Crookfur Primary School and Nursery
The project involved a major refurbishment of the existing 1970’s school building along with the construction of a single storey extension to house a new nursery and pupil support areas and an external all-weather 5-a-side pitch.
Client: East Renfrewshire Council
Cost: £8m
Completion: 2017
The £8m project is part of the Scottish Government’s Schools for the Future investment programme and has increased the school’s capacity to 420 pupil places and 90 nursery places.
The existing 1970’s school building underwent major refurbishment works in the live and fully occupied site to bring the school up to current DDA compliance, providing a new state of the art facility extending the lifespan of the school.
The new works comprised the construction of a new single storey nursery school extension, designed with exposed structure requiring careful co-ordination and detailing with the architect.
Externally, an all-weather 5 aside pitch was provided along with an external play area for the nursery building and an enhanced internal courtyard designed to function as both a play space and outdoor theatre.
Key challenges
Whilst the building is single storey, it has been constructed over 4 different levels, due to the sloping nature of the site, and internal alterations including the installation of ramps and lifts involving extensive excavations, underpinning and temporary works were required to provide unrestricted DDA compliant access.
The existing structure was a combination of in-situ concrete with precast concrete external loadbearing wall panels. Due to the age of the building and the known risks of concrete frames built around this time Blyth & Blyth undertook detailed visual and intrusive investigations to assess the condition and lifespan of the building. These assessments allowed us to provide the council with the reassurance that the proposals to extend the life of the building would be cost effective.
Results
East Renfrewshire Council had highlighted Crookfur as the school building that was most in need of investment. This project has successfully delivered a building and facilities for pupils, staff and the wider community to rival any new build school at a fraction of the cost.