The building forms part of Legal & General’s £4bn partnership with the University of Oxford, a scheme which will develop a number of innovation facilities along with thousands of new homes for staff and students.

The Life and Mind Building, which is the largest building project in the university’s history, is expected to open in 2024 with construction due to begin in July 2021. The site will include 25,000 sq m of internal space with state-of-the-art laboratories for teaching and research, lecture theatres and study rooms as well as a café, office space and multifunctional break-out areas.    

The Macfarlanes team was led by real estate partner Anthony Burnett-Scott alongside real estate partner Dominic Cunliffe and construction partner Angus Dawson with assistance from Sindhuja Shriananda, Radhika Shah, Tania Barnes and Rebecca McCann. Tax expertise was provided by senior counsel Kirsten Prichard Jones and head of VAT Chris Mortimer. 

Anthony Burnett-Scott comments: “It was a pleasure to advise Legal & General on this substantial development project which will make a real difference to the teaching facilities and important research that the departments are undertaking”.