RG handover Unite Students Trenchard Street.

The £20m development comprises the construction of a residential building for The UNITE Group plc to provide student accommodation in the form of 484 self-contained bedrooms in cluster flats and studio apartments over 8 storeys. Additionally there is a space known as the D2 space and The Canyon Space, a public thoroughfare which is to be refurnished as part of the public art contribution for Bristol City Council.

The site was the Former ‘Bristol Entertainment Centre’, a multi-use complex built in the mid 1960’s with the former ice rink sited over the O2 Academy Club. The ice rink has been demolished as part of the works, with the O2 Academy remaining. The O2 Academy has continued to operate throughout all phases of the construction work.

The project was not without its challenges including:

• Construction of an insitu concrete frame; 12 floors in total and forming 75% of the building.
• Vierendell insitu concrete truss 63m long and 5.5m high suspend on four bridge bearers which were placed on four 12m high 1.6m diameter columns. The truss was then connected to the concrete frame with the use of rocker slabs to take into account any settlement and deflection within the two elements,
• A kingframe cold roll steel structure was built on top of the truss, six stories high and also connected to the insitu concrete frame with  rocker slabs.
• The site being land-locked, there was only room for one tower crane on site, the management and co-ordination of which was critical to the construction process.

RG would like to thank everyone involved in the project including HCD (Architects), Meinhardts (Structural Engineers), Brentwoods (Mechanical and Electrical), RBA (Acoustic Engineers), Synergy (Breeam Consultant).