Rose Bowl to inspire business learning
THE new home of Leeds Metropolitan University’s Business School will create greater links between the university and the city’s business community.
That’s the aim of the team behind the creation of the £50m Rose Bowl development which will be the home of the Business School from next September.
The complex will have a reflective glass ‘Rose Bowl’ lecture theatre at its heart. Its location and design aim to reflect the architecture of the Civic Hall, and it is set to become the hub of the university’s Civic Quarter campus.
It includes flexible teaching and learning space which will become the new focal point for the Faculty of Business & Law, as well as high quality conferencing facilities for around 400 delegates, making it one of the largest conference venues in the city.
The 10,000m² scheme, which TheBusinessDesk.com was allowed a tour of during construction, will comprise teaching spaces, lecture theatres, offices, a restaurant and meeting spaces. It is being constructed over a new underground public car park with 197 car spaces, with a further 72 on the surface. There is also ample provision for cycle parking in and around the building.
The central ‘bowl’ at the heart of the complex will house one 250-seat, two 139-seat and four 64-seat lecture theatres.
A series of bridges cross a public atrium allow daylight through to the centre of the building and link the lecture theatres to the four-storey perimeter accommodation housing offices and learning space.
The building has a number of environmental features which have helped it to be awarded a BREEAM excellent rating, the top mark available in industry benchmarking of sustainability credentials.
These include a combined heat and power unit which both generates electricity and heats water; rain water harvesting where rainfall is collected from the roof, stored in a tank below ground, then used as needed; automatic lighting controls; and carbon emissions 10% below the required statutory level.
Lawrence Bellamy, project manager for the faculty of business and law, said: “One of the big things for us is coming down to the city centre.
“Leeds’s business community is a thriving community and we think we can contribute to that.”
Project manager Paul Riley said the building’s restaurant would be able to serve 2,500 people every hour but would also be used for events, conferences and dinners.
The Rose Bowl will also have around 150 bicycle parking spaces to encourage students and staff to cycle to the university.
