Plans are being drawn up to build extra floors on a Plymouth city centre office block and turn it into student flats.
A new scheme is being put forward to keep the original nine-storey Moneycentre building in the heart of the city and put extensions at the side and on top.
A previous plan was for the building to be knocked down to make way fora gleaming 21-storey tower containing a hotel and student flats.
But after no progress was made in more than two years, it appears the building’s owners have gone back to the drawing board.
The new vision, which still focuses on student accommodation, would see extra floors constructed, covered with metal mesh and designed to look like sunlight on water. A roof garden on the top floor would give views across the city.
Architects said the plans would conserve the building’s mid-20th Century architecture and fit better with its surroundings and the University of Plymouth campus which is literally across the road.
They say reusing the original structure would reduce carbon output, inline with the city council’s policy to tackle climate change.
The proposed redevelopment would see the building used to house students,with the potential for commercial use and shops at street level.
A document outlining the new plans has been submitted to Plymouth City Council for a pre-application inquiry. That is when a developer and planning officers hold talks about a scheme ahead of a formal planning application.
Plans show the side extension would be the same design and height as the current square block. An extension of three to five floors would be added to the main building, with a roof garden on top.
The number of extra floors would depend on a load-bearing assessment for the concrete frame of the original building.
The Moneycentre, where Mayflower Street meets Coburg Street, was completed in 1976, later than the main post-war redevelopment of the Blitzed city centre.
A document from Figure/Ground Architects points out there is growing appreciation of mid-20th Century architecture, such as the Moneycentre, which it described as a "modernist 'object building'."
It said: “Our vision for the conversion of the Moneycentre is centred on delivering an intelligent, sustainable and truly exciting project that celebrates the existing building whilst maximising the ability of the building and its site to provide high quality student accommodation and contributing to the surrounding urban environment –improving the surrounding streetscape and public realm.”
It added: “One of the key benefits of converting the existing building is the enormous carbon savings associated with re-use. The greenest building is one that already exists.”
When the original scheme to demolish the Moneycentre went before the city council’s planning committee in May 2018, concerns were raised that there might be too many rooms for students being planned in the city.
The University of Plymouth objected to the scheme with 554 student bedrooms and a 102-bed hotel, saying it did not believe there was unmet demand for student accommodation.
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City council officers said the development supported regeneration objectives and would improve the area’s character.
A spokesman for the developer said there was demand for the accommodation from second and third-year students, and from post-graduates.
There has been concern that the Covid-19 pandemic could see a fall in student numbers in Plymouth, particularly from overseas.
But Government figures predict an increase in domestic students applying in the next three years, and overseas numbers are expected to recover in 2021.
The next stage for the scheme would be a planning application submitted to Plymouth City Council.
