Life Centre

Plymouth is committed to the creation of an outstanding leisure centre that will be unique in the South West.

The new facilities, currently known as the 'Life Centre', will be built in Central Park, the traditional heart of the city’s recreational and sporting life. Its architectural features will visually enrich the park and its facilities will make it the premier leisure destination within the city and beyond.

The Life Centre will be a magnet attracting not only elite performers of all disciplines but the public at large. It will be a place that will inspire, excite and engage people of all ages and encourage them to lead healthy lifestyles.

The Life Centre is part of Plymouth City Council’s commitment to improve the leisure and cultural facilities across the city and to help tackle issues around physical activity levels, and health inequalities.

The Council and its partners see the facility as a unique opportunity to widen opportunity, broaden horizons and raise standards. It will improve the quality of people’s lives and inspire new generations of Plymouth citizens to achieve their goals.

The inspirational nature of the project reflects the city’s vision to become by 2020 "One of Europe’s finest, most vibrant waterfront cities, where an outstanding quality of life is enjoyed by everyone".

As the project continues to move forward you can monitor the progress of the Life Centre on these pages.

Press releases

• Press release of 3 December 2007 'Action Plan for the future of Central Park unveiled'.
• Press release of 12 December 2007 'Plymouth unveils plans for best leisure facility in the South West'
• Article in Plymouth People Summer 2008 (see documents table below)
• Press release of 1 September 2008 Brains behind Beijing Water Cube to help design Life Centre

Related committee reports

• Report to Cabinet on 18 December 2007, see the report 'The Life Centre - Central Park' in the documents table below.

Procurement and contracting

Lead Design Architect

The current procurement is for a Lead Design Architect. This Lead Design Architect will be required to appoint the following disciplines:

• Structural Engineer
• Mechanical Engineer
• Electrical Engineer
• BREEAM Assessor and Advisor
• Any other specialist deemed appropriate

Client Technical Team

The client technical team incorporating the roles of Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor and Health and Safety CDM Co-ordinator have already been appointed.

Registering an interest

The Lead Design Architect was advertised on the European Journal, and can be viewed in the documents table below, however, please note that the deadline for registering an interest has now passed. Consultancies who registered an interest were given a pre-qualification questionnaire to be completed and returned by 9 April 2008.

Invitations to tender

Following evaluation of pre-qualification questionnaires, invitations to tender (ITT) documents have been sent to approximately five successful consultancies.

• Dispatch of invitations to tender - 1 May 2008
• Return of invitations to tender - 27 June 2008

Programme of estimated dates

The following programme of dates is estimated:

• Summer 2008 - Design Team will be appointed at the end of RIBA Stage C
• Winter 2008 - Planning to be submitted
• Spring 2009 - Design Team to be novated to the building contractor
• Summer 2009 - Work to start on site
• Summer 2011 - Work completes on site
• Autumn 2011 - Winter 2012 there is the possibility of an ice rink being built adjacent to the Life Centre and, if this work goes ahead, work will commence on site in Autumn 2011 with a completion date of Winter 2012

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

	The Life Centre - Central Park - agenda item from the report to Cabinet on 18 December 2007. File format Adobe Acrobat - 41.1KB
	Official journal of the European Union, UK Plymouth - architectural, engineering and surveying services, contract notice dated 23 February 2008. File format Adobe Acrobat - 68.1KB
	The Life Centre - Central Park - article in Plymouth People, Summer 2008. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 12KB

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