Merging medieval lines with futuristic designs

Coventry City Council has revealed new plans for its £1 billion transformation of the city centre.

The final plan aims to merge the city’s medieval design with futuristic architectural lines, while taking into considerations environmental concerns.

Over the past year, designers from international architecture and urban design firm ‘The Jerde Partnership’ have been working with the Council and its partners to create the new centre.

Starting with January 2008, Coventry residents were asked for their opinion on how they wanted their city renovated.

This initative aimed to put “local people firmly in the driving seat from the very start” Coventry City Council said.

The first draft of the plan was launched in the fall of 2008. The public reaction to the plans was overwhelming.

Over six weeks, more than three thousand people came to the city centre shop to have a look at the designs. They discussed their ideas with senior managers, council representatives and city development officers.

Commenting on the success of the initiative, Cllr Ken Taylor, Leader of Coventry City Council, said: “I have been overwhelmed and delighted by how passionate people feel about the plans for the city centre.

Almost everyone agrees that we have to act, and act fast, in order to transform our city centre into a place where people want to live, work and play.

This is the biggest regeneration project in Coventry for more than fifty years and it will only be successful if we work with local people and our private sector partners to make it happen.”

People’s suggestions focused on elements such as the market. They agreed with its new location as an achor store on the prime walkway around the city, but expressed their belief that it should be round. This remark was incorporated into the final plans.

Other ideas included breaking the roof top green spaces in to smaller parcels, making the Coventry Arena more compact, making the residential apartments lower in height and spreading them more evenly across the city centre, breaking some of the bigger chunks of development down into smaller parcels so they can be built in a more organic and phased way.

Coventry Council aims to stick to its plans and is committed to seeing them through, despite the economic climate. This will take time however, and it is estimated that the project will be completed in fifteen to twenty years.

The local Council also intends to keep citizens involved in the process, by setting up a special panel, which will permanently stay on track with people’s opinions.

David Sheldon and Stuart Berriman, the two leading archites of this project, will come to Coventry next month to present the final plan to the Council’s Cabinet.