Manchester's Big Apple.

Dale Street, Manchester - looking better than ever!
The set for Captain America - walk down a real street....

Triumphant Town Hall

I was over the moon (again) that Laing O'Rourke won the contract to refurbish Manchester Town Hall......not only beacause they are a great Manchester builder.... but also because at DPP Shape, Shelagh McNerney helped them communicate some of their ideas about local labour, regeneration and genuinely using a building contract to make a real difference to Manchester people. I can't wait to see what they are going to do with the whole civic quarter. Manchester is so modern.........

Leaving Liverpool.....

Leaving Liverpool … Again.

I left Liverpool in 1983 … and I have just left it again … Shelagh was finally told by the Liverpool client team to “put the pen down”…. The North Liverpool Strategic Regeneration Framework was signed off as a piece of consultancy work.…the end of one of our biggest strategic jobs!

As consultants we immerse ourselves in places and get to know new people on every job - that’s what’s great. With Liverpool – I could re – discover my own City and loved bombing down the M62 for meetings and presentations and debates - trying not to be late but often waiting patiently through Salford at the Manchester end and Edge Lane at the Liverpool end. The site visits around the Port and the football clubs and the walking tours of streets filled with history – Scotland, Netherfield, Vauxhall, Stanley were all edited highlights of people’s lives – my own this time! Our challenge was to focus on the future and communicate what can be done now. Fixing a framework during times of turbulent funding and policy changes was no box ticking exercise – hence the need to keep hold of that pen and the “track changes” button! We have produced a starting point for discussions about investment, economic development and creating neighbourhoods that people want to live in....more about that in future blogs......

Like in all of our Cities, there is much to do in Liverpool and I am restless and impatient to see more happen. I left Liverpool again, although it wouldnt take much take much for me to return.

A view across the Bay...

We have finally gone public with our master plan for Colwyn Bay. Last week Mick presented the master plan to Conwy Borough Council Scrutiny committee which also included the local press and the public. Despite being simultaneously translated into Welsh, Mick’s presentation ( with help from Karen from Keppie Massie and Helen from Arc 4) on the master plan was enthusiastically received and approved by Scrutiny. Read the local press report at:

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2010/08/20/colwyn-bay-regeneration-plans-55578-27099998/?sms_ss=email

Colwyn Bay is a fascinating place. Once a thriving Victorian seaside town its now cut off from the Bay by the North Wales Express Way (A55) and a little neglected in places. People either drive past it on the way the Conwy, Llandudno and Abersoch or are just let down by a disappointing sense of arrival into the town from which you can’t see the Bay or the beach. In spite of this disconnection Colwyn Bay has a lot going for it.

The master plan is ambitious proposing a direction of travel for the town over the next 10 to 15 years. It includes a new beach (as part of a much needed sea defence scheme), a refurbished pier, a new town square, a remodelled shopping centre and train station, a reworking of the highway system, a new street that links the town centre together and better links to the prom and beach. Other projects include a strategy to improve the housing market and remodelled town park with a new sports village, lake, and activity centre and outside amphitheatre with a view over the Bay.

Next stage is the final report and then looking to get the first projects off the ground.

A blast from the past...

Every now and then you can find yourself thumbing through old sketch books. It’s usually an adventure.....Old projects, clients, ideas, concerns, positions and explorations come flooding back, encoded in the small drawings and notes that pin point moments in time. All starting points for something much bigger....

The other day I found some sketches I made while working on the Manchester city centre master plan. The frequent train journeys made between London and Manchester provided that ideal ‘in –between’ time where ideas usually flow and form. There on just a couple of pages were the first ideas of how to provide a new active street fronting skin for the Arndale. The master plan required the Arndale to look outwards, to turn it inside out; a tricky problem that required the linking different levels across a very short space while also keeping the retail viable and functional. As the sketch shows it could only be solved in section. A visit to WH Smiths now, shows how it was done and how in the end we got a much better street. Then there was the idea of new footbridge linking the upper level of the Arndale to the new M&S. We knew it had to be light, see through, and iconic. I remember working with Arups on this idea and as the sketches show we wanted a lattice, cable net type thing, appearing to be hung and stretched between the two buildings. Stephen Hodder took it on and made it something rather wonderful.

The date? Just a year or so after the bomb!

Back from the sea...

Just returned from what Rob and Leon Krier would call the traditional European City; Dubrovnik. A Baroque walled city originally made up two islands until the Romans filled in the gap and made a beautiful fortified city. The pattern of the city is fascinating. At once it reveals its past, its topography, its function and its climate. To the north the Roman grid climbs up the hill side, narrow and functional. To the south the city spreads and distorts into a Gothic medieval pattern of gardens, courts, Churches and palaces. The main street is the hinge that joins this all together, knowing that some time in the past this short, wonderful street would have been a narrow sea passage.

The city is small and from its walls its morphology can be drawn from above and its compelling section seen, stretching from the Adriatic from which it defends itself, right into mountains in which it buries itself.

Here are my attempts at trying to capture the city...

MT

Shape family photo...

Here we are in the heart of Manchester. From let to right we have: Justine (in charge of our marketing campaign), Geoff, one of our Shape Agents from Edinburgh, Mick, Matt, Shelagh, Ste and Dave from our Edinburgh studio. Sadly missing are Anna, our model maker and John F from DPP. Manchester, as ever in under reconstruction...