A new £15m Students’ Union building is to be created at the heart of the University of Leicester campus marking the latest chapter in its ambitious £1 billion Development Framework Plan.

It follows the completion of the RIBA award-winning £32 million David Wilson Library, opened in December by HM The Queen, accompanied by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, 50 years on from their visit in 1958 to the University to open the Percy Gee Building, which houses the Students’ Union.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be conducted on 17 June at 4pm in the presence of members of the Percy Gee family marking an historic occasion for the University.

The transformation of the Students’ Union building – one of the oldest on campus and one of the most problematic, given its 35 different levels within 5 storeys – is in keeping with changing student culture and expectations. The Percy Gee Building originally served a population of 800 students -Leicester now has more than 21,000 students and the ethos that underpins the development is to provide an ‘holistic student experience’.

The centrepiece of the new building will be a spectacular central atrium and courtyard area providing a new social space at the heart of the building and an extension towards University Road will provide a major new contemporary façade. There will also be a 1750 person capacity live music venue which will aim to attract leading bands to the City. Improved accessibility to all parts of the building will also be an integral feature of the development.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Bob Burgess, who will perform the ground breaking ceremony, said: “The University of Leicester is consistently ranked among the top in the country for student satisfaction and the services provided by the Students’ Union are key to this success. The Union itself has won Students’ Union of the Year awards on a number of occasions and has contributed to the success of Leicester in being ranked as University of the Year by the Times Higher Education magazine.”

Professor Helen Atkinson, Chair of the development project team, said : “Students everywhere are coming to university wanting more than just a degree; they are concerned about the whole lifestyle of being a student – from the particular bands that have gigged at the Union right the way through to whether the University has Fairtrade Status. What is dubbed ‘The Student Experience’ is in the higher education spotlight. This development, and the large investment the University is making in it, will place the University of Leicester at the forefront of developing the best student experience for its students and will help us to consolidate our position as one of the top universities in the UK.

“We have taken into account students’ views throughout the planning of this development and their needs and expectations will shape the physical development of the space. Ultimately, we will have a building that is fit for purpose now and for the future.

“This is an extremely exciting project that will transform student lives for many years to come.”

Trevor Page, Chief Executive of the Students’ Union  added: “This stunning development will bring our facilities into the 21st century and establish Leicester as the University of choice for aspiring students.”

Graham Ross, Students’ Union Services Officer said “The new Percy Gee building will enable us to really make a difference for our members by providing the best opportunities and facilities as part of our strive to become the best Students’ Union in the country.”

Mr Ambalavanar Kumaran, Deputy Chief Executive of the Students’ Union, said members of the public would also have opportunities to make use of the new building: “The exciting development will enable the Students’ Union to provide a wide range of services to the local community including a fantastic facility for weddings, private parties, conferences and exhibitions. The new state of the art live music venue will put Leicester as one of the primary locations for touring bands in the country and will be open to everyone in Leicester.”

Steven Pidwill, Director of Shepheard Epstein Hunter, the University’s architects for the project, said: “This is a great example of how a building from the mid twentieth century which was designed for a very different situation can be transformed through the far-sighted investment of a visionary client. The project will unlock the potential of the Percy Gee building and make a virtue of its many levels through new ramps and walkways, and the creation of an atrium under a new glass roof at the heart of the building. It will become a multi-purpose building, intensively used by many different groups, close to the centre of campus life.”
Construction company Morgan Ashurst has been awarded the contract, with works due to be completed in September 2010.
“We are delighted to win this most prestigious of contracts to create a flagship Students’ Union centre for the University of Leicester,” says Morgan Ashurst area director Paul Fish. “We have a huge amount of experience of building for the higher education sector and are looking forward to contributing towards the university’s vision and providing facilities that both staff and students can be immensely proud of.”
Key features of the completed build include:

• A huge new atrium covering the space between the two wings of the building forming the ‘living room’ of the campus where students will be able to sit and work, talk, eat and drink.
• A new 1750 capacity live music venue which will be able to cater for the biggest and best live acts, as well as drama performances, comedy and exhibitions.
• A new food outlet serving a modern, healthy and fresh menu.
• A new Activities Resource Centre providing meeting space for societies, sports clubs, RAG and Contact (which organises volunteers to help in the Leicester community, for example with reading schemes in local schools and Christmas parties for the elderly) as well as a training suite for student leaders.
• Nourish, a new shop providing food, drinks and other convenience items and a University Store selling second-hand books, print services, University clothing and merchandise, and stationery.
• An improved Accommodation Agency providing a managed accommodation service for landlords and students.
• A new education and representation service which will give advice and assistance to students on all academic matters.
• A larger and better resourced Welfare Advice Service
• A more sustainable building with a biomass boiler, increased natural lighting, provision for a bicycle park and showers- and a way of harvesting rainwater in order to flush toilets!

The new development has been welcomed by leaders of the city:

The Lord Mayor of Leicester Roger Blackmore- a former student of the University-said: “The exciting new proposals underline just how much the University has gone from strength to strength over the years. The student community plays a vital role in the life of the city in so many ways and I look forward to the many links between town and gown continuing to develop in the years ahead.”

