2010
News Update
Thumbs up for Clarence Street
07 January 2010New £37.6 million building gets go ahead.
LJMU has been granted planning permission to build a new £37.6 million building on the Clarence Street site.
Bordering both Clarence Street and Brownlow Hill, the new 124,000sqft building will be twice the size of the existing Clarence Street tower, which will be demolished to make way for the new modern structure.
Housing the Faculty of Business and Law, the Screen School and the University’s new Professional Centre, the six-storey building will transform the area known as the Knowledge Quarter. The entrance will be on Brownlow Hill, aligning the new building with the Art and Design Academy and further improving LJMU’s Mount Pleasant Campus.
Three large lecture theatres will be among a range of high quality teaching spaces in the new building, with all room layouts flexibly designed to ensure they can be adapted for potential future changes.
In addition, industry-standard equipment and facilities used by the Screen School, including two TV studios, four newsrooms, two radio studios, four IT labs and two post-production suites, will be housed in the building.
Importantly the new building will also enable LJMU to provide a completely new offering. The University’s Professional Centre will provide dedicated facilities for businesses and professionals enrolled on LJMU’s professional education and postgraduate programmes. Available for use by all LJMU faculties, the new centre will allow the University to expand its provision of commercial courses and professional postgraduate degree programmes.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Brown commented: “This is a significant investment which will further boost our reputation as a provider of high quality education and a leader in knowledge transfer.
“As with all of our developments, the new building has been designed to enhance the student experience and enable us to better deliver our new model of higher education; equipping students with essential World of Work skills, fostering entrepreneurial thinking and harnessing advances in digital and communication technologies.
“Our aim is, however, two-fold. Not only do we want to build upon the University’s already excellent reputation by creating facilities that inspire and motivate all who use them, but we also strive to advance the renewal and regeneration of Liverpool by driving up its competitiveness and making the city a more attractive place.”
Work on the new building is expected to start in Spring 2010 with a completion date of August 2012.
