Bradford College/University

Dan B said:

This is a needed thread, the last I think necessary in terms of further Bradford threads, obviously could do with a better start :doh:

Anyway I suggest you contact Rob to see what he can do to delete one of these and then I'm sure you can repost whatever you had planned for an introduction. I can add some additional information, preferably I think in stages given the number of projects around the Uni and of course the College rebuild that regrettably has been stalled now.

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Wasn't a great start, I posted the thread forgetting to put the Bradford College stuff in. I've contacted Rob over the double thread so that should be sorted. Anyway, The First News story of this Thread:

Bradford University Sports Centre Opens Doors









The University of Bradford has invested millions of pounds in a sports centre to help the city’s urban regeneration as well as its residents’ health.

Almost £5m has been spent on improving the university’s Unique Lifestyle and Fitness Centre which will be at the heart of providing personalised health and wellbeing for the university staff and students – and the wider community.

Leisure facilities manager Shahram Amindari said the refurbishment will be officially opened by University Chancel-lor Imran Khan on Thursday, July 16.

Mr Amindari said: “As a university sports centre it is for students and staff, but we are also open to the general public.

“We are expecting a large membership from the public.

“One of the university’s main aims is to get engaged with the communities of Bradford and the city of Bradford.

“Some people think if it is the university then they are excluded, but the university’s aim is to get engaged with them and get it seen more as part of the city.”

The university has said the centre, located on the edge of the campus off Great Horton Road, is one of the largest and most up-to-date health and fitness centres in the district. It will feature a new climbing wall, a 92-station gym, new changing rooms and a swimming pool, as well as the latest state-of-the-art equipment fitted by Life Fitness.

Professor Mark Cleary, vice-chancellor of the university, said: “The university is delighted that our Chancellor, Imran Khan, will be opening Unique Lifestyle and Fitness and hope health and wellbeing will be at the heart of the university and the wider community.”

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4482740.Public_welcome_at_new_sports_centre/

Glad to see we have got the Sports Hall done now. Maybe we could be seeing some more information on the new Heath Studies buidling move to the main campus. But the University should also be using the older better buildings instead of building new ones like the college has done.

kidmanx said:

City of Bradford

Thanks a lot for this information,as an incoming student I have been wondering when exactly it would be open. I'm glad it is
Who knows where on the campus it is located ?

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Sorry for posting so late, you probably know now where it is but I will tell you anway.

I believe its on Great Horton Road opposite Pemberton Drive.

Its right next to this building:

Dan B said:

The worse one of the lot though, at least architecturally, is Haria House, the one on Longside Lane. Various shades of grey, of the worst cladding type of cladding available, and then a bit of black marble effect cladding on the ground floor to try and make up for it, but it's not even complete on one side, you can still see the breezeblock on a gated off bit of it.

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I've been seeing that building for weeks but I didn't know what it was. It's absolutely disgusting, here's a picture I found on the internet:



Horrible^^

Do we know how Haria Towers is getting on? I believe it's open or very close to opening. Any pics?

This is what it's meant to look like:



Anyway a while back the University announced plans to move their Health Buildings to the main campus, but they've definately got their priorities wrong. They need to sort out the clad on the Richmond Building. On the website, it says it will be completed in the next few years:

Why is the Richmond Building only partially clad?

The cladding of Richmond Building is a three phase project. The west elevation was clad first as this work had to be completed for the Atrium to de developed. Phases 2 and 3 of the cladding are funded and will be completed in the next few years. The cladding is already improving the thermal performance of the outer shell of the building by reducing the level of solar gain in the summer (from reducing the amount of glazing) and reducing thermal losses in the winter (from the extra insulation).

http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/ecoversity/faq.php

If the University seriously want to improve their image, the full reclad of Richmond should be a priority:

trentsteel said:

The roads around the university and college campuses are about to be closed off to public traffic (stopping some of the idiots/moving them to the main road):

http://www.brad.ac.uk/briefing/Safer-Roads-Campus-Maps.pdf

As well as the ones listed by the university, the college are looking after putting up barriers on Carlton Street

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I've noticed the barriers in place now, guess it'll be hard driving around campus these days, quite literally around. New car parks are now pretty much complete too:



About the only image I could get of it as the camera was running out of battery. The car parks are now accessible to pedestrians while a new entrance to the phoenix building is being put in place by the car park it seems, helped out with a mobile crane.

