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Oxford Saïd's new Global Leadership Centre has won an international architecture award

Published

'As a modern business school embedded in a 900-year-old university, it's fitting for the GLC to be bringing together the old and the new'

The new Global Leadership Centre (GLC), at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford has won the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award 2022.

The centre is being built on the site of the old Osney Power station on Arthur Street which was constructed in 1892 and forms an important part of Oxford's industrial heritage.

The Victorian building is being repurposed to house the new executive education campus and will see many traditional components incorporated into the new design.

 

Since the start of construction in October last year, the building work has made good progress:

  • The retention work on the façade’s steelwork is now 95% complete, with the River Thames and Russell Street elevations fully completed
  • Work to repair the west elevation of the building and south courtyard below water level, has been completed with the use of cofferdam in the River Thames
  • Scaffolding has been put up around the building to provide access for retained façade repairs
  • All non-structural demolition has taken place, including removal walls, roof finishes and slabs, to open up the space inside
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An artist's impression of the design

The architects behind the project are John McAslan + Partners, the firm also behind the award-winning design for the London King’s Cross Station restoration.

Katherine Watts, Associate at John McAslan + Partners said:

‘'Transforming a Victorian power station in Oxford into a new Global Leadership Centre for Saïd Business School is a strong example of the type of large-scale adaptive reuse projects that John McAslan + Partners’ have built an expertise in, and we are thrilled that the project has been recognised with the International Architecture Award. Our vision has been to harness the building’s industrial character and existing fabric, to provide a low carbon state-of-the-art educational environment with an emphasis on congregation and collaboration. A key design move has been to retain the powerful internal volume of the old turbine hall which will be transformed into an open ‘agora’ providing a vibrant collegiate meeting place at the heart of the facility. The building’s sustainable performance will also be greatly improved through employing Passivhaus principles, the installation of 229 photovoltaic panels on the roof and an air source heat pump which will put the building on course to run on zero-carbon in the future following its completion in 2024.’

 

The International Architecture Awards honour the best, significant new buildings, landscape architecture, and planning projects designed and/or built around the world’s leading architects, landscape architects, and urban planners.

Soumitra Dutta, Dean of Saïd Business School, said:

‘I’m delighted to see the transformation of the Osney power station, an Oxford landmark with a proud history, win such an award. It will be a world class centre for executive education that will give leaders of global business, government and civil society, access to the University’s leading academics and brightest minds. As a modern business school embedded in an iconic 900-year-old university, it is fitting for the Global Leadership Centre to be bringing together the old and the new to create something so unique and exciting, which is already receiving international recognition.

We are deeply grateful to the Saïd Foundation and Pershing Square foundation for helping to make this possible, and to former Saïd Business School Chair, Sir Howard Stringer and his wife Lady Stringer, for their contribution, and to all the alumni who have named spaces in the new building.’

Further opportunities to name spaces will continue as the project develops, allowing potential funding partners to actively engage with the centre.

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It has recently completed its latest phase of construction, setting it on course to open as a state-of-the-art teaching facility in 2025. Construction work is being undertaken by the GRAHAM Group.

The global leadership centre was commissioned to support high level business and leadership education, with a range of formal and informal teaching spaces. It will also include 121 hotel-style bedrooms for executive accommodation, plus high-quality teaching spaces alongside leisure and dining facilities.

Eleanor Murray, Associate Dean for Executive Education and Senior Fellow in Management Practice said:

‘With each stage of completion, we are a step closer to providing our executive participants with a world-class education in a new, state-of-the-art building, that will set the stage for collaborations, challenging conversations and practical innovation for years to come. We re-evaluated the whole space after the pandemic struck, to make it as flexible and tech-enabled as possible. I can’t wait to welcome our executives here.’

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