Warburg Renaissance project update: May 2023
Project Milestones
As of May 2023, we have passed some major milestones on the Warburg Renaissance journey. The end of Phase 1 saw the new 3rd and 4th floors ready for Institute use and the 2nd and 1st floors vacated ready for refurbishment in Phase 2.
The construction of the new courtyard structure is moving on rapidly. The installation of pilings in the courtyard to support the new extension is complete and the first columns have now appeared. The perfectly understandable concerns about noise and vibration levels during the piling work were thankfully not substantiated.
The new library spaces on the 3rd and 4th floors are now fully open together with additional stacks in the Basement. Certain elements of the refurbishment will not be finalised until Phase 3, for example, the air humidifying system in the library.
The white monoflex sheeting has been removed from the scaffolding, allowing a flood of sorely missed light into the building. As of 1 May, the majority of the scaffolding has been removed, with only the contractor access and materials hoist remaining on the Woburn Square building frontage.
Looking forward
The replacement external fire escape stairs in the courtyard are scheduled to be installed by the end of July 2023. The refurbishment of the 2nd and 1st floors in Phase 2 is scheduled for completion also in July 2023. Following a further decant process - expected to be from 20 July 2023 until the latter half of August 2023 - Phase 3 will commence. This is the refurbishment of the Ground and Lower Ground floors together with the completion of the new extension.
