Liverpool City Council has appointed an award-winning team of urban designers, landscape architects and planners to develop a Public Realm Strategy that will shape the look and feel of the city for the next 50 years.
LDA Design has a strong track record of transforming public realm, having led the design for the public realm and parklands of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. They are now designing the public realm for Stratford Waterfront and London’s South Bank.
LDA Design is currently working for Liverpool City Council on a Spatial Regeneration Framework (SRF) to guide the future development of the Baltic Triangle area, to the south of the city centre.
The draft Public Realm Strategy will go out to public consultation next year. It will provide a detailed planning framework to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the design and management of streets and open spaces. Its implementation will also support the city’s continuing economic and social regeneration and will be deigned to meet the needs of all users, including children, older people and people living with disabilities.
The Strategy will underpin Liverpool’s renaissance, with £14bn of development schemes either underway or in the pipeline over the coming decade.
The Strategy aims to:
- delivering high quality public realm
- envisaging a better connected city centre that is more welcoming and easier to understand and get around
- creating opportunity to dwell and engage
- contributing to sustainable development principles
- reinforcing the city centre as a great location for business, homes, play, culture and tourism
- complementing the Liverpool City Centre Connectivity Scheme and upcoming Public Art Strategy
The Strategy will also reflects the aims of the current Strategic Regeneration Frameworks/ Supplementary Planning Documents planned for the city centre at:
- Cavern Quarter/ Williamson Square
- Commercial Business District
- Upper Central
- The Baltic Triangle
The Strategy will be used as a Supplementary Planning Document once Liverpool’s 15 year Local Plan is adopted, late 2020. It will guide the city’s continuing economic and social regeneration and support and promote the Council’s declared Climate Change Emergency and environmentally friendly policies.
Mark Graham, Director of LDA, said: “Liverpool is renowned as one of the most vibrant and creative cities in the UK. The Strategy matters because we all meet in the public realm so it needs to be healthy, welcoming, green and sociable.
“As Liverpool continues to grow, its people deserve a city centre that reflects their ambitions, the public realm plays a huge part in this. We’re honoured to be part of such a nationally significant project.”
