New home announced for the Environment Department

Posted on 17 September 2013

The Environment Department will be relocating to spectacular new, purpose-built teaching, office and laboratory facilities in 2015 in a £12 million investment by the University.

new environment building

The Environment Department started life at the University of York 21 years ago this Autumn in October 1992, housed in a handful of temporary Portakabins near to the Biology Department.

The dynamism and hard work of the original founding staff and students helped the department to grow until in January 1998 it moved to its current home in the centre of Campus West, adjacent to the Information Centre.

Now, after 15 years of further rapid expansion in student numbers, staff and laboratory space, the Department has outgrown its accommodation and will be embarking on a £12 million expansion plan to create a new, purpose-built building. This will house state-of-the-art science and physical geography laboratory facilities along with new teaching and innovative social spaces, all designed to enhance teaching, learning and research.

The building will house the Environment Department, the Stockholm Environmental Institute York, the York Environmental Sustainability Institute, and BioArCh, a research group covering aspects of Biology, Archaeology and Chemistry.

The location next to Biology, on the site currently occupied by Wentworth E block, will provide new and exciting opportunities for collaborative research between environmental, ecological and social scientists, all within close proximity.

The project, which is scheduled for completion in 2015, marks the next new and exciting phase of environmental teaching and research at the University of York.