UK architectural practice Pick Everard has announced it has been appointed for the £35 million redevelopment of Franklin College, in Grimsby, due for completion in 2011.

A multi-disciplinary Pick Everard team has been commissioned under the Learning Skills Council (LSC) framework agreement following achievement of Approval in Principle (AiP).

The contemporary campus design will set new 21st century standards for curriculum delivery and improve possibilities for education in the local area.

The new £1 million Fine Art and Photography building will remain but all the inefficient 1950s buildings - adapted from Chelmsford School when the college opened in 1990 - will be pulled down and turned into landscaped green space. A multi-award-winning design practice with a leading reputation in the UK education sector, Pick Everard has risen to the challenge, to create spaces that are socially inviting as well as educational, and buildings that express the college's aims and aspirations for a sustainable future.


Reception areas will be open and accessible in scope and ambience, creating an unmistakable sense of arrival for both visitors and students. At the centre, around an impressive and spacious hub, will be different learning zones, a learning resource centre, welfare and finance offices and eating areas.

Pick Everard architect Jerry Tseng said: "When we're working as a team with the college, there's always a great atmosphere, really positive and open-minded. There's been a strong emphasis on fully integrating architectural, structural services and environmental design which will significantly advance the original design concept - a relatively simple internal 'street', surrounded by two and three storey buildings and a radial timber frame that features within the frontage."

(CD/JM)