Nearby part of the Kirkstone Hall have been adapted into the new temporary Student Union:









http://www.ubuonline.co.uk/news/index.php?page=article&news_id=80025

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

I've been seeing that building for weeks but I didn't know what it was. It's absolutely disgusting, here's a picture I found on the internet:

Horrible^^

Do we know how Haria Towers is getting on? I believe it's open or very close to opening. Any pics?

This is what it's meant to look like:

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Taken from the Richmond Building recently by myself:






Pretty awful eh? Almost complete now, guess they'll be ready for this new academic year.

Agreed on the other student halls too, equally horrendous.

Leeds No.1 said:

I don't think that's good news at all. LCM and other specialist colleges retain their prestigious image by being independent, and with all respect to Bradford, being under Bradford's name isn't going to do anything for their image.

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If Bradford Uni gains some better music facilities as a result I'd be in favour, though really can't see how this is gonna work having The University of Bradford being a part of a site that is after all in Leeds. The University of Bradford is not a bad institution though, just because it's in Bradford doesn't mean its afflicted with the same poor image.

A few updates to post, first from the School of Management which should be of interest to kindmanx:

Lots and lots of photos from the new build site:























Loads more as well to be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradfordmanagement/


There's also a HD time lapse video on youtube of the work undertaken so far up until 17th August:


and timelapse footage of the last 24 hours here:

http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/mana...=homenew&text=newbuildtimelapse24&id=newbuild

as well as the rest of the new build section of the site.


It's rare you get this much information and media production about a site, quite refreshing that they seem to want to share.

And what the resulting building should look like:







http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/mana...php?section=homenew&page=newbuild&id=newbuild

Also a complete list of updates posted here, the latest on the 3rd September:

http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/mana...tion=homenew&text=newbuildupdates&id=newbuild

Some images of the recently completed refurbished University Sports Centre:

















This must be the changing 'village' they were talking about :nuts::





http://www.brad.ac.uk/unique/

Seems its being run by a private company now, or they are at least the go between. Quite a decent addition to the sports centre with the glass cone entrance and the overall refurb, although elsewhere the black façades remain and are extended with not completely matching bricks. Could've done with something to break up these blank walls.


Meanwhile I've noticed this building at Bradford College is currently under demolition:







Quite a large chunk of it is now gone and the building is effectively severed in two. Lot of the streets and pathways around there are blocked off by the activity. As this sits where the new college rebuild is supposed to take place I don't know whether this is the start of that work or what. Perhaps its just preliminary and will not continue on to the two main college buildings, still waiting for funding.



Back to the University and I've noticed that the architects behind the Bradford Student Union refit have also got this design on their website for a new faith centre:

Watson Batty Architects said:

University of Bradford Faith Centre.

In August 2008 we were successfully awarded a place on the University of Bradford Architectural Framework after strong competition from over 60 other practices. We have been invited to design a new faith centre for the University. The initial sketch schemes have produced some exciting and dynamic results. The £1.5m sustainable facility will provide meeting and worship space for the University Students in the heart of the Bradford Campus. The scheme will include a new peace museum together with reflective internal and external spaces.

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http://www.watsonbatty.com/case_education_bradford.html

I believe this is to be sited near the Ashfield Building and on part of the present car park in that area. I previously found a campus masterplan indicating the possible future of the University and what is planned in an edition of the campus based sustainability newspaper The Seed, though its a rather large and detailed image and so will put it in the next post together with a more general masterplan for the whole university and college area from Invest in Bradford...

http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/ecoversity/resources/theseed4-300309.pdf

Lots of quite interesting changes there, like a new possible building built on the car
park on Great Horton Road or the quite large expanse of greenery complete with a new
pond in place of the previously mentioned car park site near the Ashfield Building. There's
also plans for tennis courts in place of Bradford & University Halls which would be
demolished, though I never thought they were that bad and gave some much needed
atmosphere and surroundings to the Amphitheatre. Also says a new sustainability centre
will be built on the women only car park near the Tasmin Little Music Centre, and this
summer, but I haven't seen any evidence of that as yet. Some interesting plans, guess
it'll take a while though.

