Residents backed bold plans for £100million worth of developments to create ‘world class’ facilities at Bournemouth University when proposals went on show.
More than 200 visitors attended exhibitions held over two days at the university to view displays, speak to design teams and fill in feedback forms.
The schemes aim to create striking gateway buildings at BU’s Lansdowne and Talbot sites, bringing significant investment into Bournemouth and Poole.
Transport and accessibility benefits for the wider community are also proposed, including a bus hub and a new link road off the Boundary roundabout at the Talbot site plus student accommodation at Lansdowne.
Initial analysis of responses from feedback forms showed broad support for proposals at both sites, with 87% in favour of the Poole Gateway building and 94% in favour of the Bournemouth Gateway building.
A further 85% said they agreed with plans for a new link road off the Boundary Roundabout, 87% for a new bus hub at Talbot and 83% for the proposed student accommodation building in Lansdowne.
Professor John Vinney, BU Vice-Chancellor, said: “Our thanks to everyone who attended the exhibitions and had their say about our exciting plans for the future.
“The turnout and comments at the exhibitions were very positive. It was encouraging to see so many people support our proposals, which are key to helping us achieve our vision of providing world class facilities for a world class university.”
He added: “We are currently analysing the feedback in detail and will use this to inform our final plans before we submit them to the local authorities in March.”
Professor Vinney and Chief Operating Officer Jim Andrews were among the BU staff on hand at the exhibition to explain the proposals in more details to staff, students, residents and the general public.
Display boards showed plans for BU’s Talbot site which include a landmark Poole Gateway Building for the highly regarded Media and Communication, Management and Science and Technology faculties.
Lansdowne’s scheme aims to bring BU’s Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (HSS) under one roof with modern facilities in a Bournemouth Gateway Building.
Associated BU parking and a new student accommodation with up to 550 beds on a separate site in Lansdowne Road by Three Sixty Developments are also proposed.
BU’s four-week public consultation period about the plans is open for comments until February Friday 19.
If approved, construction is scheduled to begin in 2017 for both sites with buildings opening in September 2019.
BU staff and students contribute more than £1 million a day to the south west economy and support just less than one full-time equivalent (FTE) job in the local conurbation for every 7.4 students.
In 2015, BU entered the world’s top 500 universities in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the first time and in January 2016 was recognised in the Times Higher Education top 200 list of the most international universities in the world.
BU has been ranked in the top 100 universities in the Guardian University League Table 2016 and has risen in all three major university league tables published by The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Complete University Guide.
Visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/campus-development for more details and email [email protected] with comments about the proposals by Friday February 19.
More info:
The Talbot proposals include:
Four-storey academic building facing the Boundary Road roundabout
Visual gateway to the campus with state of the art facilities, mostly for the Faculty of Science and Technology and Faculty of Media and Communication
High-quality landscaping to create a parkland campus feel
New link road with fourth arm built off the Boundary Roundabout to create an all-purpose additional road out of the campus which fulfils the requirements of the Borough of Poole’s Talbot Village Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)
Bus hub towards the western boundary of the campus to provide a new drop-off and pick-up point for BU-contracted buses. There will also be an extension to the existing BU ‘park and stride’ car park to accommodate car parking displaced by the proposals.
High-quality technical facilities including TV and audio studios, media production spaces, green screen and motion capture suites, and PC and Mac labs.
As part of BU’s commitment around environmental sustainability, all major BU estate projects, including the Talbot and Lansdowne Gateway buildings, must achieve the ‘excellent’ rating through the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), as a minimum. BREEAM is the benchmark standard for the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings in the UK. The recently completed Student Centre project easily achieved the ‘excellent’ rating and was only 3% away from “outstanding”. The New Academic Building currently under construction is also on track to achieve ‘excellent’ rating. To enable the building to achieve a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating a number of environmental features will be required. Whilst the detailed building design is not yet finalised the following features may be incorporated: photovoltaic panels, LED lighting, automated lighting controls, the use of a building management system to control heating and ventilation, landscaping, bird and insect boxes, rain water harvesting and sanitary ware with low flush volumes.
The Lansdowne proposals include:
Five to seven storey landmark building to the south of the St Paul’s roundabout, providing a clear visual gateway to one of the main entrances into Bournemouth but lower in height than several surrounding buildings
Unified home for the Health and Social Sciences faculty (HSS), which is currently housed in a number of buildings in the Lansdowne area
Specialist teaching areas, library, resource centre and learning space, academic services and student services
High-quality landscaping, which reinforce north to south pedestrian links, and south-facing terraces
Parking provision
Student accommodation of up to 550 beds on a site at 21 Lansdowne Road and the Cranborne House car park at a total cost of £37m, proposed by Threesixty Developments. This may be up to 10 storeys high, which is lower than several buildings nearby, such Cranborne House and the proposed replacement of Oxford House
The student accommodation is an integral part of the wider scheme. The layout and design will establish a clear pedestrian route through the Lansdowne to the new academic building
As part of BU’s commitment around environmental sustainability, all major BU estate projects, including the Talbot and Lansdowne Gateway buildings, must achieve the ‘excellent’ rating through the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), as a minimum. BREEAM is the benchmark standard for the construction of environmentally sustainable buildings in the UK. The recently completed Student Centre project easily achieved the ‘excellent’ rating and was only 3% away from “outstanding”. The New Academic Building currently under construction is also on track to achieve ‘excellent’ rating. To enable the building to achieve a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating a number of environmental features will be required. Whilst the detailed building design is not yet finalised the following features may be incorporated: photovoltaic panels, LED lighting, automated lighting controls, the use of a building management system to control heating and ventilation, landscaping, bird and insect boxes, rain water harvesting and sanitary ware with low flush volumes.
Bournemouth University:
BU has around 18,000 students of which 1,500 are international, coming from around 130 countries.
Its Talbot site is located off Wallisdown Road in the Borough of Poole, where the majority of its faculties are based. Its Lansdowne site is within Bournemouth Borough Council boundaries, close to the town centre.
The university contributes more than £1m to the South West economy every day. Around one FTE job is created in the local conurbation for every seven to eight BU students. (Report by Professor John Fletcher and Dr Yerganeh Morakabati, published on October 18, 2013).
BU’s media graduates have worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Star Wars, Madagascar and most recently Interstellar, which won an Oscar in 2015.
BU is a key education provider for the NHS, with programmes covering nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, paramedic science and social work. Its Faculty of Health and Social Sciences (HSS) has 240 staff and 4,000 full and part-time students.
HSS, which is located across three different BU buildings in the Lansdowne, works in partnership with more than one-third of local authorities in England.
For more than 20 years BU has provided an essential output of registered health and social care employees in the UK workforce – around 600 every year.
BU is one of the partners in the Talbot Village Project for a co-ordinated approach to future development in the Talbot area.
The others are the Talbot Village Trust, Arts University Bournemouth, Borough of Poole (BoP) and Bournemouth Borough Council.
The aim is to realise the economic potential of the Talbot Village area, enhance the excellence of the universities, protect the internationally important wildlife haven of Talbot Heath and improve transport infrastructure whilst respecting the amenity of neighbouring residential areas.
They have been working together on a Master Plan, which has informed a Talbot Village Supplementary Planning Document created by the BoP to direct the future of development in the area of Talbot Village which falls within its boundaries.
Visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk for more details.
