December completion date for new Musgrave campus
The building will include a three-storey car park with 292 parking pays, which means there will be no need for on-street parking.
CONSTRUCTION of the new Embury Institute for Higher Education Musgrave Campus, at the former synagogue site in Stephen Dlamini Road, is well underway and expected to be completed by the end of the year.
In November 2016, the city approved the rezoning proposal by Curro Holdings to rezone the site from a Place of Worship to Educational 2. At the time, the city said it was in line with its policy to maximise and re-use underutilised land in established developed areas and areas with existing service infrastructure. The proposed zoning was also found to be familiar to the area, with other educational zones existing to the north and south of the site.
READ RELATED: Rezoning approval gives Embury green light for development
Johan Human, CEO of Embury Institute for Higher Education, said the campus should be completed by December.
“We have trained teachers for years at our existing premises and have come to the point where there are too many students to house in Windermere and we have reached our capacity. The new building will double the capacity,” he said.
Human said the building will house lecture rooms as well as staff offices, and that the plans were to add to the facility’s subject choices by including an Economics and Management Sciences Faculty, as well as to get accreditation for some post-graduate qualifications such as the Advanced Diploma in Physical Education and School Sport.
“We will be expanding our footprint and focus with the new campus. Staff and students from all five buildings we use in Windermere will be based at the new campus. We hope to move everyone across at the beginning of next year,” he said.
The building will include a three-storey car park with 292 parking pays, which means there will be no need for on-street parking. The outside of the synagogue building itself will remain untouched, however the internal space will be transformed into two floors. “The synagogue building missed heritage status by about two years, but as the municipality identified it as a significant historic building in Durban, we applied through AMAFA to change the internal structure,” said Human.
READ RELATED: Rezoning applications raise concerns
The project has been overseen by Barry Swain, chief campus management officer, who said he was pleased with the progress on site so far.
“We have had a great response and good support from the community and local schools. It is nice and central for our students and is perfect for those using public transport or their own cars. We’re very excited to be moving across to the new Musgrave campus,” he said.
