Through a £33 million project, one of Plymouth's most-iconic former railway buildings has been transformed by the University of Plymouth into InterCity Place, a state-of-the-art space for training and developing the next generation of healthcare staff.
Among the disciplines that will be trained within the facility will be nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, optometrists, and social workers, and this will strengthen the university's position as a leader in healthcare education in the South West. The new facilities are due to open next month.
InterCity Place, which overlooks the city's railway station, is an 11-storey building equipped with brand-new teaching facilities offering a range of health technologies and digital innovations. The development is part of an almost £100 million investment by the University into teaching and learning, its new Babbage Building which has cutting-edge facilities in engineering and design facilities.
The railway building opened in 1962, and its regeneration as InterCity Place furthers the University's commitment to sustainability. Earlier this year, the University became only the second university in the UK to achieve carbon-neutral status. It was designed to SKA Gold standard and has solar panels on its top deck and air source heat pumps that are linked to mechanical ventilation and heat recovery units in individual rooms.
During construction, the facades were replaced by modern, thermally efficient rain screens incorporating vertical fins for solar shading, while 94% of the project's construction waste was diverted from landfill.
Completion of the building is the first major milestone in Plymouth's Brunel Plaza development which is being driven by a partnership between the University, Plymouth City Council, Network Rail, and Great Western Railway, and supported by the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.
The main contractor for InterCity Place was the Kier Group, which also constructed the University's £17 million Derriford Research Facility that was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in May 2018.
Professor Judith Petts CBE, the University's Vice-Chancellor, received the keys to InterCity Place earlier this week from Doug Lloyd, Operations Director of Kier Regional Building Western & Wales. She said “It's incredibly exciting to be able to take over this landmark building which offers so many opportunities for training our next cadre of health professionals. We are looking forward to our first students arriving in just a few weeks' time.”
