Member Article

Shepherd appointed to £27.5m Leeds University library build

York-headquartered national contractor, Shepherd Construction, has been appointed to build a new library for the University of Leeds.

To mark the start on site of the new £27.5 million facility, Shepherd’s regional managing director, Kevin Donegan, met the vice-chancellor of the University, Professor Michael Arthur and other stakeholders of the new facility to break the first piece of ground on the site.

The £16 million project awarded to Shepherd is the first city-fronting building that the university has commissioned for over 30 years and will see the contractor build a highly sustainable landmark building that will provide an IT-rich and flexible facility for students.

The new undergraduate library, which is due to complete at the beginning of 2015, is designed to provide 1,000 reader seats, flexible training rooms, community classrooms and a café, plus flexible space for 6,800 linear metres of book stock.

The current library will work out of the Edward Boyle building on the main campus until the new building is complete. The new facility will improve the present academic experience and exceed new student expectations.

Kevin Donegan commented: “We are delighted to be working on this high profile project in Leeds, which will enhance the University’s facilities and provide students with an exceptional learning environment. We are looking forward to working closely with it, students and the local community throughout the construction programme, keeping them fully involved in the project as work progresses.”

Professor Michael Arthur added: “We already have one of the best academic libraries in the country and the addition of the new undergraduate library will enhance that. This is a major investment, which will ensure that the University continues to provide an exceptional educational experience for our students and world-class facilities for our staff.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .