We’re delighted to be working with Capital & Centric to build a new residential development in Sheffield. As part of the project, we’ve been instructed to refurbish the iconic Grade II listed buildings Eyewitness Works and Ceylon Works and build a new six-storey building on the site of the former Brunswick Hotel.
Capital & Centric have set out an ambitious vision for a new, bustling neighbourhood in Mesters’ Village in Sheffield’s Devonshire Quarter and Eyewitness Works will form a new community in the area when it opens in 2023. The scheme will be home to 97 loft apartments, duplexes and townhouses, alongside a café-bar, deli and four lush, green courtyards.
Building design
The existing Eyewitness Works building centres around three courtyards, which will provide hard and soft landscaped social spaces for the residents. Internally, the residential dwellings will have an industrial aesthetic with exposed brickwork and lofted ceilings. The existing Ceylon building sits adjacent to the new build Brunswick block, forming a fourth internal courtyard. Brunswick consists of a new six-storey concrete frame structure with brickwork façade and punch windows with feature projections.
Workmanship
Since becoming involved in the project, we’ve worked closely with all project stakeholders to develop a fully coordinated works programme that takes full cognisance of the design process.
So far, we’ve undertaken significant restoration work on both the Eyewitness and Ceylon buildings, including blast cleaning of the existing brickwork and structural repairs and upgrades. We’ve also completed the installation of new glazing with final finishes within each dwelling ongoing, including flooring, tiling and kitchen installations.
Project challenges
Eyewitness Works is a complex project, which has presented us with several challenges to date. These include an extremely tight site with limited access, as well as the difficulties of working on Grade II listed heritage buildings.
Our team is well equipped to deal with these challenges, having implemented a logistics management plan and daily coordination meetings with trade contractors and specialists to ensure smooth delivery of the works, keeping us on track for our first phased handover.
Nearing first phased handover
Our project team is working towards the first of the phased handovers in Q2 2023 with excellent progress being made on both the internal fit outs and external works. Most critical to this first handover is achieving ‘power on’ and works with Northern Power Grid are progressing well as we work towards this goal. Following the first phased handover in Q2, we will have further phased handovers in summer before a final completion in autumn 2023.
Building a strong relationship
The team is delivering high levels of due diligence and professionalism enabling us to continue to develop our relationship with Capital & Centric – we look forward to collaborating with them on projects in the future.