New flexible workspaces, hospitality facilities and a rooftop garden will be built at the University of Nottingham’s Tower Building after planning consent was granted for a major refurbishment project.
The prominent building, at the University Park Campus, will be transformed as part of plans to move the university’s professional services team onto the large campus.
It comes as the university looks to make the Tower Building a “heritage asset”, with new refurbishment plans aiming to burst life into the large building which faces onto the A52 Clifton Boulevard and Queen’s Medical Centre.
Planning documents approved by Nottingham City Council last week state the works will accommodate about 800 staff who are currently based at the King’s Meadow Campus.
The refurbishment work will include flexible workspaces, including offices, conference and meeting rooms, while the building will also accommodate hospitality and events rooms.
The university also plans to include a restaurant, coffee bar, a deli-shop and a top-floor “sky lounge”.
Documents add the refurbishment will create a “low energy, low carbon building” which will help to “enhance the building’s status as a heritage asset for the university”.
The documents state: “The Tower Building is a prominent landmark on the University Park Campus and has the potential to become a heritage asset for the university.
“The project seeks to create a new agile home for the university’s Professional Services Team who are currently based on the King’s Meadow Campus.
“Alongside flexible workspace, there will be a new hospitality and events space with restaurant and coffee bar as well as a deli-shop and top floor ‘sky lounge’.
“These hospitality spaces will work alongside multiple flexible meeting, event and conference spaces to provide conference and meeting space for use throughout the year.”
As part of the refurbishment, the university will remove the bridge link to the nearby Coates Building and create a new “entrance plaza”.
New ‘workshops’ to accommodate the new conference and events facilities will be accompanied by a sheltered terrace, accessed from the coffee bar space within the workshop building.
And a new rooftop garden on the 16th floor will be introduced, which the university says will provide “views across the campus”.
It is hoped the refurbished and new facilities will become a “central contact point for visitors to the university”.
The development will also include electric vehicle charging points and cycle storage.
Nottingham City Council granted the university planning permission on December 17.
