News
Monday, 02 August 2010
Oxford City Council - The Old Fire Station Project Moves Ahead
Oxford City Council and Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, have been working together for some time now to plan the redevelopment and refurbishment of the Old Fire Station building in central Oxford.
By next summer 2011, a redeveloped Old Fire Station will be home to a new Crisis Skylight centre and a social enterprise, the Crisis Skylight café, which will be open to the public. It will also accommodate an independent arts company, offering flexible and inspirational spaces for artistic professional development and training, and for community groups to use to offer performance and visual arts events, regular classes and courses for the public.
Keeping you informed: Drop in information session
When: Thursday 5th August 2010, 10.30am - 3.00pm
Where: Old Fire Station Building, Gloucester Green, Oxford
On Thursday 5th August, a drop in information session will be held to give you the opportunity to find out more about the final plans for redevelopment and the schedule of works. At the session, you will be able to view the final designs for the redevelopment, as well as access parts of the building soon to be transformed. ROK will also be there to outline the programme and answer any questions you may have.
Project progress to date
Handover of the building
On 1 June 2010, the Ambassador Theatre Group vacated the Old Fire Station, removed all necessary equipment and handed the keys back to Oxford City Council. The keys will in turn be handed over to Crisis by May 2011 when they become the new leaseholder. Crisis and Oxford City Council are currently working closely to establish the lease conditions and appropriate management agreement.
Contractor appointment
The Old Fire Station design team is now at RIBA Stage J of the project which involves arranging the site hand over to the contractor. ROK has issued a contract price for the works and this has now been approved by the Project Board confirming that they are the preferred contractor for the build. Following the surrender of the lease by Ambassador Theatre Group, the site office has been set up in what was previously the OVADA Gallery.
Contractor contact details
ROK Contracts Manager:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
tel: 01189 323300; mob: 07809 452699
ROK Project Manager:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
tel 01189 323300; mob 07809 451339
Adrian or Dean are happy to be contacted about any queries relating to the works programme. The ROK office will be located in the existing OVADA offices on the first floor, accessed from Gloucester Green Coach Station.
Business planning and recruitment
Business planning for the new arts company and for the Crisis Skylight Centre and café is well underway. Crisis plans to recruit its Head of Skylight by Autumn 2011 and the arts company plans to recruit its Arts Development Manager around the same time. The rest of the staff teams for both operations will be recruited in the first half of 2011.
Call for artist
With the construction works due to commence towards the start of August, hoardings will appear on site very soon. The project team has commissioned an artist to work with small groups of local homeless people to create a vibrant, professional hoarding that clearly communicates the new vision for the new Old Fire Station. This work has involved a number of workshop sessions with homeless people to develop concepts and designs that offer the public and stakeholders a glimpse of what will be the new Old Fire Station in 2011.
For more information about the Old Fire Station Redevelopment, please visit either the Crisis website or the Oxford City Council website.
