Alan Berman and team outside the Brewer Street site

LOCAL businesses have made a clean sweep in competition to draw up plans to develop a sensitive site in the heart of historic Oxford in a nationwide competition.

The £12m Pembroke College scheme - one of the largest college developments in the city - is a major coup for Oxford architects Berman Guedes Stretton.

They will design a new 100-bed student block on the corner of Brewer Street and Littlegate Street in St Ebbe's, assisted by structural engineers Price and Myers, and consulting engineers Hoare Lea, who both have offices in Woodstock Road.

An 18th-century listed building would be kept, while the former premises of Hall the Printers, at the back, consisting of single-storey sheds, was due to be demolished under the plans, said architect Alan Berman.

"There were some very high-profile architects competing," he said. "It is a very sensitive historic site."

Other businesses have also left the site, including Matthews office furniture shop and computer games company Rebellion. A car park in Littlegate Street is also included.

The site borders Campion Hall, designed by Edward Lutyens in 1935. The Pembroke building would create two new landscaped quads.

"One quad will be formed on one side by the new buildings and the other side by the Lutyens buildings, so that they will become more visible and accessible," said Mr Berman.

A planning application, including an auditorium, seminar and teaching rooms for lectures, music, drama and conference space, is likely to be submitted by the end of the year.

Berman Guedes Stretton employs 23 people in Oxford, and recently opened a London office where seven people work. It recently won an Royal Institution of British Architects national competition for a major extension to Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.

2:55pm Thursday 10th July 2008

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