Specialist engineers have helped save a landmark Lowestoft building from demolition and given it new lease of life for the benefit of future generations of students.

Canham Consulting provided expert advice to save the six-storey tower block which forms a principal part of Lowestoft College.

The multi-million-pound transformation, named Project Chameleon by architects Chaplin Farrant because of the shimmering, colour-changing appearance given to the 50-year-old building, involved cutting-edge sustainability technology, with dull 1960s masonry and glazing replaced by energy-efficient aluminium cladding.

Structural engineer Rob Panter, a director of Canham Consulting, said: “As a company we are very proud to have been involved, both in investigating the building’s primary skeleton and as part of the design team.

“The result is quite stunning and Canham Consulting is delighted to have been a part of it,” he said.

The college’s estates manager, Jon Bonham, said the work to save the block had been completed in the nick of time.

“If we hadn’t done the work now, the building would probably have had to be demolished within five years, and we would have lost 3,000 sq m of teaching space.”

He added: “Canham Consulting were key partners in the process.

“They have always delivered for us, and they have done a very good job for us again.”