State of the art accommodation will open to students in 2007 - <em>News </em>
By Naomi Weston
Friday 6 October 2006
Imperial's new Southside halls of residence in Prince's Gardens took a further step to completion with the 'topping out' ceremony which took place yesterday.
Rector of the College, Sir Richard Sykes , laid the final piece of concrete and planted a spring of yew to bring good fortune to those who use the building. Explaining that this event celebrates a milestone in the development of these new state of the art halls he explained:
"These new halls of residence will reinforce Imperial's position as a leading residential university attracting high quality students and staff to whom access to good quality affordable accommodation is key, especially in central London. This project is the largest ever taken on by Imperial with College funds, and our project time scale is tight – we want students commencing their studies in the autumn of 2007, the College's Centenary year, to enjoy the benefits of this new accommodation."
The project forms part of a scheme to enhance the environment of Prince's Gardens, with the outdated accommodation replaced with two new buildings that are in keeping with the original sense of the area. The new halls will have an increased number of bed spaces and each study-bedroom will have en-suite facilities.
Several areas of the College campus are under construction and the new halls are part of a £350 million investment programme focusing on major schemes over a 3 to 5 year period to improve research and teaching facilities.
The opening of the new halls will coincide with Imperial's Centenary, commemorating 100 years since the drawing together of three nineteenth century constituent colleges - the Royal School of Mines, the Royal College of Science and the City and Guilds College - to form Imperial College.
For further information on events to celebrate Imperial's centenary please look online at www.imperial.ac.uk/centenary .
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