Approval granted to extend Liverpool Science Park
THE COMPANY responsible for redeveloping Liverpool Science Park has been given the go-ahead for a third building at the site.
Innovation Centre3 (ic3) – a four-storey, 42,000 sq ft building featuring flexible office space, fully serviced laboratories, meeting rooms and a ground floor cafe – will be built once funding is approved for the scheme. The funding – from a mix of public and private sector sources – is expected to be in place by next March.
It is expected to open by the autumn of 2012. It is being built by Liverpool Science Park, which is a joint venture between Liverpool Council, Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool, which was started in in 2006 to support the city’s commercial knowledge economy. It estimates that the city’s life sciences sector employs over 4,000 people and generates turnover of around £250m a year.
ic3 will be built on a 0.55 hectare site over the existing car park of Innovation Centre 1 (ic1), off Mount Pleasant, to the south west of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
It will include 36 under-croft car parking spaces, 30 cycle spaces and newly landscaped areas.
Chris Musson, CEO of Liverpool Science Park, said: “The third building is the next piece in the evolving jigsaw of Liverpool Science Park’s unique offering. Receiving detailed planning permission is a key step along the way to realising this third building.
“These commercial laboratories will enable us to nurture and support the full range of organisations that make up Liverpool’s growing knowledge economy and will complement both MerseyBio’s existing offer and our planned floor of laboratories in our second building, which we hope to open in the spring.
“They will be a tremendous asset to the city, further helping to harness talent and create a pipeline of high value jobs. We want Liverpool to be the first choice for science-based organisations.”
The building has been designed with floor-to-ceiling glazing to maximise natural light, mirror the limestone and slate features of ic1 and compliment the surrounding buildings within the Mount Pleasant conservation area.
Gareth Callen, lead architect from Liverpool based Ryder Architecture, said: “The design of the building has been achieved through the use of a simple, elegant and visually striking palette of materials.”
