Building work on an extension at New Wortley Community Centre is on track for completion next month.
The project received a grant of £686,674 from the Big Lottery Fund last year, with the new building being based on designs by Leeds Beckett Architecture graduate Vahagn Mkrtchyan.
Located alongside New Wortley’s existing community centre on Tong Road, the new centre is expected to be completed on Wednesday, 20 April, and will open to the public a few weeks later.
It will house the majority of the centre’s services including the café, meeting rooms and shop. It is planned that the existing building will be refurbished and used as a wellbeing centre.
Students from across the university’s Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology have been involved in bringing to life the new building, including those studying Architecture, Graphic Arts and Design, Landscape Architecture and Design Product.
Lecturer Simon Warren said:
“We are on track to complete the centre on time and on budget. There’ll be a period after the handover when finishing touches are being made with our students’ fit out projects, including the reception area and the centre’s artwork, and then there’ll be a formal opening, which is planned for July.”
Founded and managed by architecture lecturers, Simon Warren and Craig Stott, the Project Office was formed as an architectural consultancy in January 2014.
It gives architecture students at the University a chance to work with real clients, producing built and strategic design solutions with a particular emphasis on ethical, social and resilient architecture.