Work starts on MMU’s Birley Fields campus
WORK is due to start next week on the Manchester Metropolitan University’s £139m Birley Fields campus in Hulme.
The first phase of the project is the 250,000 sq ft five-storey academic building which will hold lecture theatres, study areas and sports and arts facilities.
It also includes a multi-storey car park for 318 cars and an energy centre which will serve the site.
There is also outline planning for five accommodation blocks with bedrooms for 1,200 students and 46,000 sq ft of commercial, office and leisure space.
The development, which will serve 6,000 students, is part of an MMU plan to consolidate its operations on to two campuses, down from seven. It should be finished and occupied by 2014.
The main contractor is Robert McAlpine and the site has been designed by architect Sheppard Robson.
DTZ has been appointed to handle the disposal of the university’s surplus sites which include the Aytoun St campus in Manchester city centre, the Didsbury campus, the Elizabeth Gaskell site in Victoria Park and the Hollings site in Fallowfield, as well as much of the University’s site at Alsager in Cheshire.
