The experienced team at Ellis Williams are recognised for championing the importance of good design within the Further Education sector and have delivered over 30 FE Projects in last 10 years.
The College has been awarded a £2 million grant by the Skills Funding Agency and will be adding a further £6 million to fund the first phase of the redevelopment project. Lancaster and Morecambe College, which is classed as an ‘Outstanding' College for financial management, plans to ensure that the project benefits the local economy as much as possible. They are ensuring the contractors are from the North West, that the project includes a guaranteed number of jobs for Apprentices and helps to create new jobs in the local area.
This new development follows hot on the heels of the £1.5 million pounds the College spent last year on building a new Sport and Fitness Centre with state-of-the-art facilities including a new fitness suite and 3G sports pitch. These facilities have been welcomed by the local community with over 300 people taking up memberships at the Fitness Suite within the first few months.
David Wood, Principal and Chief Executive of Lancaster and Morecambe College commented: ‘We are very excited about developing a new campus for the 21st century. With these new facilities we will be providing our students and staff with an outstanding environment in which to learn, teach and work. Furthermore, the campus will also provide exciting new facilities for our local community to access and use. We have already launched a brand new Sport and Fitness Centre which has been extremely well received by the public and we look forward to sharing more of our cutting edge campus with local residents.'
First Phase
The first phase of the project will start this summer with a new Music and Media centre due to open in September 2012. These state-of-the-art facilities will provide a space for students to write, produce and record new music and film material using the most up to date facilities and technologies. The Music Recording Studio will also remain available to the public as a professional facility for creating recordings.
The continuation of the first phase of the project will see brand new conferencing facilities being made available to local businesses in the early part of 2013 as well as a new Hexagon building and Construction Centre being opened in September 2013.
The ultra-modern conferencing suites will address a growing need for purpose-built business conferencing facilities in the local area. Furthermore, it will provide much needed facilities for businesses to run meetings, events and training supported by the Lancaster and Morecambe College Business events team who already work with over 2,000 local employers delivering training and events.
The brand new Construction and Engineering Centre is being developed in conjunction with local employers to ensure that students get the best possible training on the most cutting edge equipment. The new facility will include a renewable energy centre, bio-mass boiler and many other state-of-the-art facilities. These will prepare students for the world of work at all levels, from basic courses to advanced programmes such as the Level 2 Engineering programme the College currently delivers in conjunction with employers such as EDF Energy.
The Hexagon space is being transformed into an exciting space for students. The new interactive space will not only house all of the main support services for the College, it will also be an innovative learning space which will encourage social learning, the use of new technologies and support students in developing new ways of learning.
Helen Deacon, Director of Learners & Curriculum says: ‘This space is designed for 21st Century learning. Students are now engaging with their courses in different ways and the College needs to respond to these new trends. The new facilities will help prepare our learners for future independent learning and the university experience.'
Further developments
Lancaster and Morecambe College has also been working with Ellis Williams Architects to put together a master-plan to redevelop the entire Morecambe Road site over the next 10 years continuing the investment in new facilities for staff, students and the community and bringing new jobs to the local area.
As well as success in education design, Ellis Williams have also completed a wide range of award-winning projects for the arts, leisure and commercial sectors including the iconic Baltic Contemporary Art Gallery in Gateshead and more recently the Welsh National Sailing Academy, Pwllheli and National BMX Centre in Manchester, both Team GB Centres of Excellence for London 2012.
Julian Baker, Project Director says: ‘We are delighted to be involved in this great opportunity to assist Lancaster and Morecambe College realise their new vision for the campus providing inspirational first class facilities for all'
National Success
The development of these new facilities will serve to enhance the already outstanding learning experience received by students at Lancaster and Morecambe College. Indeed, Lancaster and Morecambe College has recently been ranked 7th in the national league tables for success, making it the most successful college in the area. With a 90% success rate for all ages Lancaster and Morecambe Collegecomes in ahead of Kendal College (23rd) and Preston College (35th) and are the highest performing College without an A-level provision in the entire country.
Stuart Rimmer, Director of Quality & Enterprise said: ‘To achieve such high levels of national success is testament to the hard work and talent of all our staff and students. The College can be extremely proud that we now recognised as the best college in the area and every day we are creating stunning opportunities for our learners to progress to higher education and their chosen careers.'
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