A group of University of Plymouth graduates has helped design a new business school with a 'mini Wall Street'. The £14.5m Fitzroy Building has office and teaching facilities, and houses the university's in-house entrepreneur support service The Cube.
With input from key stakeholders, improvements were largely facilitated by graduates from the very faculty that the building will now support – Arts, Humanities and Business.
Shelley Oliver, originally from Falmouth and currently living in Exeter, took the helm in the architectural design of the Fitzroy Building.
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The recently promoted Associate Architect said: "There were many hours of work creating technical drawings and fine tuning the design alongside the other key design team members, to make sure we had a building that adhered to the current regulations and could actually be constructed on site. There were a few setbacks with uncovering unforeseen elements during the demolition stage, least not the hidden air raid shelter right under where the extension was meant to go.
"I had an amazing experience studying at Plymouth on a highly-rated architecture course, and it was a real full circle moment to come back as a qualified architect and see everything again. I've been in touch with the course about sharing my experience with current students, and it's brilliant to pay it forward."
Pam Frost, the Capital Projects Manager from the University of Plymouth who led the project, was involved from the start.
"[I was involved] at the beginning, with the vacation of the old Fitzroy building – during which I managed the installation of the first in Nikon Microscope lab in Europe," she said. "I also had to consider the people and equipment expected to come over from Cookworthy, the previous home of the business school."
Rachel Goodsell, Head of Operations in the University's Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business, has worked with the school for around 15 years and is also a proud alumni who graduated with an MA in Personnel and Development. Her job was to make sure the new building met the needs of staff and students, and she said it was "fantastic" seeing the project come to life.
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"The highlight is when you have an amazing end product after being involved in the project for years and being able to show off what a great refurbished facility it is," she said.
Dr Ben Siu, Lecturer in Marketing and Associate Head of School for Marketing and Admissions, played a pivotal role in ensuring student feedback was integral to the building's design. After completing his undergraduate degree in Marketing at the same university, he pursued a master's degree and then a PhD.
Dr David Adkins, Associate Head of Postgraduate Programmes within the Business School, also contributed to the project's steering group and shared insights from his experiences. He completed his BSc (Hons) in Maritime Business and pursued a PhD before taking up a teaching role.
He added: "I remember studying and then teaching in the old Cookworthy and Fitzroy buildings, before being based at another remote campus near the Barbican. I've had so many more serendipitous meetings now that we're based in the heart of the campus and the building has such a positive feel to it.
"Business feeds into every other discipline in life, so it'll be great to meet even more staff and students across the campus and have some great collaborations take place."
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