Petroc College in Barnstaple invited members of the public to celebrate the grand opening of its brand new, state-of-the-art facility, The Lifestyle Centre.
In 2013 Petroc secured £10.8 million of investment to transform large parts of its North Devon Campus, and last year the college opened its Engineering Centre of Excellence.
The new 3,000 sq m Lifestyle Centre, delivered by LHC, supports students on Hospitality & Catering, Hair & Beauty and Travel & Tourism study programmes at the college. It houses a specialist travel and tourism air cabin training room, luxury hair and beauty salons, commercial training kitchens and The Taw Restaurant, which are all open to the public throughout the year.
The buildings and facilities have been designed to meet BREEAM Excellent standards and give students ample opportunities to engage with customers, learning skills that will prove invaluable when they enter the workplace.
Diane Dimond, Principal at Petroc, explained:
“We have a hugely successful and highly-regarded vocational provision here at Petroc and have great working partnerships with a number of leading employers in the area. We work with these industry experts to shape our curriculum – the new facility celebrates this and will support further work with local employers within the Hair & Beauty, Hospitality & Catering and Tourism sectors in the future.”
LHC was commissioned to review and revise existing designs for the two buildings, and were then commissioned to provide detailed design and technical drawing packages for both, with LHC’s landscape team also providing input into the public realm, including a new entrance plaza.