The new development includes 10 flexible teaching rooms, a four-court multi-purpose sports hall, hub spaces for social or quiet study on each floor and a library courtyard. The scheme also includes the first rooftop multi-use games area in Cambridge, which will maximise outdoor sports spaces on this City Centre site.
Machinery has moved in and careful demolition is underway, and is being managed by project managers, Bidwells.
Kier Eastern are the main contractor, the architect was chadwickdryerclarke studio, Engineer: Smith and Wallwork, M&E Consultant is Mott MacDonald and the Quantity Surveyor AECOM.
Ben Hayek, project manager, said: “The demolition is taking place within the live school site and is being carefully managed and phased to allow teaching and learning to continue safely, and undisrupted alongside.
“Demolition is nearly complete in time for the disruptive sheet piling installation to take place over the summer holidays, while the students and staff are off-site.
“The new facility needs to be ready in time for the Foundation to become co-educational in September 2017 so the programme is being carefully monitored.”
A spokesperson for the school said: “The Stephen Perse Foundation is already an exceptional school, named Independent School of the Year 2014, with excellent academic results and a strong creative curriculum. However, we always strive to do better.
“To support our talented teachers fully and to bring out the best in our students, we plan to offer facilities which truly capture our ambition and vision for education.
“As we move into a new era of co-education, our aim is to bring coherency throughout. Our planned refurbishments will create a unified environment that inspires, entertains and confidently expresses our progressive values.”
A formal ground-breaking ceremony is planned for the start of the autumn term, when the basement piling is complete.
Image: CGI showing the rooftop multi-use games area
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