Leicester South MP Peter Soulsby said: “”This exciting new redevelopment of the Students’ Union building will help to reinforce the University of Leicester’s very high student satisfaction ratings. It will provide a centre of attraction for the vibrant student population who play a vital role in the culture and economy of the city. As a former student of Leicester and now one of its MPs, I am delighted by this development which is right in the heart of the University campus and will create a showpiece Students’ Union offering first-class facilities.”

Ross Willmott, Leader of Leicester City Council, said: “I was delighted to hear that the University of Leicester had been voted top university in the East Midlands recently.  To maintain this position the University needs to continue to attract the very best students and this new Students’ Union building will certainly help to do that. The city is immensely proud of its universities and I look forward to seeing this new development take shape over the coming months.”

Martin Peters, Chief Executive of Leicester Shire Promotions, said: “Leicester is in the advanced stages of a major £3 billion regeneration programme that has physically transformed the city. The University of Leicester’s ambitious development plans form an important part of this work and with the addition of event and live music facilities, are helping to create a new destination in which to live, work and study.”

History will be made at the University of Leicester on 17 June when generations of the Percy Gee family return to Leicester. The family already has strong links with the University as the current Students’ Union was named in honour of their forefather and one of the original founders of the University, Percy Gee.

This occasion will mark the start of a £15m transformation of one of the oldest buildings on campus into a stunning, modern, purpose-built Union that will serve the needs of a growing number of students.

The University of Leicester owes its existence to a group of early benefactors who promoted and supported the idea of establishing a university in the city of Leicester. One of these was Harry Simpson Gee who, in 1924, bequeathed £20,000 to the College in his Will; the equivalent sum today would be over £6.5 million. His sons Percy and Cecil continued the tradition of support to the College, which went far beyond monetary gifts to include service in many forms.

The University College of Leicester was founded in 1921, achieved university status in 1957 and became the University of Leicester.

From the first nine graduates of 1921, staff and student numbers remained small in the early years of the College but saw a dramatic increase between 1945 and the granting of university status in 1958. This rise in the student population created an urgent need for more accommodation for teaching and research; this led to the opening of the first new purpose-built University building in 1951. Until this period, students lacked their own facilities to conduct business or to house the wide range of social and sporting activities.

Consequently, when the second new building opened it became the permanent home of the Students’ Union. Described in the Leicester Evening Mail as “one of the most magnificent buildings in Leicester” it was opened by HM The Queen in May 1958 and named after benefactor Percy Gee, as a tribute to his tireless work and support in the establishment of a university in Leicester.

Percy Gee was a very popular figure. He served the University in one capacity or another for over forty years, as benefactor, Chairman of the University Council until 1959 and as the University’s first Pro-Chancellor. In the words of his colleagues, Professors Hunter and Simmons:

“One of the pro-chancellors is Mr H Percy Gee, who was among the founders of the College nearly forty years ago. During the whole of its development he has worked for it with a tireless energy and the utmost liberality. Since 1945 he has been Chairman of its Council. Such a long association as this must be rare in the history of universities. Mr Gee personifies the spirit of local patriotism that lay behind the foundation of the College.”

He also held a unique position in the affections and respect of the people of Leicester, where he did much to involve the city in the plans for a university in the city. He was awarded the Freedom of the City in 1950. On the occasion of the Royal Visit, the Leicester Evening Mail stated:

“What a joy it must have been for that grand and gracious old man to see the fulfilment of a so-long-hoped-for event which he, more than any other, has striven to achieve.”

With the contractors arriving this Monday, 25 May all of the technical data is being finalised and here is the first part of the Structural Frame Analysis Model from Scott White and Hookins our fantastic structural engineers.

If you’d like to fly through in 3d then you can download the full model here (.vrml file, 304kb). You’ll need to install a viewer that is avaliable here (sorry Mac users it isn’t compatible with your Operating System, please accept out apologies - it’s technology not apathy).

Scott White and Hookins say…

The model the user will see is a 3 dimensional representation of the structural frame exported from our structural analysis model for the proposed building. We suggest that once the SWH Percy Gee Structural Model file has been opened, users of the VRML viewer should click on the ‘Fit’ icon in the bottom right corner first. This will display the whole structure. It should then be possible to use the various other ‘walk’, ‘fly’ etc. icons to move around the frame.

Keep checking for even more updates from the site.

On 26th May, the University will start a major refurbishment and extension project which, once completed, will have transformed the 1950s Percy Gee Building into a modern, purposeful and attractive new Students’ Union. It will feature a spectacular new atrium (bridging between the two wings) with communal social space for students and improved catering and retail facilities, a 1750 capacity music venue, bar, space for student societies, and increased provision for welfare & support services. Gone will be most of the 35 or so different levels that have made the building frustratingly inaccessible for wheelchair users in particular, as we have striven with the new scheme to make it completely accessible to all.

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