I blogged last year about my return to Nottingham Trent University to have a look around the Arkwright and Newton buildings – they were reaching the final stage of their refurbishment.
The newly created space at NTU
This week I went to one of the official opening evenings.
The £92m scheme is now complete – and it looks amazing. Hopkins Architects have done a great job in retaining the essence of two architecturally important buildings whilst connecting them with a modern piece of architecture. This really is the centrepiece of the University and the facilities are second to none. This is both in terms of teaching space, but also the newly created Nottingham Conference Centre.
It was interesting to hear some of the historical context of the buildings – D H Lawrence studied at the University College Nottingham (as Arkwright was then known). My old lecturer Paul Collins went dewey eyed when he remembered the old urinals – and the fact that David Herbert had once peed in the very same place. I wasn’t sure where it was headed, but he held it together I think – just. I think the Collins facial hair may have permeated his brain. Or he was being sponsored by Flomax …
I was also amused about some of the opposition when the scheme was put before the statutory consultees. One organisation were concerned about the loss of the rows of lockers in Newton building. I miss them too – I used to lean up against them …
But the real story (apart from the quality of the space) was the green roof – 30,000 sq ft of it. This has helped the University achieve the no.1 spot in the Green League of Universities in England and Wales.
It is a great regeneration project – which deserves all the accolades it will surely get. It’s a great advert for Nottingham – on the world stage.
May 28th, 2010 at 08:20
[...] day started at the new NTU conference centre – where lunch was served! Then I wandered off into town with Nigel Turpin, one of the towns [...]
June 25th, 2010 at 08:33
[...] I blogged about before, I agree with him wholeheartedly. It’s a great [...]
March 7th, 2011 at 09:07
[...] And the second is the Nottingham Trent University extension between the Newton and Arkwright buildings. Again when this opened last year I thought it was a truly great piece of design that had transformed an area into a building fit for the 21st Century. My blog post is here. [...]