On Monday 4 April the new Charles Street building was fully opened to students and staff for the first time. Home to the Sheffield Institute of Education (SIoE), within the Faculty of Development and Society, it brings together teacher education provision and education research in state-of-the-art teaching, learning and social spaces.
Last month, estates and sustainability hosted an ‘open house’ event to give colleagues across the University the chance to explore the building before teaching began. More than 150 staff took the opportunity to visit and feedback has been excellent, with the outdoor terraces drawing many positive comments.
The SIoE will mark the official opening of Charles Street in May when guests including Baroness Lawrence take part in the Sheffield Institute of Education conference, the first to be held in the building.
Tours of the Sheffield Institute of Arts (SIA), based in the old Head Post Office, also proved popular with staff. In total, more than 120 colleagues were shown around the building. Parts of the refurbished HPO opened earlier this year and the final blocks are scheduled to be ready for the new academic year.
Both Charles Street and the SIA have received great feedback from staff, students and visitors. As with all projects of this size, snags do crop up and the estates team is working closely with the faculties to identify and deal with these as they arise. But it’s fantastic that the University can now boast these two impressive, and yet very different, buildings on our City Campus.
For more about our projects, and building information guides for Charles Street and the SIA, visit our Future Spaces blog.