St Stephen's RC Primary School, Welling
Under appointment from the Archdiocese of Southwark, Faithorn Farrell Timms was commissioned as Contract Administrator and CDM Co-ordinator for the construction of a new multi-purpose music and art annexe block.
As often with school projects, the size and nature of the proposals were dictated by budgetary constraints, and the school provided additional funding. Our initial feasibility studies identified that, whilst an extension to the existing school would provide larger accommodation, it was more cost effective to separate the building and treat this as a new build project, so that the construction works would not attract VAT. This provided our client with substantial savings.
The project comprised approximately 150m2 of new accommodation at a contract value of £230,000. The fitting-out included a kitchen area, hardwood worktop to the art room, provision of white boards, wheelchair accessible WC facilities and a large acoustic volume partition system. The existing topography of the site necessitated extensive ground and landscaping works.
The proximity of the existing school building and playground required safely separating the construction work from the existing school building during term times. This was to allow for both safe access of materials and plant, to and from the construction site. Full and unobstructed use of the playground for the school was overcome by sympathetic programming of the works.
The project was completed in February 2007 during the half-term break, which allowed the school to install their own equipment, furniture, etc.
Additional work at the school has included the refurbishment of all WC facilities, the construction of a welcome area and a new main entrance.