Oxford University looks set to be given the go-ahead for the £200m buildings that will form the centrepiece of a new city quarter. A recommendation to approve landmark buildings on the former Radcliffe Infirmary site will go to city councillors who will decide on the scheme this month.
The plans for a humanities building with an underground library and a five-storey mathematics institute will be the main structures on the ten-acre site, which is to be named the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. The planning officers' report says a series of proposed small streets running across the old infirmary site between Woodstock Road and Walton Street would ensure the new university campus would be successfully "integrated into the wider urban fabric of the city".
The report says: "The character of these various routes varies from the rather grand and imposing avenue north from Somerville to the Radcliffe Observatory, to the more narrow and intimate which display the sorts of scale familiar at historic thoroughfares such as Alfred Street, Blue Boar Street, Bear Lane and Magpie Lane." The report reveals Environment Agency concerns about large basement areas resulting in a rise in water levels, increasing the risk of flooding. But university consultants appear to have successfully argued that the site is on the top of a 'mound' in the water table. Three large underground attenuation tanks are being built to gather water run-off from the buildings.
The maths institute would have five levels above ground, with one basement accommodating lecture theatres and the second an underground car park for 53 vehicles, serving the whole infirmary site. The building would be the main workplace for more than 500 academics and support staff, and 1,000 undergraduates. A £90m humanities building standing at the heart of the new quarter would consist of five floors above a major new Oxford library, which would be spread over two underground floors. The site's humanities complex as a whole would house the English, history, philosophy, theology, Oriental studies, modern languages and music faculties.
The main entrance to the humanities complex would be from a new public square, which would feature a striking glass and copper 'lantern' building that would provide natural light for the library. Rather than seeking to create grand vistas at every opportunity", council planners say the scheme is "very much within the Oxford tradition", with areas of lawn, especially to the north of the site, where it abuts Green Templeton College. University spokesman Ruth Collier said: "Some minor modifications have been made to designs to the maths institute following discussion with planning officers and English Heritage."
The application will go to the city council's central, south and west area committee on Tuesday and the north area committee next Thursday, before going to the strategic development control committee on May 27. The university said building work on the latest phase could begin this year and finish by 2013. Later phases are planned for land next to Walton Street. The university acquired planning permission last year for the first phase of the scheme involving new buildings at Somerville College and the refurbishment and removal of some former hospital buildings.
