Ambitious plans for TUS Athlone would increase footprint by 40%

There are plans for major expansions at the TUS Midlands Campus, in Athlone, with proposed new buildings and extensions set to increase the area of its buildings by just over 40%, the Westmeath Independent can reveal.

The 53-acre campus currently boasts 71,000 square metres of building stock, but this is set to be extended by 29,000 square metres, if planned developments in the TUS Campus Masterplan – due to be published before the end of this year – come to fruition.

If the planned expansions go ahead, it will provide a new streetscape for the Dublin Road entrance to the Athlone campus with two of the buildings proposed for the front.

TUS is currently in the process of tendering for professionals with a wide variety of skills to form part of a framework team to work on future developments across all its campuses in the midlands and mid-west.

The expansion plans for Athlone include a €30m 4,000sq m extension to the nursing building; a 5,000sq m Midlands Campus University Commons Building; a 4,000sq m Library & Learning Centre; a 2,500sq m extension to the International Arena; a Midlands Technology Campus measuring 8,000sq m; a 2,000sq m Trades Building extension; and second floor extensions to the main building, measuring 3,000sq m.

Also included in the plan are a refurbishment of the 3,000sq m John Count McCormack Centre and a retrofit of the main building second floor, which measures 1,200sq m.

The plans are outlined in tender documents relating to the extension of the nursing building in Athlone, which is described as the initial project. The tenders also seek to put in place framework agreements across nine professional disciplines to support the delivery of the TUS capital work programmes across all its campuses over the next four years.

The tender documents state that the TUS Campus Masterplan, which is due to be published this quarter, “sets out the developments across all the campuses that TUS seeks to deliver to meet the academic, research and other activity needs of the organisation.”

It then summarises a selection of identified strategic priority developments which may be delivered, commenced or appraised during the term of the frameworks.

Contained in its 'Strategic Priority Projects Overview' for the Athlone campus is the Midlands Campus University Commons Building, which has a gross internal floor area measuring 5,000sq m.

It states: “The new arrival building located at the main entrance to the Athlone campus would develop a new generation of teaching and research spaces. The building would provide a badly needed focal point of entry for the campus and organisation, and create supplemental space for support services and other activities.”

A new Library and Learning Centre (4,000sq m) would address the “acute shortage of library and learning space”. It is planned to be developed at the front of the campus, facing the Dublin Road, in conjunction with the plaza building, which would provide a new streetscape for the Dublin Road.

“The development would also be located on the central promenade and be one of the buildings enclosing the central quad,” the documents state.

A 2,500sq m extension to the International Arena would extend the east side of the arena and would accommodate new indoor multi-sports courts, general purpose rooms, office accommodation, café facilities, and a new arrival reception area to serve the whole building.

Measuring 8,000sq m, the Midlands Technology Campus is described as a facility that “will support a key strategic goal: the development of a new centre for polymer and industrial research, strengthening TUS’s capacity in innovation, collaboration, and advanced research in an area where it has a strong track record and established expertise”.

Another project outlined is a 2,500sq m extension to the Trades Building, which would be to the west side of the building and would include apprentice training workshops, classrooms, office accommodation and kitchen/canteen facilities to serve the whole East Campus at Athlone.

This development is envisaged to be located to the immediate north of the Nursing & Health Sciences Building extension and would be designed to complement the extension structure and to present a coherent access route and public realm on the Athlone east campus.

Plans for second floor extensions to the main building are also outlined.

“The masterplan identifies two locations for upward extension of the main building on the southern and western areas of the building. These spaces present an opportunity to TUS for space creation against the limited land available for development on the campus,” the tender documents state.

Also included as strategic priority project is the refurbishment of the John Count McCormack Centre, which has a gross internal floor area of 3,000sq m.

“The project envisages a complete refurbishment, and change of use, of the building at the heart of the campus,” the tender documents also outline.

Prior to the extension of the International Arena, the existing sports hall in the John Count McCormack building will be decommissioned and converted into a centre of student related services, resources and activity.

“The building already houses the Students Union, and the Student Medical and Counselling Centre – the development will create much needed student services facilities on the campus,” the documents state.

A retrofit of the second floor of the main building, comprising approximately 1,200sq m, is also included in the plan. This area of the university contains “heavily utilised flat classroom spaces and office accommodation that requires a deep retrofit and refurbishment to turn a sub-standard space into a state-of-the-art higher education teaching and learning environment”, the documents state.