Roland Levinsky Building
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On the most prominent point of the site is the formally expressing arts faculty, rising to a tower of nine storeys on the corner of Drake street
David Barbour (website) Download Original
Nine-storey, copper-clad arts education facility for Plymouth University
Inside, the building is arranged around a four-storey atrium, whilst the spaces in the tower were all conceived as open-plan studio or office spaces.
The building contains an array of arts activities, from a cinema, a theatre and two dance studios, to glass-walled fine arts and digital studios. The tower houses the architecture school, whilst space was set aside in the building for a public art gallery.
Danish architect Henning Larsens Tegnestue won the competition to design the arts faculty in 2004 from a strong UK shortlist which included Bennetts Associates, Foster + Partners and Ushida Findlay.
BDP took the project on from Stage D to completion, and while the building retains the form, materials and basic internal arrangement of HLT’s scheme, some changes were introduced to bring it within budget.
Data
- Begun: Mar 2005
- Completed: 2007
- Floor area: 12,896m2
- Sectors: Education, Arts and culture
- Total cost: £24.7M
- Tender date: Jun 2004
- Address: Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth, City Campus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
Professional Team 
- Architect: BDP
- Project architect: Henning Larsens Tegnestue
- Client: University of Plymouth
- Concept architect: Henning Larsens Tegnestue
- Structural engineer: Scott Wilson
- Project manager: Turner and Townsend
- Quantity surveyor: Gardiner and Theobald
- Planning supervisor: Stride Treglown
- Design and build contractor: HBG Construction
- Artist: William Pye
- Acoustic engineer: Hoare Lea
- Services engineer: Hoare Lea
Suppliers
- Copper roofing and walling: Varla
- Concrete frame: Thames Formwork
- M&E consultant: MITIE
- Roof steelwork: Rowecord
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