Former architecture school was originally a textiles factory
Bam has pipped rivals McLaren and Wates to be named preferred bidder for a 拢65m contract to redevelop the former East End home of an art, architecture and design school known as the Cass.
London Metropolitan University (LMU) sold the 1960s former textiles factory, which was known affectionately as the 鈥楢ldgate Bauhaus鈥�, to Fraser Property for 拢50m in 2016.
A year later, after the Cass had left the building and moved to LMU鈥檚 campus on nearby Goulston Street, AHMM was appointed to draw up plans for a commercial development of the site.
Work will involve doubling the height of the six-storey building, called Central House, after earlier plans to knock it down and replace it with a 20-storey tower were abandoned. The new scheme will involve offices and retail.
Bam will be joined on the job by structural engineer Robert Bird Group, services engineer Hoare Lea and cost consultant Burnley Wilson Fish.
A high-profile campaign to keep the building as an architecture school was backed by architects Richard Rogers and David Chipperfield while the Cass鈥檚 dean, Robert Mull, later resigned in protest at the school鈥檚 move from the site.
Work is expected to begin later this year and last around 12 months.
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