Work on Charles Street has progressed very well over Christmas and the new year. We are in the process of taking possession of the lecture theatre and are expecting to take handover of the rest of the building in February, with remaining external works (such as pavements) completed soon after. The contractors have worked extremely hard to get us to this point, as have the estates team, and it’s excellent news that we’ll soon be able to open up this fantastic new space to our staff, students and visitors.
The lecture theatre will be used for teaching from 8 February. As this will only be a partial possession of the site, it is likely that the remainder of the building will initially remain under the control of the contractors and staff and students will not be able to access it at this point. To support this, access to and from the lecture theatre will be from the rear of Charles Street and signage will be in place to guide staff and students.
We are expecting to have full possession of Charles Street, and all works to be completed, by mid-February ready for staff to begin to move in from w/b 21 March. Arrangements for these moves are being finalised with the faculties, and details about the move will be communicated to staff from their local teams. A Building Information Guide (BIG) is also being developed to assist staff moving into Charles Street (and Arundel Building) . This will include floor and building plans, and information on IT and health and safety, and will be available online in February.
A small amount of teaching is being held in the open access IT suite, the café area in Arundel Building, from this week. Timetabled activities in this area have been kept to a minimum, and IT is contacting the small number of individual academics who will be in those areas to make arrangements for any temporary AV as required.
Our new Vice-Chancellor, Professor Chris Husbands, visited Charles Street last week. He was extremely impressed with what he saw, and duly Tweeted his praise.