The sun shone for the Topping Out Ceremony on Tuesday 15 December 2020 at the Institute of Development & Regenerative Medicine (IDRM) building in Oxford. IDRM will be a specialist, world-leading, medical research facility which includes laboratory and write-up spaces for each of the three research themes, cardiology, neurology and immunology, with shared meeting/seminar rooms and specialist, ancillary labs for the purpose of life sciences research. The project will bring together more than 200 world-leading scientists to tackle serious heart problems.The project is a partnership between University of Oxford, the British Heart Foundation and a philanthropist uniting 220 leading researchers from Oxford and across the globe.Our Structural Engineers and Technical support team have worked hard through the most challenging months earlier in the year, when the COVID crisis first hit, to provide the detailed design drawings in line with main contractor, McLaughlin & Harvey’s, ambitious procurement and construction programme. Well done to Fung, Mat, Krzy and team!Professor Georg Holländer performed the ‘Topping Out’ by filling the concrete square and the Chancellor of Oxford University, the Right Honourable Lord Patten of Barnes, gave an address by video link.IDRM – key stats:
| Project Value | £23.5 million |
| Project duration | 67 weeks |
| Space | 6,000sq feet and 3 storeys |
| Challenges | The surrounding buildings are sensitive, including the adjacent Innovation Building which houses laboratories for the BioEscalator and Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford which cannot be disrupted. |
| Team | Architects | SRA |
| Main Contractor | McLaughlin & Harvey | |
| Project Managers | Ridge & Partners | |
| Structural & Civil engineering design | Glanville |
