Gateley Vinden has completed a £1 million rebuild project for Chetham's School of Music after a fire caused substantial damage to the Whiteley Hall building at its Long Millgate campus in Manchester.

An electrical fault initiated a fire in the early hours of the morning which saw all boarding school students safely evacuated from the accommodation above Whiteley Hall. However, as the sun rose, it revealed the extent of the substantial damage to the Grade II listed building which rendered it unusable. The school gym also suffered water damage as a result of extinguishing the flames.

Gateley Vinden was appointed as the lead consultant to provide insurance claims, building surveying and project management services for the rebuild project.

This saw the team handle the pre-contract works including testing of mechanical and electrical services, opening up works to assess the structure utilising the services of a structural engineer, an asbestos refurbishment and demolition survey, liaison with an expert heritage architect to obtain listed building consent, preparation of a detailed schedule of works and specification, as well as a full tender package and process for the rebuild works and preparation of contract documents.

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The team also managed the contract stage elements including contract administration duties and principal designer duties under The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

The first step for the team was to instruct and oversee a safe full strip out of the building to assess the damage and prepare for works. Once completed, they had to overcome and plan for complexities around the heritage requirements set out by the conservation officer. For example, the team had to repair and reinstate the lath and plaster ceiling with materials needing to be sourced from abroad. Made of cedar wood, the laths had a complex installation method which included being soaked in a vat of water for two weeks. Additionally, the installation had to use Mineral Insulated Copper Clad Cable (MICC) to satisfy statutory heritage conservation requirements which needed to be installed by specialists. As a result, the team had to factor in extra time and costs to the schedule of works and programme to accommodate such required elements during the rebuild works.

Additionally, the team managed complications including the safe removal of asbestos from under the organ, as well as managing a live city centre construction site with restricted access as part of a busy pedestrian zone.

The team also coordinated the requirements of all key parties involved including the appointed contractors and consultancies, as well as the expectations of the insurers and client, while keeping the works on schedule.

The finished result has seen Gateley Vinden deliver a like-for-like reinstatement project for the Grade II listed building. This included liaising with the conservation officer who took samples of the ceiling for lab testing to ensure a 100 per cent colour match of the original paintwork.