Opening up this area and integrating more seems like a great idea. I don’t know the area well, but did have a walk through the university grounds a couple of weeks ago. I’m hoping this plan also makes it less of a maze, it was very hard to navigate - Google Maps just shrugged and said “dunno” when I asked how to get home.
Edit: I don’t know how to find a non-paywalled link, I just open in an incognito tab
They are planning to upgrade/convert the current union house building into a mega science hub building so a lot of the lost lab space will move into there eventually.