Cambridge Judge Business School building project approved by city’s Planning Committee.
Plans for Cambridge Judge Business School to significantly expand its historic premises were approved unanimously today by Cambridge City Council’s Planning Committee, subject to the completion of the accompanying planning agreement. Work is expected to begin on the £32 million, two-year project in June, in the 25th anniversary year of Cambridge Judge.
The expansion will strengthen the collaborative nature of Cambridge Judge by unifying activities under a single roof, greatly expanding the School’s usable space. Currently, nearly a third of degree programme lectures and two-thirds of Executive Education programmes take place in other locations in Cambridge, because existing Cambridge Judge buildings have been outgrown.
“We are delighted to receive the Council’s go-ahead for this expansion, which will create a shared experience and interactive working environment for our students, faculty and staff,” said Christoph Loch, director of Cambridge Judge.
This project will enhance the Cambridge region by providing more space for lectures and other public events, further linking Cambridge Judge Business School to the Cambridge Cluster and broader East of England community.
Cambridge Judge contributes to the Cambridge-area economy in many ways. These include mentoring assistance for start-up ventures, entrepreneurship training, research on the local economy, executive education that brings visitors to Cambridge, and employment and expenditure. The building project will provide much-needed new space to support growth in all these areas, aligning the future success of the business school with the city’s prosperity.
Designed by London-based architects Stanton Williams, phase one of the Cambridge Judge expansion focuses on a new 4,790-square-metre building behind the Grade II listed Old Addenbrooke’s Hospital building that now houses much of the School. Work on phase one is scheduled for completion in July 2017.
The new four-storey building on Tennis Court Road will replace two hostels, and is designed to create a unified character by drawing on the brick piers and buttresses of the 19th century hospital building. The new building will contain two raked teaching spaces, seminar rooms, breakout space and offices, and a large dining hall that can be divided into two sizeable rooms for various functions.
Gavin Henderson, Director at Stanton Williams, said:
Cambridge Judge Business School is a unique and much-loved building characterised by successive transformations. Approval for the first phase of the School’s new expansion will not only safeguard its future as a pre-eminent business school, but also provide a unique opportunity to add another layer to the complex architectural evolution of the site.
Phase one of the expansion project has a current estimated cost of £32 million, plus an additional £2 million to fit the building out. The Monument Trust, established by the late Simon Sainsbury, has made an extremely generous gift to support the project, and the remainder of the cost will be met through a combination of a loan from the University and philanthropic support.
Cambridge Judge submitted the applications for phase one of the expansion last November, and has since consulted closely with city officials and other interested parties on details of the project.
A further proposed expansion phase, known as phase two, would include a new below-ground development in the forecourt of the old hospital building. This is part of the Master Plan for the Cambridge Judge expansion, with detailed discussions with the Council and key stakeholders to be progressed ahead of a submission for planning approval.
Cambridge Judge sits on a historic site opposite the world-renowned Fitzwilliam Museum in central Cambridge. A hospital was first built on the site in 1766, followed by expansions in 1824 and 1834 and a major reconstruction project in 1866. The building expanded several times until 1961, when the hospital began relocating to a new site in the southern part of Cambridge, and the last patients moved to the new hospital in 1986.