Salford Uni given go-ahead for arts building

Salford City Council has granted planning permission for the development of a £38m arts building for Salford University.

Featuring a theatre and performance spaces, the new 172,222 sq ft arts building will house students studying in areas such as music, design and performance and forms part of a major redevelopment of the university campus.

As well as student spaces, the building will also include a café and is being built on a greenfield site in the centre of Peel Park, adjacent to existing student residences.

The seven-storey building is designed by Stride Treglown and part of the first phase of a £75m masterplan.

The university's masterplan includes a refurbished and extended Chapman Building, currently underway, as well as the new arts building, and £30m student halls of residence overlooking Peel Park.

Students from the school of media, music and performance and the school of art and design will be the predominant users of the arts building, vacating the current Adelphi and Centenary Buildings. Students from these schools will also be housed in the new facility at Media City UK which opens on 4 October 2011.

The project is being worked on by planning consultants, Turley Associates and work will begin in the autumn of this year for completion mid-2014.

Other companies already involved in the campus development include Davis Langdon, project and programme manager, Arcadis, cost manager on Chapman Building, Appleyard & Trew, cost manager on rest of projects, Fairhurst Design Group, architect on Chapman Building.

Martin Hall, vice-chancellor at the university, said: "This building and our wider Campus Plan are part of the University's strong commitment to the regeneration of Central Salford, in the context of the City Council's vision for this area and the work done over many years by the Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company.

"It will be an important cultural centre for the people of Salford and will provide our students with a space to allow them to fully develop their skills."

Salford University will be sending tender invitations to a shortlist of companies to build the new arts building in November.