Global giant Aecom is leading one of the five design teams shortlisted to create a master plan for University College London’s new campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford.
The other four design teams are led by Ken Shuttleworth’s Make, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, LDA Design and Allies & Morrison.
Gardiner & Theobald and Buro Happold are both advising on two of the shortlisted teams, Aecom is also in an advisory role on the Make team, and EC Harris is also advising on the LDA bid.
The five shortlisted groups have been invited to submit formal tenders to design the 125,000m2 campus across an 11-acre site within the “Olympicopolis” cultural and educational district.
The UCL site is pictured at the bottom of the picture, south of the stadium
Other developments planned for the site involve the Victoria and Albert Museum, University College London, University of the Arts London and Sadler’s Wells.
The 50,000m2 first phase of the project will include the university’s first School of Design, the Museum of the Future and the UCL’s Centre for Experimental Engineering, which is being established to “address the acute skills shortage in engineering and develop new approaches to experiential learning in engineering, alongside prototyping and manufacturing facilities.”
It’s projected that the cumulative effect of these plans will generate 3,000 jobs in the Park and an extra £1.8bn of economic value from the area.
LLDC will be the contracting authority for the masterplanning, will secure planning permission and then deliver the academic elements to shell and core.
Professor Steve Caddick, vice provost-enterprise at UCL, said: “UCL East will be a university campus of the future – open, connected with businesses and embedded within the local community. We are looking forward to seeing the plans which the shortlisted teams will propose for the site, mirroring this vision for how the new campus will operate in the way it’s designed for the people and communities who’ll use it.”
David Goldstone, chief executive of LLDC, said: “It’s great to embark on this latest phase of the Olympicopolis project which will see the creation of a new campus in east London for one of the world’s leading research universities.”
The winning team is due be announced in April 2015, and the full teams shortlisted are:
- Aecom with Stanton Williams, Fluid and Access = Design;
- Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands with Expedition Engineering, WSP Group, Townshend Landscape Architects, Useful Simple Group, Gardiner & Theobald, Quod, PFB Construction Management Services, Arup University, Sturgis Carbon Profiling, Alexi Marmot Associates, People Friendly Design, Space Syntax and PPS Group;
- Make with Gehl Architects, LDA Design, Aecom, London Communications Agency, The Neighbourhood, David Bonnett Associates and Quod;
- LDA Design with Nicholas Hare Associates, BuroHappold, Momentum Transport Planning, EC Harris, Soundings and Studio Weave;
- Allies & Morrison with O’Donnell + Tuomey, BuroHappold, GROSS. MAX. and Gardiner & Theobald.
