University of Glasgow Embarks On More New Construction

GLASGOW, Scotland — Building on 2010-2015 strategic plan growth, the University of Glasgow is now moving forward on the design and construction of a new 150,000-square-foot research building on it’s 74-acre Gilmorehill Campus. The $58 million project will provide a state-of-the-art facility for university researchers to investigate significant global challenges including energy demand and waste management. The building is expected to be complete in 2019.

The London office of global design firm HOK was selected as the project’s lead consultant in collaboration with Montreal-headquartered WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has secured the multidisciplinary engineering contract. Ironside Farrar of Edinburgh is the project’s planning consultant.

The new Gilmorehill Campus development is a critical part of the university’s “Inspiring People, Changing the World” strategy and is intended to enhance the university’s position as one of the world’s leading broad-based, research-intensive institutions. In response to the university’s objectives, HOK’s design will encourage cross-sector collaboration through the creation of a flexible environment that promotes interaction and lateral thinking, according to a statement by the firm.

“We are thrilled to have an opportunity to work with the University of Glasgow and our partners on the design of this significant and visionary project,” said Adrian Gainer, regional leader for Science + Technology at HOK, in a statement. “We have extensive experience in delivering highly successful research environments worldwide. We look forward to creating a design that will encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and inspire the university’s research teams to pursue world-changing activities.”

“Partnering with HOK allowed us to bring the most recent innovative expertise in world class research facilities to the project,” said John Cox, senior technical director for building structures, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, in a separate statement. “This is a significant win for us as it strengthens our ongoing relationship with the University of Glasgow as well as raising our engineering skills profile in the education sector across Scotland and the UK as a whole.”

The planned research hub is the next in a series of recent construction projects that will improve education and research. In June 2015, the University of Glasgow cut the ribbon on its four-story Teaching and Learning Centre at the South Glasgow University Hospital. The facility supports hands-on training for both undergraduate medical degree students and postgraduate students.

September 2015 saw the opening of the Centre for Virus Research on the university’s Garscube Campus. The building, constructed by Laing O’Rourke headquartered in Dartford, U.K., contains cutting-edge laboratories, offices and social spaces that support research being conducted by both human and veterinary virologists.

In October 2015, the university broke ground on a new Imaging Centre of Excellence, which will provide further clinical research facilities. Construction is expected to end on that project later this year.