Community College

Location Southend-on-Sea, Essex
Value £17m approx

This project involved the design and construction of a new cutting edge upper college that provides work based learning opportunities as well as traditional academic general teaching spaces for 14 to 19 year olds .   The vocational learning spaces included a construction workshop offering training in bricklaying; painting and decorating; engineering; joinery and carpentry; as well as hair and beauty studios and state of the art science laboratories.  With a floor area of approximately 7,000 sqm, the new building comprised a steel framed structure with a mixture of cladding styles, high quality finishes and ground source heat pumps providing approximately half of the building’s energy needs from renewable sources. The college building is set in extensive landscaped grounds incorporating newly laid grass and synthetic sports pitches.

In our role as project manager and cost consultant, HBW was required to reconcile two quite different educational visions - one emanating from a conventional secondary school and the other from an independent vocational training provider – and to help the design team interpret these visions to create a unique nationally recognised bespoke training facility providing both academic and vocational training opportunities.

Despite main contractor insolvency issues, HBW ensured the project was strictly managed and properly bonded resulting in the building contract being delivered within budget, to time and to the desired design standard.