News
24 November 2008
New £33m Leicester Grammar School completed
Pupils attending the all-new Leicester Grammar School are already enjoying some of the best state-of-the-art educational facilities in the country, thanks to the design expertise and vision of leading architectural and engineering practice Pick Everard.
Located on the 75-acre site of a former dairy farm - on the edge of Great Glen, in south east Leicestershire - the new buildings have been designed to have a minimum impact on the surrounding landscape, while simultaneously providing facilities flexible enough to accommodate the demands of contemporary schooling and 1,250 pupils and 80 members of teaching staff.
As is synonymous with the Pick Everard approach, minimum environmental impact and sustainability feature high on the list of design priorities. The result is the achievement of minimal energy usage, high levels of insulation, natural lighting and natural ventilation throughout.
Likewise, some of the older remaining buildings on the site have been cleverly incorporated into the predominantly modern design with feature cedar cladding. Where possible, farm buildings were kept and most shall be used for storage and workshop purposes until such time as the go-ahead is given for a future shop/café conversion. Where old buildings were beyond renovation, the materials were re-used as a foundation for roads and pavements.
Pick Everard teamed up with national building contractor Norwest Holst Ltd (part of VINCI PLC) to realise the school’s ambitious vision for the future. The project has taken just 18 months in construction and incorporates the grammar school’s junior department on the same site. The school opened for the first day of the new school year on September 15, but an official opening is to take place in December 2008.
Based around a main, central, two-level street, the various buildings cannot fail to impress, with every last attention to detail included. The focal, show-stopping elements of the project are without doubt the secondary school entrance foyer - accessed via an established tree-lined avenue already on the site – and main library. The foyer is of double-height space, giving visitors a dramatic sense of arrival, with the equally impressive library directly adjacent, which provides views to a landscaped courtyard and the valley beyond through a fully glazed external wall.
Sporting facilities are second to none, including two floodlit, all-weather hockey pitches, four rugby pitches, a dedicated cricket pitch and eight hard tennis/netball courts. Inside are six badminton courts, basketball, netball and indoor cricket nets, a gym/dance studio, fitness suite and a 25-metre, heated pool.
As a multiple award-winner in the education sector, Pick Everard is considered to be one of the country’s foremost specialists in designing buildings for secondary and further education. Recent awards in this sector include three for its work at Oakham School, in Rutland: The George Phillips Award (2007), Leicestershire Joint Consultative Committee Merit Award for Craftsmanship (2007), and Leicestershire and Rutland Society of Architects Design Award (2008). Madani High School in Leicester came top in the Community Benefit category of the regional finals at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Awards 2008 and won Sustainable Development of the Year in the 2008 ProCon Leicestershire Property & Construction Awards.
Of the practice’s latest landmark achievement in the education sector, Partner Duncan Green said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the completed Leicester Grammar School and we have had very positive feedback from the school. Not only is it a wonderful place for pupils to learn and develop their skills but the project has also delivered excellent levels of sustainability and ecological performance.
