Wates Construction

2016 was notable for a number of key projects including the on-going development at the Greenwich Peninsula with our third site; completion of the BREEAM outstanding Central Square in Leeds and mixed-use office developments completed at Eastbourne Terrace and Hammersmith Grove in London.

We have won significant contracts with new and existing clients including a £27m facility at RAF Marham for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), which will house the new F-35B Lightning II aircraft; a trio of wins totalling £130m with Select Property Group to increase their provision of student housing in the north; major renovation to the Grade II listed Millbank House for The House of Lords, and Life Safety Works at the Houses of Parliament.

Our focus on residential continues to increase as we added a number of specialist senior living contracts with Audley and Signature; further private residential developments in London with Anthology in Hoxton and Quintain in Wembley, plus a development at North West Cambridge to create a new student village including 269 apartments.

The year also saw us crowned Major Contractor of the Year at the 2016 Building Magazine Awards, a testament to our people, our projects and our values. Our commitment to the communities in which we work continues to be key to the way in which we do business, and as a result of our successes in 2016, Construction spent over £690k with social enterprises.

CENTRAL SQUARE,
LEEDS

As the first speculative office scheme in Leeds for over eight years, the Central Square development was a flagship project for Construction in the North East. Completing the construction and fit-out for Royhouse Properties the new building comprises 220,000 sq ft of flexible Grade A office space plus retail and leisure provision, accessible public thoroughfares and a central atrium and winter garden. The dramatic atrium space incorporates an impressive fully glazed winter garden providing retail and leisure offerings for tenants and the general public, whilst the sky garden offers outstanding views across the city.

With an outstanding BREEAM rating, the building integrates zero carbon technology and utilises BIM technologies, making it one of Leeds’ most technologically and ecologically advanced buildings. The build has been also been hailed as a model of best practice in commercial building following a site tour for the Forum for the Built Environment (FBE).

ARNOLD HILL ACADEMY,
NOTTINGHAM

Appointed as main contractor by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) for the condition-led construction of a new three-storey academy for Arnold Hill, the school remained operational throughout with 2,000 pupils and teachers on site.

The £14.5m project saw the construction of super block extension for the upper school, using our ADAPT schools solution model, consisting of a three-storey steel framed building with a four-court indoor sports hall and a 380-person capacity auditorium at it centre; plus refurbishment works to the lower school and 6th form college. The result is a modern school building that blends original features with new-build extensions and associated landscaping.

While 13 science labs were the EFA requirement, value engineering a different solution for science to be delivered through ‘dry labs’, utilising less space, enabled eight labs provide sufficient space to meet the school’s science requirements and enabled an extra 92m2 to be released to make way for a dance studio.

During the build, Wates complemented the curriculum for those pupils studying B-Tech Construction at Arnold Hill Academy. Fifteen students were able to experience, first hand, the skills of plastering, brick-laying, and roofing; gain an insight into how budgets are managed and test their knowledge on electrics. The students also visited the live site to see some of these skills in action.