The University of Leicester’s new Teaching and Learning Centre, the Sir Bob Burgess Building, was named the winner of the Large Non-Residential Scheme at the 2023 Leicestershire ProCon Awards. The masterplan was also runner up in the Regeneration Project of the Year category, while the University won for the new student accommodation created as part of the masterplan in the Large Residential category.
Kirsty Woodward, Director of Estates and Campus Services at the University of Leicester, said:
“We are delighted our Sir Bob Burgess building has won the Large Non-Residential award. Named after the University’s former late Vice-Chancellor, the building is a fitting tribute to Sir Bob, who presided over one of the University’s most successful periods between 1999 and 2014. The building comprises two large lecture theatres, flexible teaching spaces and a state-of-the-art space for staff to work, meet and relax. It also enjoys far-reaching views across the city of Leicester. With space for exhibitions and events, the building has been designed to include adaptable spaces, to meet the needs of our students and staff, both today and in the future.”
Director Warren Jukes added:
“We are honoured to receive this award for the Sir Bob Burgess building. This flagship project signalled the university’s ambition to giving students the best facilities and the best possible experience and we’re thrilled that this is being recognised by not just those using the building, but bodies like ProCon. As masterplanners of the Freemen’s Common Student Village and architects of the Sir Bob Burgess Teaching and Learning Building we were delighted to have had the opportunity to create a new place in the city with a distinctive character that would not only benefit the University community, but also the wider local community. Now that the masterplan has been realised, walking through the new Freemen’s Common Student Village site today bears little resemblance to what once stood here. We are proud to have been involved in its transformation and regeneration.”
The Sir Bob Burgess Building project provides the academic focus for the £150m mixed use redevelopment of Freemen’s Common. The prominent site, fronting onto Welford Road and adjacent to the Grade II listed Freemen’s Cottages, sits less than 5 mins walk from the University’s extensive leafy campus a mile south of the city centre.
The 8,000sq.m building houses a 600-seat lecture theatre, the largest in the University’s portfolio, that is able to accommodate the entire cohort for even the largest degree courses. Other facilities include a more compact 250-seat lecture theatre and flat-floor teaching spaces for group sizes ranging between 30 and 120 students. The teaching spaces, which are available for student use outside of lecture times, are supported by spaces for social learning and exhibitions of student work.
