Construction firm wins £37m Coventry University science block contract

COVENTRY University has chosen the construction firm to build its new science and health building – a contract worth £37m.

BAM Construction, which has its regional headquarters in Solihull, has won the commission and is due to start work on the building, which will bring together the Faculty of Health and Life Science’s teaching and research facilities into a ‘superlab’, in February.

The five-storey, 120,000 sq ft building on Much Park Street in Coventry city centre is due for completion in 2017.

The building will house world-class teaching and simulation facilities with state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories for the university, which is attending the MIPIM commercial property show in March as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire MIPIM Partnership.

A mock operating theatre, fully-equipped ambulance and a community house to test the latest assistive living technologies will be among the health simulation features.

A purpose-built laboratory for teaching and research in biological and analytic sciences will sit alongside a strength and conditioning room. A running track, sports therapy clinic and facilities for food and environmental sciences will also be part of the complex.

Professor Guy Daly, executive dean of Coventry University’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, said: “The new building is a significant development in our future as a leading modern university, providing world-class teaching, research and simulation facilities for our health and life science students.”

BAM has been the contractor on a number of schemes in the city. It built The Hub at Coventry University in 2011 and the headquarters building for Severn Trent headquarters which it completed in 2010.

Rod Stiles, director of BAM Construction in the Midlands, said: “There are many reasons for us to be pleased – we’ve been appointed to build a really significant and exciting structure, by a client we’ve enjoyed an excellent working relationship with before, in a city we know well and treasure.

“It builds on our long track record in Coventry and we’ll bring a first rate team to create an outstanding learning facility that the university can be proud of.”

Oxford-based AECOM is project manager for the scheme while the architect is the Birmingham office of Broadway Malyan.

The Birmingham office of Buro Happold is the project’s structural engineer while London-based Gardiner & Theobald is the quantity surveyor. 

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