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City of Liverpool College

Drees & Sommer has worked as The City of Liverpool College’s lead property consultant since formation of our company in 1999. We have helped secure funding for the £105 million overall estate investment programme and has managed the delivery of major new buildings that have enabled the College to move from 13 separate buildings all in poor repair, to six sites where the majority of the building stock in now new and of very high quality.

Our team has continued to support the College with a range of refurbishment and space efficiency works to ensure that all buildings maximise on space and occupancy efficiency. Most recently our team has been providing Strategic Facilities Management advice to the College to help ensure that their hard FM is procured effectively and that energy performance is optimised.

An integral element of the development programme involved the creation of a central learning hub in the form of The Learning Exchange development, located at Roscoe Street within the city centre. The creation of the hub involved the rationalisation of library space across the campus estate to enable the delivery of a centralised learning resource centre within the heart of the campus.

The development is an example of innovative and landmark design. Located within the Rodney Conservation Area, design proposals were developed in liaison with the City Authority’s Urban Design Advisor and resulted in a high quality pallet of materials being selected for the works. Such materials included red sandstone and copper in order to maintain the architectural language of the Conservation Area. Polished black granite was selected for the entrance area and the feature funnel located at roof top, a nod to Liverpool’s maritime heritage.

The client brief demanded that the Leaning Exchange be ready for service delivery in August 2011, within a project budget of £35m. Practical completion of the works was confirmed May 2011 with a gross final account agreed at £33m. The residual monies, saved via this project, enabled ancillary modifications to be undertaken across the campus and negated the need for the college to apply for further funding support.

The development achieved BREEAM ‘Very Good’ status; innovations in terms of the installation include an efficient environmental and building management system (EMS and BMS) with solar thermal panels provided as part of the domestic hot water installation.

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