FORGET the harsh concrete slabs that used to cover the Metropolitan Centre in Barnsley town centre - the new look is going to be glass and ‘honey-hued’ cladding.
In three years’ time the town centre will boast a bold new face - the Glass Works - and it will be alongside a new cinema and bowling alley.
The scheme will include 25 new shops, ten restaurants, a new library, refurbished market, public square and a new 500-space car park.
Work has already started to produce the cladding at Amber Architectural GRC in Rotherham. Workers are currently in the process of making the moulds that will be used for the cladding on much of the Glass Works façade.
GRC is an abbreviation for Glass Reinforced Concrete, which is a concrete mix with the addition of glass fibres, giving the panels strength and stopping the concrete fracturing.
When the panel comes out of the mould it has a sheen on the surface, but an acid wash is used to give it a natural finish that will weather like sandstone.
