- Client: North Lanarkshire Council (Participant) Hub South West (Territory)
- Role: Project Manager and Cost Advisor Service
- Value: £52m
- Programme: Intelligent Brief Development – August 2022
- Procurement: Hub DBDA/DBSC
- Location: North Lanarkshire
Project Description
North Lanarkshire Council has a vision to develop a new Community Hub on the site of the existing Abronhill High School that will bring together Abronhill Primary School, St Lucy’s Primary School and St Lucy’s Learning Support Centre, a Family Learning Centre, Library, Café, Community and Partnership Zones within a vibrant, welcoming, and efficient building.
The Abronhill Community Campus project forms part of the North Lanarkshire Council’s Town and Community Hub programme and is the new build construction bringing together each of the individual requirements of North Lanarkshire Council.
The six guiding principles of the North Lanarkshire Town and Community Hub programme set the foundation for the project. The guiding principles determine that this community hub must:
- serve the whole community and offer universal
- provision of services
- be a community asset which serves the local
- community of that area
- maximise availability and usage
- be designed with rather than for the community
- be unique to ensure it meets the specific
- requirements of the community which it will serve
- maximise the services on offer
The Intelligent Brief Stage of the project develops and establishes the project brief together with an accompanying cost and programme which can then be used as the benchmark and baseline for the subsequent project development stages.
Working collaboratively with North Lanarkshire Council, each of their Stakeholders and the project design team each of the Stakeholder’s requirements was identified, agreed and incorporated within the developing design and cost. A number of options were developed to address and test these requirements and a preferred option selected for further and more detailed development.
Challenges
The key challenges on the project were:
- Agreeing Stakeholder requirements and incorporating these within the developing design proposals
- Arranging and managing progressive Stakeholder workshops
- Managing Stakeholder engagement
- Maintaining project timeline
- Developing a solution which addresses all the adjacencies, requirements and constraints within a holistic design
- Working within the GIFA budgets established for each individual end user
Successes
The key successes on the project were:
- A robust and deliverable Intelligent Brief to inform subsequent project stages
- Early Site Investigations to inform the design and flag any potential issues
- Soft market testing to understand any cost/buildability issues at an early stage to allow these to be designed out where possible
- Clear and effective communication maintained throughout the process to maintain project progress
- Online consultation with staff, parents and pupils was a resounding success with all fully engaged throughout the design process
Lessons Learnt
The principal lesson learnt was the importance of progressive and proactive Client and Stakeholder management and coordination from the outset of the Intelligent Briefing process and ensuring that all requirements remained within scope and were effectively and efficiently incorporated within the developing and coordinated design.
This early process allowed the design team to understand the requirements and provide solutions from the outset. For example; direction(s) of pupil travel, vehicular access point(s), methods of travel, and the overall pupil flow through the site and building.
Benefits to Client
- Extensive Schools experience
- Successful Stakeholder Management
- Live primary cost data for benchmarking
- Strong relationships with the Design Team
craig hepplewhite|education|fraser-mcquarrie