January 19, 2011 3.24 pm This story is over 158 months old

University ready to unveil new building

Sneak peek: The University of Lincoln opens its new fully converted Business and Law building next week.

The University of Lincoln will welcome its Business and Law students with a new fully converted building dedicated to the faculty next week.

After a £6million revamp of a Brayford Wharf East building that housed The Lincolnshire Echo, the facility will be called the David Chiddick Building.

The building is named after Professor David Chiddick, who was behind the expansion of the university’s Brayford campus before he retired as Vice-Chancellor in 2009.

The renovation was designed by Lincoln-based Stem Architects, also behind the university’s Great Central Warehouse Library and the Engine Shed centre.

The new Business and Law building has a 250-seat lecture theatre, a mock courtroom, language and  IT labs and ‘learning lounges’.

The Lincolnite had a sneak peek at some of the finished interiors in the revamped building, with pictures available in the gallery below (click to enlarge).

The David Chiddick Building will be officially opened on January 24, at a plaque unveiling ceremony with Chiddick himself.

He said: “I simply cannot express adequately the enormous privilege and honour it is to have the latest building of the University of Lincoln named after me.

“As a retired Vice Chancellor, who is still passionate about the University, it is enormously satisfying to see it in good hands and continuing to make tremendous progress on so many fronts under the leadership of Professor Mary Stuart.”

Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, Professor David Head, said a few characteristics of the former newspaper building were preserved:

“A few reminders of the building’s previous identity have been deliberately retained as a tribute to its origins, and the cavernous press hall has been the inspiration for an atrium designed to flood the building with natural light.”

The University of Lincoln is also on track to open a £37million School of Engineering with Siemens on its Brayford campus in September.