Expanding on the masterplan for the campus alone is this learning quarter masterplan
from the Invest in Bradford website:



http://bradfordeconomy.com/projects/people/learning_quarter

A lot of this may be quite inaccurate and I doubt a lot of it will actually happen, at least
not any time soon. The extent of development envisioned around Bombay Stores is
interesting though as well as around the University Science Park, would be nice to see
some new, hopefully well designed buildings in place of what's there currently.

A very good string of threads Dan, keep it up.

Dan B said:

Nearby part of the Kirkstone Hall have been adapted into the new temporary Student Union:

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When do they plan to know these disgusting buildings down?

Dan B said:

Taken from the Richmond Building recently by myself:

Pretty awful eh? Almost complete now, guess they'll be ready for this new academic year.

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It's no where near as bad as the other disgusting student buildings, I'm very gratefull for the developers only using the grey colour for the top of the building. It would be better if there was no grey at all, infact it would be great if it was better design, or even better, they kept and built upon the previous building:nuts:

Dan B said:

Taken from the Richmond Building recently by myself:

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I thought you don't go to Bradford Uni anymore?

Dan B said:

And what the resulting building should look like:

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Looks good, I like the wood look effect of the building, makes it fit in with it's surroundings better.

Dan B said:

Some images of the recently completed refurbished University Sports Centre:

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They should have just knocked it down completely and rebuilt it, I doesn't look great on the outside or even the inside.

Dan B said:

Back to the University and I've noticed that the architects behind the Bradford Student Union refit have also got this design on their website for a new faith centre:

http://www.watsonbatty.com/case_education_bradford.html

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Bit of a strange design? Is this meant to be some iconic tower of some sort with the faith bit on the ground floor?

Anyway, I was quite surprised to see this about Trinity Green:

Trinity Green Campus and the sporting facilities were officially opened in September 2008 by Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport. These new sports facilities now feature in the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for the Olympics in 2012.

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Hope they can get something out of this.

trentsteel said:

As of about 6 weeks ago Bradford and University halls are now planned to be replaced by either the Faith Centre or a Sustainability Centre, can't remember which (it has probably changed yet again anyway), with the other one of these planned buildings next to the Ashfield Building across from the Music Centre.

Not much life in the Communal Building yet, with a year to go until "completion"

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So is the masterplan printed in Seed completely out of date now? That one had the Faith Centre and Sustainability Centre located right next to each other near to the Ashfield Building on the current carpark space. Would that also mean that the sports courts shown on the image are a no no as well? I personally think that out of those two choices I'd have the sustainability centre located near to the amphitheatre and the faith centre near the Ashfield Building. I guess it depends somewhat on what provisions the sustainability centre would give. If it was to include some sort of recycling depot for waste collection and handling then it would perhaps prevent some of the needless littering that often happens on the hills after some event or it being quite populated one evening (or at least it would provide an easy collection point, which there should really be more of on the campus). Also I'm not so sure how much of an easy mix a faith centre and the general redirection of drinking to the amphitheatre area would be (what with the SU Bar being relocated to an accessible Basement probably with outside seating arrangements on a courtyard in front of the amphitheatre). I imagine people may want to keep the two separate, not that the two should be segregated, but just so your devotion to whatever you choose can be followed to its logical conclusion without interruption :cheers:

Looking at that plan it does look like there will be a similar green space over what is now a car park around the Ashfield Building and where the remainder of Kirkstone Halls as the temporary Student Union building is now. I'm sure this would provide an equivalent space to the Amphitheatre for any Faith Centre that might enjoy a green setting. I do like the fact they seem to be expanding the greenery around the university, though sometimes I've noticed it can be done rather badly, particularly around the car parks where they seem to have just left the ground as it is to green over on its own, but along with that, it tends to look pretty tatty. Would hope the same fate won't befall this.

Don't suppose you'd know what the potential future development outlined in pink over the current car park on the Great Horton Road side would be?

Agreed on the rate of development of the Communal Building, not exactly doing much is it? It's quite eerie to go through the courtyard now, all overgrown with weeds and vacant.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

A very good string of threads Dan, keep it up.

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Cheers.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

When do they plan to know these disgusting buildings down?

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After a year apparently, guess it depends on the progression of the communal building redevelopment given these buildings are taking on most of the Union's responsibilities.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

It's no where near as bad as the other disgusting student buildings, I'm very gratefull for the developers only using the grey colour for the top of the building. It would be better if there was no grey at all, infact it would be great if it was better design, or even better, they kept and built upon the previous building:nuts:

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Yes I'm very grateful of their varying shades of grey too, one gunmetal grey, the other a whiter shade of pale. I was feeling kind of seasick...

