Cumbria County Council Offices, Carlisle
Overview
The state-of-the-art building is an essential component in the council’s transformation which will see office accommodation in the city decrease from 22 buildings to two.
The new Botchergate headquarters will feature 450 workstations and accommodate around 700 staff, with hot desking, mobile working and modern technologies helping to further slash overheads.
The project provides a contemporary and sustainable new office building that is simple in design and sympathetic to its setting within Cumbria and the site.
63 Apprentice weeks created 
137 Work opportunity weeks provided 
10 Community hours contributed 
39/50 Considerate Constructors score
Key Challenges
A key challenge with this scheme has been the budget which was set in January 2014, 15 months before the project started on site. During this period there has been a 15 – 20% inflation rise in various areas of the market for which Eric Wright Construction have provided innovative solutions to ensure the project is still delivered within budget.
By collaborating with Cumbria County Council stakeholders we were able to understand their needs and improve the efficiency of the adjacencies within the floor plates and reduce the gross internal floor area to ensure a viable scheme.
Further challenges included the high probability of finding archaeological remains on the site and implementing utility diversions to maintain connectivity to surrounding buildings. Eric Wright Construction worked with the Cumbria team and agreed an advance work package to clear the site which ran concurrently with the design development.
Added Value
Eric Wright Construction is working in partnership with the Design Team of AHR Architects, Hannan Associates and Curtins Consulting to offer expertise and advice to Cumbria County Council to achieve their commitments to ongoing overhead reductions and cost savings.
The new building will help the council save £900,000 a year in running costs and cut the council’s carbon output in half – from 1,546 tonnes to 826 tonnes.