Major Capital Development Programme
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Queen's vibrant campus continues to be enhanced through a multi-million pound capital development programme. Flagship projects include the McClay Library, the Centre for Experimental Medicine, the Executive Education Centre at Riddel Hall, the Northern Ireland Centre for Advanced Composites Research, Willow Walk at the Elms Student Village, Upper Malone outdoor sports facilities, and Windsor Park staff residential.
Work on the Health Sciences campus is continuing and, as well as the Centre for Experimental Medicine, a new Health Sciences building and a 6-storey extension to the Medical Biology Centre (MBC) have been built. The MBC and Whitla Medical buildings, as well as buildings at the Royal Victoria Hospital site, have undergone major refurbishment.
On the David Keir/Ashby site (the main centre for Engineering and Physical Sciences), the rolling refurbishment programme includes an extensive upgrade of research and teaching accommodation and there are plans for a ‘collaborative lecture theatre’ in the Keir building, where students can be taught both didactically and through group work. Engineering research has been supported by the creation, in partnership with the University of Ulster and local industry partners, of a new purpose-built Northern Ireland Centre for Advanced Composites Research located at Airport Road, Belfast.
University Square - the Humanities hub - is being reconfigured to consolidate accommodation for the new School of Creative Arts, including the construction of a 'Black Box' for Film Studies.
To support the student experience, a programme of creating ‘transition zones’ and social spaces within foyer areas and close to catering provision, has been implemented. A major new facility – the MBC café - was completed in 2010. Other facilities have been created in the Peter Froggatt Centre, the Elmwood Learning and Teaching Centre, the David Keir and Ashby buildings, and University Square.
To meet the particular needs of postgraduate students, a new Executive Education Centre has been opened at Riddel Hall - creating a landmark building for the delivery of postgraduate and executive education across all subject areas. It is also the location for the Queen’s University Management School.
A new International and Postgraduate Centre, offering dedicated high quality study, social and support space, opened in summer 2010; and, in further recognition of the different expectations of international and postgraduate students, a discrete courtyard residential development providing apartment accommodation - Willow Walk at the Elms Student Village - was completed in 2012. Further proposals are being developed for additional student residential accommodation at sites in Sans Souci Park, Lennoxvale, and Botanic, while construction of staff apartments at Windsor Park is underway.
A multi-million pound investment in the University’s outdoor sports facilities at Dub Lane, located two miles from the Main site, has also been undertken.
