Edinburgh City Centre Regeneration, Image, News, Proposal, Design, Plans, Info

Edinburgh City Centre Regeneration News

Scottish Capital Redevelopment

Edinburgh City Regeneration

Having attended this talk I realised these guys appear to have a lot of power over our capital’s city centre: not some fancy idea but lots of active and coordinated schemes such as Castle Street ‘pedestrianisation’ (finished), St Andrew Square ‘reworking + opening to the public’ (about to start) and the Grassmarket ‘continental piazza’ (discussions still rumbling?). But some of the most interesting elements are the proposals along the line of Rose Street, stretching from Shandwick Place to the St James Centre, a massive remit.

The rehabilitation of Princes Street’s upper floors is long overdue [witness campaigning over the years on & from this website] and there seems to be opportunities here too. The first real project so far – Castle Street – although an improvement is simply not good enough. On opening it was criticised for being dull (like an ‘airport runway’) but at least was quiet and clean. now it is packed with vehicles and dirty, not too dissimilar to what is started out as. It’s easy to criticise but there must be more attention to detail, and, I would suggest, some vibrant creative minds involved, that way you get something special to compete with cities such as Frankfurt or Barcelona.

“Presentation from Jonathan Guthrie, City Centre Development Partnership Director for City of Edinburgh Council, on the vision for the redevelopment of the Capital’s shopping heart. The ideas for this exciting development include glass-covered walkways linking Princes Street and George Street, flats and a hotel above shops and storage yards transformed into gardens.

The proposed glass-covered walkways would run parallel to Hanover Street and Frederick Street, breaking through existing shop fronts. The idea is that they would encourage shoppers to move more easily between Princes Street and George Street, and provide better access to Rose Street”.