It’s been a year since Chippenham’s climbing centre The Arc officially opened! Now a popular activity centre within the local community, this was a fantastic project to work on and has proved a great success.
We took project management responsibility for the centre’s design and construction in 2018, working in collaboration with a talented team of professionals including Artel31, Giraffe Engineering, Greengauge and Canvas.
The centre became one of the UK’s first purpose-built climbing centres, a brilliant addition to the Chippenham area. It offers interior and exterior climbing walls, bouldering walls, changing areas and indoor and outdoor café areas, as well as a new skatepark, landscaping and picnic benches.
As well as construction taking place during the Covid-19 pandemic, building the venue on a flood plain posed a huge challenge. But following a great deal of planning and risk mitigating, the centre was expertly constructed to withstand storms and floods, and has demonstrated its resilience throughout the weather we’ve seen this winter.
Funded by the Chippenham Borough Lands Charity, this fantastic venue has proved hugely popular since opening in February 2022, and was named Place-Making Project of the Year at the 2022 Insider South West Property Awards.
We got in touch with The Climbing Academy to find out how things are going and were pleased to hear such a positive report from Marketing Manager, Helen Cassidy:
“Since The Arc opened its doors in February 2022, we have welcomed around 8.5k unique visitors, many of whom have become regular climbers, reaching new heights. As 2023 progresses we are looking forward to teaching more locals how to climb, from tiny ones to pensioners (who climb for free over 70!). The addition of a new kids play park in Spring will add another fun element to any family visit. So bring your skateboard, sign up for a climbing taster, book your birthday party or just swing by for a coffee.”
We were thrilled to work on this venue in a project management capacity and see it through to completion. We hope that The Arc’s climbing centre, skatepark and café will be enjoyed by the local community for many years to come.
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