South Staffordshire College

The relocation of Tamworth College - part of South Staffordshire College - to a new building on the former site of the Tamworth Co-operative Society department store, is an integral element of the College Quarter project, which will see the transformation of St. Editha’s Square onto which the college overlooks.

The college building is a four-storey building with single storey part-basement, and centres around a full height internal atrium providing natural light as well as a focal point for meeting. The new college provides a high-quality teaching and learning environment through a mix of general and specialist spaces to produce a high-quality learning environment.

Teaching facilities include an automotive workshop with accommodation for up to three vehicles (including electric); brickwork, electrical and carpentry workshops supporting the building trade apprenticeships; a catering training kitchen, cafeteria, training hair salon, hair and beauty classrooms, library facilities, healthcare training room, and 16 general teaching classrooms.

This project has reduced the size of the existing estate by c.3,600sqm, improving efficiency by consolidating provision previously spread across the Tamworth and Torc sites onto one town centre site and delivering a 45%+ utilisation rate. 

The new college building consists of a 4-storey RC frame, with single storey part basement, with exposed / aesthetic quality concrete on all levels, located on a challenging city-centre site constrained by the locally listed and historic original Co-Op building on one side and highways land with multiple below ground services on the St Editha’s Square side. Due to the significant level difference across the site careful design of retaining walls (both temporary and permanent) were considered as part of the scheme.

Our teams were involved in the development of the design from the end of RIBA Stage 2 to 3 for services including civil and structural engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, cost management, project management and principal designer services, delivering planning and up to tender stage. Post contract, McBains provided project and cost management alongside client monitoring services for M&E engineering, with the C&S engineering team novated across to the main contractor for RIBA 4 to 6 delivery.