MyGlasgow News

While the University community has been operating under lockdown restrictions in recent months, progress across our construction sites has been continuing, subject to strict safety and wellbeing guidelines.

Despite freezing temperatures, we have seen marked progress on the new buildings, as well as the infrastructure and landscaping work which will service our expanded campus. However due to COVID-19 travel and safety restrictions, the James McCune Learning Hub remains closed to colleagues and students for the time being

The following is a roundup on progress across our projects.

Infrastructure

The scope of the infrastructure work taking pace across the campus is significant. When completed, the project will have significantly improved the environment on our existing campus as well as new public areas, pedestrian routes and green spaces on the Western site.

The work to improve University Avenue is continuing and due to complete by the end of this year. This includes resurfacing, creation of new, wider footpaths and pedestrian crossings and improvement of street lighting.

We are now nearing the completion of the section of University Place, outside of the Wolfson Medical School. When finished the area will have been transformed from a busy road junction into a safer, more attractive pedestrian-friendly zone which will better accommodate the high numbers of people we can expect when colleagues and students are permitted back onto campus, and with the JSMLH and new Western campus fully operational.

Along the remainder of University Place, work also continues to install the various utilities needed to support the new campus, such as drainage and power. Once these are installed, the road will be landscaped into a cycle and pedestrian-friendly shared space, with work due for completion by the end of this year.

On the Western boundary of the Western site, along Church Street, work is continuing to remove parts of the former Western Infirmary, while retaining and restoring the listed buildings. Retained buildings include the McGregor Building, the Outpatients Building, The Tennent Institute and Anderson College.

As these buildings have been removed the Category B-listed Alexander Elder Memorial Chapel, which was completed in 1925 in memory of the doctors and nurses who lost their lives in both World Wars, was recently revealed, for the first time in almost 100 years.

Located to the rear of the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), work will begin in coming weeks on extensive repair work, securing it for the future. This will involve the erection of scaffolding around the Outpatients building and the Chapel to allow for restoration, with the long-term plan to incorporate the Chapel into the new campus when Church Street is developed.

James McCune Smith Learning Hub

With construction complete, lockdown has given us longer than was anticipated to complete the fit out of the building and prepare it for opening when we are permitted to do so.

At present, the building is being fully equipped with Audio Visual and IT solutions fit for a sector-leading teaching facility, furniture is being installed and training undertaken for staff who will work in and operate the building.

Because of the current need to keep numbers on campus to a minimum, unfortunately we do not anticipate being able to open the building over coming weeks, however we will keep you all updated when this position changes.

Advanced Research Centre (ARC)

Sitting at the heart of the Western site, work on the the newly named Advanced Research Centre (ARC), previously known as the Research Hub, is progressing well.  The building will provide physical spaces for diverse teams of researchers working on global challenges across a number of themes.

The ARC has now completed 134 of its 165 week construction period and is on programme to finish in October 2021, with the building due to open in Spring 2022.  Despite the ice and snow over recent weeks, the majority of the façade is now complete, the glazing to the roof is installed and further glazing within the building around the atrium on upper levels is progressing well.

Installation of ceiling and floor finishes have now commenced on lower levels  and will continue progressing up through the floors over the coming months. Decoration, partitions and installation of integrated plumbing system (IPS) panels are ongoing and installation of laboratory furniture has commenced. Two of the five lifts in the building are now installed and operational.  

Clarice Pears Building

Due for completion in Spring 2022, the Clarice Pears Building will be the new home for the University’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing.

If you have visited the site recently, you will have seen the steel frame of the building taking shape, and the concrete floors being poured. These activities are due to continue over coming weeks, as the building will assume its recognisable form.

The building sits at the junction of Byres Road and Church Street, in the heart of Glasgow’s West End. The Clarice Pears Building will allow the Institute to expand its current research portfolio, with purpose-designed facilities providing a better environment for attracting and retaining staff and sparking unique and exciting collaborations.

We will soon be able to unveil public artwork which will be etched onto parts of the exterior panels of the building, which will add a further distinctive element to the facade of the building.

Postgraduate Hub and Adam Smith Business School Building

Following a pause on this development due to COVID-19, in February the University Court gave the green light for this project to resume, this is covered in more detail in another article in this newsletter. 

The new building be a new home for ASBS and a hub for PGT students on-campus. The collocation of these facilities is designed to create benefits for the entire institution, placing emphasis on business skills within the PGT student experience, enhancing employability, also creating modern, cutting-edge teaching and research facilities for the Business School,

The development will also create a ‘Southern Gateway’ to the Western site, along Dumbarton Road, with new landscaping, civic and pedestrian areas. Construction work is due to start on the £86 million new building in the Summer.

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First published: 25 February 2021