WilkinsonEyre was selected to design this new Graduate Centre for Queen Mary, University of London in August 2012. The project marks a significant anniversary for Queen Mary as it celebrates 125 years since it began life as a philanthropic centre that brought education and culture to the East End of London. As well as providing a dedicated graduate centre, this project has contributed significant urban improvements to this part of the campus: a new landscaped quadrangle, courtyard, and a back-of-pavement café onto Bancroft Road provides extensive outdoor amenity space. A new CHP energy centre serving nine buildings also forms part of the project.

The ground floor of the Graduate Centre comprises a glass-sided 200-seat lecture theatre with a large foyer/café space and flexible graduate study areas. Upstairs are dedicated graduate student services, as well as seminar rooms and a ‘Harvard-style’ teaching facility. The School of Economics and Finance is housed over four floors and provides space for 60 individual academic offices, computer laboratories, postgraduate study areas and a city-style trading room. On the top is a floating glass box that contains graduate reading rooms and a common room that opens onto a large outdoor terrace.