New uni building dubbed “The Diamond”

If you’ve been lurking near Jessop West lately, you’ll have witnessed the construction of Sheffield University’s latest £81 million investment, a new engineering department.

On Friday, Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Keith Burnett and Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield, demonstrating the complete extent of their creativity, officially branded the new diamond building ‘The Diamond’. 

Despite the unoriginal name, The Diamond will create 500 jobs during the construction alone, and around 400 permanent new jobs within the University once it is completed. It will also contribute £44.5 million to the local economy during construction and the first year of operation, with an annual contribution of almost £21 million after that.

Mr Blomfield named The Diamond “the jewel in the crown”, and said “This is our largest ever investment in teaching and learning and it is really exciting to see the fantastic progress being made on site.” Inspiring. 

Shine bright like a diamond… Photo: University of Sheffield.

If you’re really desperate to procrastinate there’s also a live stream to help you keep up with all the thrilling building work.

A former part of Jessop Hospital was mercilessly bulldozed to make way for the project, causing some local to object to the destruction of part of Sheffield’s history.

The design of the building itself has also met not-so-shiny criticism, with some commenters calling the new building an “ugly monstrosity- an abomination”,  “gross” and “an incredibly ugly building.” 

Lookin’ good.

One particularly impassioned commenter said The Diamond was “a stupid looking building to add to others surrounding it such as the gigantic black cushion, the green thing that looks like a level on the old mario games and the giant multi coloured thing… What’s next? The building that looks like a walnut whip?”

Will it emerge as a diamond from the rough?