Birmingham school builds £7.2m arts centre

A new arts centre with a 503-seat concert hall, 140-seat flexible theatre, dance rehearsal room and 12 music rooms has opened at King Edward’s School Birmingham. The £7.2m Ruddock Performing Arts Centre was completed in April, after the construction and consultant team were charged with cutting the original tender price of the build by £1m. The savings were made by Shaylor Construction and Anne Minors Performance Consultants, working with Sound Space Design, through construction and planning changes and simplification of the design. The new theatre and concert hall will rely on daylight during rehearsals, and low-energy lighting and heating systems have been installed to keep costs low and the building environmentally friendly. The build has been completed with multi-use and teaching purposes in mind: the concert hall has an orchestra pit for up to 25 musicians; there is a control room big enough for teaching purposes; and seating in the theatre can be rearranged into five basic forms, with removable balcony fronts, lighting bars and steps, to increase access.