New WBS building planned

Warwick Business School (WBS) plans to build a brand new five-storey extension building which is hoped to be completed by 2015.

The planned extension will be located at the back of the Warwick Business School building at Scarman road out on to Radcliffe car park.

It will include an undergraduate collaborative working area, lecture theatres, a cafeteria, a post graduate space, seminar rooms and office space.

The scheme is still in the design process with final plans to be submitted soon. The University is already approaching builders for its construction. The construction of the building is anticipated to start by the summer of 2013 and finish by late 2014 to spring 2015.

The scheme will be funded by the University and it is estimated that it will cost approximately £25 million in total.

WBS Dean, Mark Taylor, commented on the extension plans: “We want to have the top facilities to help turn our students into the entrepreneurs and business leaders of the future. This extension emphasises our commitment to the very best in teaching and research, research that will not only benefit students but the business world as well.”

Undergraduate International Management student, Kristofer Dowling, shares the excitement towards the plans: “The extension plan sounds and looks good. It is a good location too since it is close to the other business school building so it keeps everything centralized.”

However, Jackie Lockinger, undergraduate student for English and German, complained: “I don’t understand why they need another building when they already have two buildings on campus. Other departments need their own lecture theatres. Why do business students get another building?”

WBS also boasted of how “the environmental performance of the building is anticipated to be of the highest quality”, as WBS officer, Ashley Potter, puts it. The building is hoped to be installed with energy-efficient features such as mixed mode ventilation, enhanced natural daylight, energy efficient lighting and controls as well as heightened insulation from envelope enhancements to U-values, air tightness and solar protection.

Isabelle Ng, Accounting and Finance student, said: “I think it is impressive that the WBS is so concerned about the environment. It definitely sets a good example for students to ethical and moral in their actions. But I don’t think a new building is necessary.”