Drawings for the new Student Union building have been revealed, detailing to students for the first time exactly what they can expect from the Union when it reopens in September 2011.
The plans can be found on the second floor of the Union outside the Activities centre.
Union Society Chief Executive Simon Gerry told The Courier ‘our aim is to be a 24/7 union.
‘ The third floor will become a cutting edge learning space divided into three sections; a coffee shop feel for the group work session, possibly featuring a Starbucks, a computer cluster and futuristic pod structures for private study. We want to offer a 24 hour alternative to the library.
‘I don’t want people to walk in and think – oh that’s just global cafe with a few computers stuck in it.
‘The big priority of the building is to make the officers more accessible to the student population, they will now all be situated on the ground floor along with the support staff and union shop.
Plans for the building have been influenced by the new student demographic, with a rise in the post grad and international students, less than 50% of Newcastle students are now what Gerry refers to as ‘your standard under 24 students.
‘We have reduced the number of bars on the premises from six to two and those have deliberately been placed below ground level to try and stop the union being tagged in students’ minds as one big bar.
Plans for the new basement area include a series of partition doors which can be opened or closed to offer up to five private spaces which societies can book for their own activities, combining what Gerry calls ‘flexibility and functionality’
‘We are confident that with the amount of student feedback we have had that the plans are as good as they can be at this stage. We are on track to delivering a 21st century Union for a 21st century student.’