Members in the Midlands recently gained an insight into the work being undertaken on the tallest new building to be added to Coventry’s skyline: a 23-storey student accommodation development on the corner of Fairfax Street and Cox Street.
Multi-disciplinary main contractor Winvic Construction is building the 1,192-bed scheme for luxury accommodation providers CODE.
During the visit members took a tour of the delivered phase of the project; 315 self-contained bedrooms, a gym, laundry and office facilities and those areas of the building which are still under construction – a further 877 beds, a gym, cinema, open-plan communal spaces, landscaped rooftop terrace and three ground floor retail units which will be handed over by August 2019, ready for a full house in the next academic year.
While enjoying panoramic views across the city, members quizzed Winvic’s project manager Martin Overfield and Laura Davison from the delivery architect rg+p, on everything from the design of the scheme to the challenges of working within a live operating environment.
Those who attended enjoyed the opportunity to see the scale of the project. Robert Villette, managing director of First Project Maintenance, said: “It was a privilege and exciting to be shown around Coventry’s tallest new building and to find out about the challenges encountered when delivering a residential scheme of this scale, on a city centre site with a tight footprint, whilst managing working within a live operating environment. Plus the views across the city were magnificent!”
