New Arts Centre – Outwood Grange Academy – Wakefield
Outwood Grange Academy
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Bowman Riley designed the new £6.5 million Sir Michael Wilkins Arts Centre at Outwood Grange Academy to house the departments of drama, dance, music and art.
The new centre features a multi-purpose flexible performance space, galleries and state-of-the-art music recording studios, which used not only for teaching and performing spaces but also allow collaborative working with visiting arts practitioners and community use.
A significant challenge was to design the new building on a well-developed site. We carefully considered the masterplanning of the site and enabling projects to ensure that the new arts centre will not stymie future developments at the school site.
The project had a limited budget, so it was important that we maximised all available space to ensure the best value from the school’s investment.
Outwood Grange Academy is one of the largest secondary schools and sixth forms in England. In recent years, the Academy has seen major redevelopment work improving the grounds, buildings and facilities to accommodate its burgeoning pupil population and update the ageing estate.
Bowman Riley worked with Outwood Grange for over five years providing consultancy services to survey the school estate, undertake access audits and upgrade existing facilities. In 2011, we designed the 2000m² sports hall, gymnasium and fitness suite.