Leeds Beckett’s new Creative Arts Building gets topped-out

Leeds Beckett University and the Downing Group Ltd celebrated the topping out of a new Creative Arts Building, which will be the new home of the Leeds School of Arts, with a ceremony that included a guitar performance on the building’s eight storey.

The contract to construct the new creative arts building was appointed to the Downing Group by Leeds Beckett University at a cost of £85M, with the new building featuring facilities such as: studios for fashion, music and performing arts studios, a 184-seat performance theatre, and a 220-seat Dolby Atmos movie cinema.

Construction began on the new development back in the January of 2018, with completion not scheduled until the September of 2020, in time for the 2020/21 academic year.

The 165,000sq m building has nine storeys and will be designed to blend in with the surrounding buildings such as the Leeds City Hall and Portland Way, offering open-plan learning spaces and a modern roof terrace which will be able to accommodate departmental performances.

The design process was carried out by Hawkins\Brown architects while some additional features of the building will include state-of-the-art TV and film studios, a black box studio, a green screen studio, a stop motion studio, Foley studios, dubbing and music recording studios, acoustic labs, and a host of post-production suites.

The topping-out ceremony was attended by Dr Lisa Stansbie, the Dean of Leeds School of Arts, Dr Oliver Bray, the Head of Subject for Performing Arts, Charlie Hind, the LBSU Union Affairs Officer, and Daryl Jackson, Site Manager at Downing Group Ltd, as well as guitar-playing student Jacob Hughes.

The ceremony featured entertainment, consisting of the music played by Mr Hughes, in addition to the taking of a group photograph at the highest point of the still-underway building, complete with a back-drop of the Leeds city skyline.

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