The Learning and Skills Council has appointed Perkins | Ogden Architects to a new framework for building design consultants in the south of England.
    The Further Education Sector has a large, ongoing capital expenditure programme on tertiary education covering over 400 further education colleges including sixth form colleges, over 75 specialist colleges and other education and training providers in England. The aim of the programme is to enhance, renew or refurbish the whole estate by 2014. 
    The new consultancy framework pre-qualifies design, project management and cost management service providers on the basis of cost and quality. Perkins Ogden Architects have been appointed as one of 12 design service providers in the south to deliver £3.2 billion worth of work over 4 years.
    Perkins Ogden Architects is able to call on the support of 5 other practices as workload requires in order to provide the correct resources for different size projects. The LSC predicts the majority of projects to be in excess of £10 million.
    The framework is designed to save the time and money of colleges embarking on capital projects. For those projects in excess of £5 million, which require capital grant funding from the LSC, the use of the frameworks will be mandatory to ensure value for money. A comprehensive selection process was used to appointment consultants, with Perkins Ogden Architects emerging as one of the leading practices in the selection procedure.