A NORTH East business surveying consultancy has won the project management contract for the renovation of a facility for homeless young people
In January this year, The Tyneside Foyer in Newcastle was very badly damaged after a devastating fire swept through the building.
But now, Newcastle-based Harrow LLP is leading on the design and project management of the property reinstatement, which will see the new foyer being handed back to Home Group, which manages the service, in January next year. And Newcastle- based Camerons Builders is undertaking the construction work during the project.
The Foyer provides accommodation for up to 72 residents aged between 16 and 25, and Harrow has developed the project renovation with the help of the young people who will live there, to give them a degree of ownership of the scheme and to ensure that the interior design reflected their aspirations and what they wanted to see included.
After the fire, which destroyed more than 50% of the building’s interior, Home Group moved quickly to ensure all 48 young residents affected were safely and permanently re-housed across the city.
Les Woodward, Home Group’s area business manager, said: “Our Foyer service is about much more than housing ... we’re committed to changing the lives of young people in the North East for the better, and while we’re looking forward to getting back to our building, we’re immensely proud of keeping disruption to a minimum.
“The Harrow team has exceeded both staff and residents’ expectations with the quality and practicality of their design ideas, and have shown how, by taking an inclusive and flexible approach to our brief, just how impressive this sort of facility can be designed to be.”
Graeme Harker, partner at Harrow LLP, said: “This is a unique project and one that we believe will set the national design standard for the sector.
“The facilities we will be putting in place will be designed to have a positive, long-lasting impact on the lives of the foyer’s users and will very much reflect their own aspirations for where they’re living, while simultaneously providing Home Group with the best value-for-money design possible.
“Involving as many people as possible in shaping a scheme that they will be using can only be beneficial for all parties, and both staff and residents at the Tyneside Foyer have shown real enthusiasm for getting involved.”