Extensive mixed-use development providing a new hotel, apartments, commercial offices, gym, restaurant and conference spaces

Project Medius

Delivered to support the wider regeneration of Leicester city centre, this £55m mixed-use development includes a 12-storey block of 100 serviced apartment units as part of a wider complex providing a 150-room hotel and commercial office space, along with a gym, restaurant and conference space. Public realm works provided landscaped areas, ramps and improved connectivity between the site and Leicester city centre.

This ambitious scheme has helped to transform a long-neglected part of Leicester and, by incorporating major highway and public realm improvements, has created an attractive new gateway between the city centre and the Waterside regeneration area.

Sir Peter Soulsby

Leicester’s City Mayor

We were appointed by the client to deliver structural and mechanical and electrical engineering services to deliver this extensive mixed-use development. Involved in the project from the start, we focused on maximising efficiency within the concrete frame solution, allowing the client to reduce capital cost requirements but without focusing on the quality and comfort of accommodation on offer.

Consideration had to be given to the location of plant rooms and service voids in order to achieve the efficient distribution of services throughout the building, taking into consideration the associated acoustic issues and the requirement to provide appropriate access for ongoing operation and maintenance of equipment.

We reduced concrete frame costs by slimming floors down to save 600m3 of concrete. To deliver required standards of comfort, we delivered acoustic attenuation within the structure by specifying requisite thickness of walls and ceilings, using baffles for insulation.

The building services strategy was conceived with energy efficiency and adaptability at the forefront, in line with the approach to first reduce demand and then reduce consumption of energy. The hotel building makes use of renewable heat, initially through the use of a combined heat and power (CHP) unit but with space reserved to accommodate the equipment required for future connection to a district heating scheme should the Leicester heat network be extended to this part of the city.