Cartwright
Pickard

Construction is underway on 473 new purpose-built student bedrooms in a prime location in Leeds City Centre. 

The new student accommodation will be in Leeds’ Civic Quarter within 5-10 minutes walk of The University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett and Leeds Teaching Hospital. It will provide a premium live-study lifestyle in an area of high demand from students. 

The scheme consists of two Grade II listed heritage buildings, which will be fully retained refurbished, and a modern office block, the concrete frame of which is being retained, as well as the construction of further new build accommodation on the site of the former car park. 

Re-purposing of the listed elements as well as re-use of the modern building structure substantially reduces the embodied carbon of the new development. Operational carbon emissions are minimised through connection to the city council’s low-carbon district heating system, as well as through a thermally efficient fabric and the use of rooftop photovoltaic panels.

The proposals reinstate the original scale and identity of the existing buildings in a manner that celebrates key communal areas, such as the main entrance to the corner of Great George Street and the internal courtyard. Rejuvenating the existing buildings in this manner provides a unique sense of place for the students in an important part of the city’s heritage.

The scheme celebrates the existing listed buildings with sympathetically designed new additions, and will breathe life back into a site which has been unoccupied since 2018.