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0601422
King Williams College Castletown Isle of Man
1.0 Introduction
King William's College is an Independent School situated on 2 sites near Castletown in the south of the Isle of Man. The Senior School is set in about 30 acres on Castletown Bay and supports around 360 students. The College is an International Baccalaureate (IB) school and attracts a significant number of pupils from overseas.
The main College building was built in 1833 and was given registered status in 2000. The building has a dramatic visage and is one of the most impressive buildings on the Island.
King William's College has an outstanding record in the Performing Arts – music, drama, art, dance and theatre – and the lack of modern facilities is affecting the school's ability to offer the very best training in these areas. The College has a long and happy record of making facilities available to the local community. However, its limited stage facilities are not well suited to public letting.
A new Performing Arts Centre would enable the College to continue to offer first class training in the Performing Arts area and to make available such facilities to the local community.
Although the College is a sizeable site, much of the grounds are taken up with playing fields. Moreover, the proximity of the airport and the important façade of the College place limitations on development.
2.0 The Current Facilities
Music is currently taught in an out-building between the main College building and the Airport. The building is old and, despite continued refurbishment, barely suitable for the task. While day to day teaching can be carried on adequately, choir and large scale music rehearsals cannot take place within Music School. Storage space is also limited.
Drama is taught in separate locations across the School none of which is custom made for drama teaching. The School Assembly Hall (Big School) is used for major drama productions and is quite suited to this role. However, Big School is also used for assemblies and other purposes and is not always available at appropriate times to support production rehearsals nor does it currently have disabled access. There is a general shortage of storage space for props, costumes and sound and light equipment.
The main Art School is also separate from the main school and, due to the demand for this subject, is split between 3 locations which are obviously not satisfactory.
The current administration offices are small and lack suitable meeting facilities. The location of the current offices is not prominent and does not present a clear entry point to the college for visitors.
3.0 Proposed Performing Arts Centre
It is proposed that the facility will incorporate the current Music School and maximise use of available space in that area of the College grounds.
The new centre will include:
The Centre will also incorporate a self contained residential centre with 7 en-suite bedrooms. This facility will be available for a variety of uses including:
The residential centre has been designed to accommodate disabled persons and groups which at present cannot be adequately catered for by the college.
The Performing Arts Centre has been designed after consultation with the operators of the Isle of Man Airport as a single storey structure in order that it can be constructed below the airport safety zone set by the Civil Aviation Authority.
The building has been designed as a series of horizontal planes to reduce the impact of height and to add interest to its appearance. The horizontal planes further allow the new building to link with the existing through covered walkways and reflect the existing coursed stone work and timber boarding.
The proposed materials, window fenestration and plinths have been selected to follow the horizontal planes set by the main structure and complement the traditional materials of the main school.
It is proposed to relocate the existing tennis courts to provide additional parking for visitors and functions being held in the Performing Arts Centre and Main School.
4.0 Proposed Administration Block
The proposed Administration Block has been designed to form the main entry point when arriving at the college and involves the realignment and changing the priorities of the existing road. The road realignment achieves a clear student crossing point, an additional 40No parking space on the approach road and clearer routes for visiting drivers.
The position of the Administration Block provides a more visible main entrance to the college and accommodates disabled access to both new and existing buildings.
The internal design for the Administration Block allows for a flexible layout for the offices and more formal access to the Main Hall for functions.
Externally, the proposals have been designed to reflect the style of the existing building but have been finished in white render to complement rather than match the existing stonework of the listed building.
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King Williams College Castletown Isle of Man
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