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

I thought you don't go to Bradford Uni anymore?

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And there's a forcefield at the front entrance of the Richmond Building which recognises whether you're still a student or not? Any one can go in there mate, it's just generally a good vantage point for photography and a rather massive building to explore if one is so inclined.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

Looks good, I like the wood look effect of the building, makes it fit in with it's surroundings better.

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Agreed, wish more University buildings were up to this quality, particularly on the main campus.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

They should have just knocked it down completely and rebuilt it, I doesn't look great on the outside or even the inside.

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So you don't mind Haria Towers, but this isn't that great? I know this is no architectural wonder but its a hell of a lot better than that awful grey cladded student hall rubbish. I imagine the university didn't exactly have the money for a full rebuild and improved and expanded upon what they had. I'd sometimes prefer quick results to a hole in the ground to be honest. I think they have improved the design though and opened the building up as it used to have almost no windows on the façade at all. The glass cone extension is also quite stylish but is let down by some of the building materials I think. They probably could've got better metal with less of a grey finish which gives it a bit of a plastic-y look, probably due to a paint job.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

Bit of a strange design? Is this meant to be some iconic tower of some sort with the faith bit on the ground floor?

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Well it certainly won't be habitable, at least not by humans. If it is just the ground floor it does seem a bit small. I'm guessing the building will relocate and include the prayer rooms currently in the communal building.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

Anyway, I was quite surprised to see this about Trinity Green:

Trinity Green Campus and the sporting facilities were officially opened in September 2008 by Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport. These new sports facilities now feature in the London Organising Committee Pre-Games Training Camp Guide for the Olympics in 2012.

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Hope they can get something out of this.

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I believe the Pakistani Olympic teams will be using the training facilities here and throughout the district, not sure about any other teams.

*-City Of Bradford-* said:

I do mind Haria Towers, but it's a fact that compared to other student halls like Haria House, it's not that bad.

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It is.

trentsteel said:

Heard today Communal Building has developer sorted and should be on site this week or next, but that seems like the only confirmed bit of info right now.

I imagine the masterplan has changed 2-3 times since it was published in The Seed; even now it bears little resemblence to the 2005 masterplan that set out the vision for 2014!

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Preferable to it remaining vacant and doing nothing, though when I read The Bradford Student the other day it said some of the designs had been downscaled, for instance a smaller glass atrium I think and the exclusion of a new lecture theatre. Seems everything is value costed these days.

Is there ever any point in having a masterplan in the first place if it just keeps changing all the time, hardly a masterplan then. Just tell me they do still plan to grass over that massive car park, would make a great improvement to Bradford University's public and green space, larger than the amphitheatre.

Dan B said:

Meanwhile I've noticed this building at Bradford College is currently under demolition:

Quite a large chunk of it is now gone and the building is effectively severed in two. Lot of the streets and pathways around there are blocked off by the activity. As this sits where the new college rebuild is supposed to take place I don't know whether this is the start of that work or what. Perhaps its just preliminary and will not continue on to the two main college buildings, still waiting for funding.

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As I was saying:



To the right of the image you can see it only partially remains with windows out and other debris. Sorry about the image, is rather dark.

I wonder if this is to enable part of the new build to the college:














Looking at the site the new build actually covers, you could construct in its entirety the low rise building that covers the car park and part of the higher risen main replacement structure without impacting on the current 60's buildings at all. In this way they could build part of the structure and then move as many offices and rooms to that building from the current ones and then move on to demolish and replace those as well.

See the current site for comparison:




A significant chunk could be built without it disrupting the rest of the buildings now that that building is currently undergoing demolition. Of course it all relies on funding.

It's amazing the amount of time this development has actually taken and still wont be going anywhere immediately. The current car park off Great Horton Road has been there since 1993 awaiting this development. Personally think this particular low rise extension of the college is the wrong idea, especially considering what used to exist in that space before the car park:

Alexandra Hotel:













demolition:













http://www.flickr.com/photos/s_prior/sets/72157618109656014/

hno: This just makes me depressed, all for a car park and now a stalled college development. How can there honestly be more than a 16 year gap from demolition to development? Only wonder what could've been made of this had it remained smack bang in the middle of the clubbing district. How was this not listed?