Image courtesy of New London Development
The Centre Buildings Redevelopment (CBR), the 13-storey building opposite the library that includes more than a dozen seminar rooms as well as hundreds of study spaces and a cafe, is set to open on schedule in June.
“The building will be complete in May 2019 and handed over to the LSE from Mace [the contractor],” said Phoebe Dunster of LSE’s Estates Division. “The LSE then require 3 weeks to fit out the building with furniture and train staff on usage and management of the space.”
LSE plans to host 2019 Summer School classes in the CBR.
“The building will be handed over for the start of Summer School Teaching on 17th June 2019, which has always been the target,” Dunster said. “A lot of people have been working extremely hard to achieve this date for the LSE.”
Situated at the heart of the campus, the CBR is designed as a cross between a teaching and academic space. Among other facilities, it includes 14 seminar rooms seating between 20 and 60, a 200-seater auditorium, three lecture theatres, and 234 study spaces.
In addition, several departments will be moved there, including the Department of Government on Levels 3 and 4, the International Inequalities Institute on Levels 4 and 5, and the Department of International Relations on Levels 7 through 10. The Directorate will be on Level 11.
“[T]he floors incorporate academic offices, open-plan work spaces for research students and fellows, and a number of meeting spaces, facilitating the kind of collaborations that spark new thinking and new approaches,” according to a project website.
LSE first made plans to redevelop the site in 2003. According to the website, the old Centre Buildings that once occupied the space were in poor condition and no longer fit for purpose. The project was put on hold while LSE redeveloped 24 Kingsway — now the New Academic Building (NAB) — and built the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre (SAW), but demolition of the old Centre Buildings was finally completed in December 2016.
