Last Friday I was a guest at the Invest in Nottingham Club lunch at The Sir Colin Campbell building. This is the centrepiece of the University’s Jubilee Campus. I had been invited by Nick Riley – a fellow blogger and keen advocate of Nottingham. There’s a link to his blog over on the right somewhere – or here.

Nick gave an overview of some of the projects his firm are involved in – finishing with a building on the Jubilee Campus – the new China Studies building. It looks good and is coming out of the ground now.

Then Chris Jagger from the university took to the floor and set out what had happened on the campus – he took us back to 1995 when the University acquired the first part of the campus from Raleigh. I remember it well – I valued it at the time! I remember driving through the buildings on site – it was the first and last time I have done a survey by driving a car in a building!

Since that time the University have been acquiring more of the land and slowly building a campus. To date they have spent £200m and have a similar amount earmarked for the next 10 years or so.

I think this particular adjunct to the main campus has now reached a tipping point. It is starting to take on the feel of the University. As the latest buildings open over the next 12 months I can see that there will be a critical mass here. There are still some other uses, but they are now in the minority. The campus has a centre piece – the Aspire sculpture. It also has a Starbucks.

The campus is a real success story for Nottingham. I like the architecture, but I know some don’t. It has been described as a ‘zoo of buildings’!