From Ruskin to Exeter

The Ruskin College building is to get a dramatic makeover to provide new premises for Exeter College. On February 11 at the Community Centre Alison Brooks Architects gave an interesting presentation of the plans for the building -- and listened to some concerns of Jericho residents. Bought from Ruskin for £7 million in 2010, the building is going to have an £18 million makeover to provide 90 study bedrooms along with fellows’ studies, teaching rooms, a cafe and a hall, which will be available for community events. The refurbishment will largely retain the existing facade of the building on the corner of Walton Street and Worcester Place, but will strip out the interior to to create three floors. The existing building is a bit of jumble. The original building was finished in 1913 but was not completed to the original plan and has awkward steps up and down. There were then additions in various styles in 1936, the 1960s and in 1980. The new building will replace most of this with a much more coherent -- and elegant -- structure. The most visible effect from Walton Street will be a new and slightly higher curved 'mansard' steel roof of similar shape to the existing one. Residents expressed concern that this might create some glare. Alison Brooks said that they would be working to minimize this by using a textured pattern. The main entrance will still be on Walton Street but there will also be a side entrance in Worcester Place with access to the hall. This will also provide access for bicycles. There will 54 cycle parking places. Residents pointed out that this is likely to add to the problem of cyclists going the wrong way up Worcester Place.There will also be two trees in Worcester Place, On Walton Street the main change to the face will be lowering the sills to make the windows, taller though retaining the blocks that have the name of Ruskin benefactors. The ground floor of the building will have a 'Ruskin Room' which will be used reflect the heritage of the building. Exeter will be applying for planning permission in a few weeks and construction is expected to start in January 2014 and last for around two years. Overall residents were impressed by the proposal - and also by the efforts that the architects were making to explain their plans.