David Chiddick Building wins regeneration award

Business & LawAt last night’s Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors East Midlands Awards, the University’s David Chiddick Building won the Regeneration Scheme of the Year Award.

The building, which originally housed the printing press and offices of the Lincolnshire Echo, has been performing very well since the University acquired and converted it to accommodate our Business School and Law School and the Lincolnshire Leadership & Management Centre three years ago. The award-winning design, by Stem Architects of Lincoln, reimagined the three-storey Press Hall by adding a dramatic feature staircase and new Learning Lounges on each floor to unify the building as a “home” for Business and Law students and staff.

We’re delighted by this award, which further validates the decision to acquire and convert the building, rather than construct a new facility for Business and Law on the campus. The David Chiddick Building is the fourth in a series of successful University modernisations: the conversion of the Stationmaster’s Office to Sparkhouse in 2003, the conversion of the Great Central Warehouse to our University Library in 2004, and the conversion of the Engine Shed in 2006. The University is currently working with Lincolnshire Co-operative Society to convert Becor House and Minster House to provide new research and teaching facilities for its Schools of Life Sciences and Pharmacy. This approach of repurposing existing buildings has proven to be environmentally, economically and socially responsible, as well as delivering characterful learning and working environments for our students and staff.

Regeneration continues in and around the David Chiddick Building. We added new groupwork spaces to the building in September 2012, opened the new Book & Latte café on the ground floor in January 2013, and will create two new seminar rooms on the second floor this summer to accommodate continued growth in student numbers. On Brayford Wharf East, the construction of a new footbridge and the introduction of one-way traffic circulation in 2013/14 will further improve the environment for all pedestrians.

If you have any suggestions for improving the building or its surroundings further, please let us know using the comments form below.

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