First look inside new Crown Buildings after £6.7m refurbishment

The construction works on Crown Buildings are now complete and internal works are taking place ready for staff to move in early next year.

Wrexham Council, with the help of funding from the Welsh Government, have totally refurbished the 1960’s building to provide a base for social care staff helping to deliver children’s and adult’s services, as well as becoming the new location for the council’s Education and Early Intervention Department.

It will also have Wrexham’s “Community Wellbeing Hub” on the ground floor which will be the location of a range of accessible facilities. The Hub is a partner project between Wrexham Council, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and AVOW, with the council explaining, “It will allow people and families with wide ranging support needs to become more involved with community services as well as having easy access to preventative information and advice. It will build on, rather than duplicate services that are already available in Wrexham town centre and other local areas.”

Cllr Mark Pritchard, Leader of the Council, said, “The building has been transformed to provide a modern facility that will make it easier for people, families and carers to get the information, advice and support they may need.

“Its energy efficient focus has been important as we head to be carbon neutral by 2030 and I would like to thank everyone involved in the project for designing and transforming this dated facility into one that we can be proud of.”

“Staff will be moving in next year and the building will become fully operational offering a first class service in a modern building fit for the future.”

The works have been undertaken by Read Construction and their Design Team.

Alex Read, Director with Read Construction, said, “The Crown building project represents what can be achieved in low-carbon considered construction when projects are approached collaboratively. By working together on this project, we have saved 100tons of demolition waste, equal quantities of raw material extraction and regenerated a town centre facility to modern low operational carbon standards.

“Read are proud to have been involved in this project and continue to support our clients on their Net Zero Carbon journeys.”

The details released say the walls and roof have been upgraded to include high levels of thermal insulation and existing windows and doors were replaced with new thermally broken powder coated aluminium units with solar control glazing, “Using this approach means the building will retain heat in the winter months and reduce it during the summer”

The heating system has been replaced with modern energy efficient boilers and new energy efficient LED lighting has been used throughout to reduce electricity demand.

Additionally, the roof area now houses an array of photovoltaic panels which will further improve the building’s carbon footprint through on-site renewable energy production. The energy certificate for the building was a “D” rating which, thanks to the works is now rated as “A”.

An estimated 625 staff – Wrexham County Borough Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board will use Crown Buildings as a base, with about 268 desks available for use at any one time, (subject to covid restrictions) along with a range of other workspaces.

Last year the refurb was priced as part of a £6.7m project phase when it was revealed an extra £1m was needed, and a more recent report has said the project has been ‘within’ that budget.

Below… a bonus picture of what it used to look like: