| |
Mayor has designs on a new-look ‘St Giles’ area
A MAJOR regeneration scheme at the bottom end of Oxford Street is being drawn up under the direction of the Mayor of London.
Ken Livingstone has pushed for improvements to the eastern end of the famous street for years and has now asked his new architecture and design unit – Design for London – to tackle five landholdings around the Centre Point skyscraper block.
Peter Bishop, director of the unit and a former Camden Council officer, told Estates Gazette that it was set up to commission an architect to draw up a scheme for the area, known as St Giles.
It will cover land owned by Targetfollow, the Co-operative Insurance Society’s holdings, Land Securities, Derwent Holdings and Consolidated Developments’ adjacent site bordering Denmark Street.
Mr Bishop said the scheme will feed into planning briefs being prepared by Camden and Westminster councils, adding: “Proposals submitted by the landowners will then be measured against our scheme.”
Mr Livingstone does not have the power to force through his plans, but he has threatened to use compulsory purchase orders in order to assemble substantial holdings in the St Giles area.
But the mayor’s initiative has come too late to incorporate another site east of Centre Point, where Legal & General has prepared a 400,000 sq ft project by the international architect Renzo Piano.
The mayor complained two months ago that Legal & General was wasting a chance to team up with the other site owners for a comprehensive redevelopment.
John Stephen, chairman of agents Jones Lang LaSalle, which has advised Legal & General, claims that its scheme will “pump prime” future regeneration.
“If the master plan brings together different owners with a single vision, that has to be good,” he told Estate Gazette.
|
 |
|
| |
| |
