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Allies and Morrison’s £300m AI building for Imperial College London in White City
Multiplex has beaten three others to land a prized £300m scheme to build a new academic building in west London specialising in Artificial Intelligence for Imperial College, Building can reveal.
Contractors were told yesterday afternoon who had won the job with Multiplex besting Bovis, Sir Robert McAlpine and Mace to the project which has been designed by Allies and Morrison.
The new building will include a range of research and laboratory spaces plus public amenities such as cafés and exhibition areas.
Imperial has said the 12-storey building would “create a powerful engine for data science, AI and machine learning by bringing together computer scientists, mathematicians and business experts”.
Careys has been on site carrying out enabling works for the work which will be built on a plot near the A40 flyover, better known as the Westway.
Under Imperial’s timetable main construction work will start later this year with completion slated for the end of 2029.
Other firms working on the deal include project manager M3 Consulting, structural engineer AKT II and cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald.
Buro Happold is also working on MEP alongside DP9 on planning, Eckersley O’Callaghan on facade maintenance, OFR on fire, Sweco on building control, WSP on air quality and Robert Bird on programme.
Others on the team include landscape architect Bradley Hole Schoenaich Landscape, auditoria consultant Charcoal Blue, townscape consultant The Townscape Consultancy, environmental consultant Trium and accessibility consultant David Bonnett.
The scheme is one of seven development plots on ICL’s White City Campus South masterplan for the former Dairy Crest factory site, which was submitted for planning in 2018 and granted outline approval in 2021.
The university is also planning to build a commercial scheme next door to the planned new building which be developed in a joint venture with Bruntwood, making it the Manchester developer’s first foray into the London market.
Designed by KPF, the scheme was initially planned to be aimed at the life sciences sector but this has been switched to financial tech amid fears the life sciences market has reached saturation point.
Building understands the value of the work will be at least £100m but the timetable for the job is still being worked out.
Expected to take up to two decades to complete, the 5.7ha new campus constitutes a huge expansion of the university alongside its neighbouring 3.1ha White City Campus North, which started construction in 2012 and has now been built out. Both campuses have been masterplanned by Allies and Morrison.