A new national Warehouse and Distribution Centre with associated offices has just completed in Poole for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Ellis Belk Associates Limited were both Architectural Designers and Project Managers.

The new building, which measures approximately 60m x 65m in plan, is located adjacent to the RNLI’s Headquarters and will supply the 224 Lifeboat Stations throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland, as well as providing office accommodation for RNLI staff. The site is situated adjacent to Poole Harbour and initial works on the project included the raising of the site levels by 700mm above the original ground level to guard against flooding.

The Warehouse and Distribution Centre is situated at the centre of the building, with two storeys of offices to two sides and a third office storey extending over the top of the Warehouse.

The Warehouse incorporates a three level mezzanine to one section, together with both narrow and wide aisle high bay racking for storage of components range from nuts and bolts to lifeboat engines for distribution to Lifeboat Bases throughout the country.

The building has a steel frame with external elevations featuring architectural masonry at ground floor level, profiled aluminium cladding above, double glazed aluminium ribbon windows plus a large expanse of curtain walling to the north face. This section of the building which has a single ply membrane flat roof with the main part of the building featuring a standing seam aluminium roof. This roof was made up of the longest aluminium sheets rolled on siteat the time.

The project was on site for just over a year and completed in July 2004 and has been nominated for a Civic Trust Award.

Contract Value: £9.3 million