Specification Today
June 2018
Niall McLaughlin Architects won the competition for the development of Jesus College Cambridge’s West Court in 2014. The site had been recently bought back by the college, and consisted of land it had sold in 1922 and buildings that post-date the sale. The masterplan constituted three phases, of which phase one, completed in April 2017, sought to create a new heart for the college within its historic footprint.
Phase two will provide a purpose-built 300 seat auditorium and phase three will have archive and gallery space, student accommodation and sports facilities.
The first phase was delivered in sequential parts over eighteen months. It involved the refurbishment and extension of the grade two-listed Webb Building, built in the 1920s as a training college for Methodist ministers. The building is set around a courtyard and provides offices, social spaces and student accommodation. A new café pavilion nad basement bar extends the building’s north elevation and provides a prominent link to the rest of the college.
On it’s south side and addressing the city, the 1970s Rank Building completes the courtyard at West Court and has been refaced, refurbished and converted to provide a 160-seat lecture theatre with research facilities, teaching spaces and two floors of visitor accommodation. It houses the Intellectual Forum research centre.