Design work has started on a new £35m Arts and Innovation Centre that is set to become a beacon for North Wales and beyond.

Bangor University has embarked on an exciting initiative to establish a world-class centre for innovation in science, technology and the creative industries. The University is designing an iconic new building to bring together arts and sciences and forge closer links with the Bangor community.

The Pontio Project will include a dynamic Innovation Hub, cutting-edge teaching and learning facilities and a range of indoor and outdoor performance spaces, including a theatre, as well as a new home for the University's Students' Union. This will be an extremely family friendly building.

Backed by £15m of Welsh Assembly Government funding, the project is expected to have a positive impact on around 900 jobs: 450 jobs will be created or safeguarded during the construction phase, an additional 100 jobs are expected to be created during the operational stage, and a further 330 jobs sustained through the activities of the Innovation Hub and other Centre activities.

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The building will physically bridge the University's upper campus with the science site that runs along Deiniol Road, and will incorporate a re-development of the existing College Park. Aptly named Pontio, Welsh for "to bridge", the project will also bridge the University with the Bangor community.

A partnership of award-winning companies have been appointed to design the building, including architects Grimshaw, who designed Cornwall's Eden Project, one of the world's leading engineering and design consultancies Atkins, and Arup, an international expert on theatre design and acoustic performance. The architect's initial designs will be announced in April and exhibited publically by the University to give people an opportunity to share their views.

University Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Fergus Lowe is leading the project.

"We are seeking to build bridges -- to bring together the University with the wider community, using arts, sciences and exciting new combinations of them both. The project is ambitious and iconic, and we believe it will have a transformative effect on all the people it touches.

"This is the project that will put Bangor on the map and will help to regenerate the city's urban heart. It will provide a Centre of such remarkable innovation and artistic excellence that it is sure to draw the attention of people from near and far, as well as providing new impetus to the growth of the North Wales economy," he said.

The Centre's public performance spaces will become a major focus for Welsh culture, and will be designed to provide innovative and inspirational platforms for engaging new talent. Present plans are for a 450-seat theatre, cinema space, rehearsal studio, and an outdoor amphitheatre, all accompanied by exciting new social facilities including bars, dining and park areas.

(GK/CD)