Member Article

Stanhope signs up Royal College of Art for White City Place

The Royal College of Art (RCA) is to establish a new creative hub at Stanhope’s White City Place after signing on for the development’s Garden House building.

Totalling 40,000 sq ft across three-storeys, the building will serve as a new centre for the university’s communication, architecture and humanities provision and create a community of more than 700 students and staff when it opens in March 2017.

It comes as the RCA plots its expansion in London with its most notable development, a new 15,000 sq ft Herzog & de Meuron-designed facility in Battersea which is set to open in 2020-21.

Professor Jane Pavitt, Dean of the School of Humanities said: “This move will give the School, and most importantly its students and staff, a quality of space and interaction that will foster new thinking and practice in relation to arts and culture, media, design and the built environment.

“We look forward to shaping a vibrant and integrated creative environment in our new home.”

RCA marks yet another major signing for Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan UK and AIMco’s White City Place development, which is set to deliver 900,000 sq ft of offices across its 17 acres.

Yoox Net-a-Porter signed up for 70,000 sq ft for a new tech hub back in October, while Imperial College has also set up its White City campus at the development.

Commenting on the new additions, David Camp, Chief Executive of Stanhope, said: “It is fantastic for us to welcome the Royal College of Art to White City Place, the commercial heart of White City. Our objective is for White City Place to enable an ecosystem to develop which connects business, technology and education and inspires creative innovation in White City.

“The arrival of RCA alongside the BBC, Yoox Net-a-Porter and Imperial College is a major step forward in achieving this objective.”

The development is part of the £8bn White City regeneration project which is set to bring over 2,500 new homes, along with new leisure facilities and offices over the next 15 years.