On the 9th October 2018 Winvic invited members of the Charted Institute of Building (CIOB) to take a tour of the tallest new building to be added to Coventry’s skyline, a 1,192 bed student accommodation development on the corner of Fairfax Street and Cox Street.
CIOB Members in the Midlands jumped at the opportunity to gain an insight into the work being undertaken on the 23 storey building currently under construction for student accommodation providers CODE.
CODE Student Accommodation awarded Winvic the contract to build the scheme in October last year and recently celebrated the handover of the first 315 bedrooms, gym, laundry and office facilities which are already occupied by students. This delivered phase of the project comprises one 14 storey block and, when completed, there will be four interlocked blocks, of 17, 20 and 23 storeys, making it Coventry’s tallest building. To achieve the build, two tower cranes were brought in to complete the job, measuring 85-metres-tall and 75-metres-tall, the largest tower cranes ever managed by Winvic.
A further 877 beds, a gym, cinema, open plan communal spaces, landscaped rooftop terrace and three ground floor retail units will be handed over by August 2019, ready for a full house in the next academic year.
During the visit, CIOB members took a tour of the delivered phase of the project and those areas of the building which are still under construction. Whilst enjoying panoramic views across the City, CIOB Members quizzed Winvic’s Project Manager Martin Overfield and Laura Davison from the delivery architects RPS, on everything from the design of the scheme to the challenges of working within a live operating environment.
Martin Overfield commented: “It was great to open up the project and showcase what Winvic are all about to the CIOB members, the feedback was very positive during the Q&A and walk round and we enjoyed the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience delivering a student residential scheme of this scale”
Those who attended enjoyed the opportunity to see the scale of the project, Robert Villette, Managing Director of First Project Maintenance said “It was a privilege and exciting to be shown around Coventry’s tallest new building and to find out about the challenges encountered when delivering a residential scheme of this scale, on a city-centre site with a tight footprint, whilst managing working within a live operating environment, and the views across the city were magnificent!”
