Milestone building reaches new heights

The residential tower at White City

Imperial marked the topping out of its residential tower today, in the latest development at the College's White City Campus.

Positioned on the northern part of the campus, the residential tower will provide 192 new homes, including 59 earmarked for Imperial key workers at below market rents.

The College has worked with development management partners Voreda and contractors Laing O’Rourke on the construction of the tower, which is expected to be completed in 2019.

John Anderson, Director of Financial Strategy at Imperial, said: “This is an exciting step for our White City Campus. Our landmark residential tower is central to our ambition to attract a diverse, vibrant community at White City".

Making progress

Imperial’s White City Campus is bringing together researchers, business and partners from academia to share ideas and turn cutting-edge research into benefits for society.

The view of the Molecular Sciences Research Hub and the I-HUB from the residential tower

Several buildings already either open or under construction on the site. The Translation and Innovation Hub (I-HUB), which opened in October 2016, provides laboratory, incubator, accelerator and office space to enable the co-location of start-ups, entrepreneurs, and major corporations alongside Imperial’s academic community.

The Molecular Sciences Research Hub, due to open in 2018, will provide a new home for Imperial’s Department of Chemistry, and will bring together up to 800 scientists, clinicians, engineers and business partners to address common challenges in areas such as energy, healthcare or sustainability.

The Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Research Hub – due to open in 2019 - will co-locate engineers, scientists and doctors to help solve some of the most complex medical challenges of our time. Here, researchers will be developing new ways to help the body to heal itself, or designing prosthetics for people who have injured or lost their limbs. The hub was made possible thanks to an unprecedented £40 million gift from Sir Michael Uren OBE and his foundation.

The Invention Rooms, which will open later this year on the Campus’ south site, is a new community innovation space focused on ‘making’ - allowing people of all ages and backgrounds to turn their creative ideas into real working prototypes using advanced technology, alongside Imperial staff, students, alumni and partners. The Invention Rooms will also provide a new base for the Imperial College Advanced Hackspace – a 2,000-strong network of inventors and entrepreneurs from within the College’s student and staff body. The state-of-the-art facility will provide specialist prototyping and fabrication equipment, including robotics and 3D printing technology, as well as a bio-lab, which enables synthetic biology and molecular fabrication.