Waterfront Apartments, Upper Strand, Property, Architect, Project, Images, Design
Granton Strand, Edinburgh
Housing : Waterfront Edinburgh / Places for People Group / Burrell
Upper Strand Granton
building photos © Adrian Welch, Sep 2006
Images released to Edinburgh Architecture 24 May 2005 by The Burrell Company:
Granton Strand, Waterfront, north Edinburgh, Scotland
Developers: The Places for People Group & The Burrell Company
Architects: Reiach and Hall Architects + Elder and Cannon Architects + Ushida Findlay Architects
Research and Development Centre Building PR, 3Nov 2005: at base of page
Upper Strand Property : Information Jul 05
In early March, Upper Strand Developments with Reiach and Hall Architects and Elder & Cannon Architects entered the Upper Strand, Phase 1 into the Mail on Sunday National HomeBuilder Design Awards in partnership with the NHBC 2005. The judging took place and the project – announced just recently at an awards luncheon in London – won.
Upper Strand (Phase 1) now holds the coveted Best Housing Project Award 2005.
Apartment tower images provided from Burrell Company
The judges – including amongst others, Isabel Allen (Editor of the AJ), Tony Chapman (Head of Awards at the RIBA) and Imtiaz Farookhi the chief executive of the NHBC – recognise Upper Strand Phase 1 as “homes that have been designed imaginatively while retaining sensitivity to their surroundings and the wider community.”
With the backing of the RIBA and the support of NHBC, The Architects’ Journal and Interbuild, The Mail on Sunday National HomeBuilder Design Awards “identify and promote the best examples of housing design, layout and landscaping in the Britsh Isles.”
The Upper Strand site forms the first phase of the major regeneration of Edinburgh’s waterfront at Granton – which ultimately will create over 5,000 residential units. Construction of the first 130 homes began in January 2005.
Website: www.upperstrand.co.uk
Granton Strand: image provided by Reiach and Hall Architects
Reiach and Hall Architects: Granton Strand PR
In March 2002, Reiach and Hall Architects along with Elder and Cannon
Architects, Ushida Findlay Architects and Ian White Associates Landscape
Architects were asked by The Places for People Group and The Burrell Company to participate in (and ultimately winning) an architect/developer competition to design the initial phase of the Waterfront Granton area, then being promoted for sale by Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd. (WEL).
The regeneration of Waterfront Granton is an enormous and complex project. The project, likely to take up to 15 years to complete, aims to transform the 140 hectare (346 acre) largely derelict, former industrial site into a sustainable mixed use, high density urban community where business and commercial space will sit alongside integrated, socially inclusive communities.
Initial masterplanning of the site was undertaken by Llewelyn-Davies in Dec 2000 andPage and Park Architects / Ian White Associates in 2001. The Master plan demonstrates how to create a mix of urban development around a particular sense of place. The vision is to create a place which involves and benefits the existing communities and which attracts investment in a full range of employment uses, housing, leisure, cultural and community development. The overall masterplan aims to provide:
Over 9,000 new residential units, of which 15% will be affordable housing for rent or low cost home ownership
Around 27,000 m2 of general industrial floorspace
Up to 340,000 m2 of business space in a wide variety of form
A wide range of ancillary community, cultural, retail, leisure & entertainment use
Major new parklands and landscaping
The area for this particular phase is a 7.75 acre high density residential site, known as the Upper Strand. It is focused on the historic Caroline Park House and its landscape structure. The Upper Strand seeks to respond to the 18th Century landscape plan of Caroline Park and develop the core ideas of the current masterplans with specific note being given to the provision of:
500 new homes, 15 percent of which will be affordable homes for rent a variety of house types and sizes which will allow a considerable degree of choice to potential purchasers secluded and secure courtyards to the rear of each block
parking which will be substantially covered an effective waste management strategy to encourage reduction of waste at source through the provision of recycling facilities. To reduce the visual impact an underground or under building refuse storage (likely to be the first of it’s kind in the UK) is proposed.
The consortium intend to create a model of sustainable urban regeneration with a content of such quality that it will both set the standard for future phases of the Waterfront redevelopment and act as a benchmark for other regeneration projects.
Upper Strand, Granton Waterfront, Edinburgh: Blocks
The scheme is divided into 2 principal urban blocks. The Western edge is executed by Elder and Cannon where ‘the collective response has been to develop and inter-relate these blocks through the landscape tradition of the Formal and the Picturesque’. The Eastern Wedge is designed by Reiach and Hall Architects and ‘explores the 2 essential themes implicit within the masterplanning guidelines & the ideas of the street and the garden; more specifically, the definition of Public and Private Spaces; and further within this definition, the idea of the Individual and the Collective.’
An urban marker building by Ushida Findlay and a series of villas (the subject of a later architectural competition) completes the Upper Strand proposals.
The Places for People Group are one of the leading housing providers across Great Britain, creating a wide variety and diverse mix of tenures together with associated facilities and services. The Burrell Company is a design-led developer specialising in urban regeneration, and well-known for their award-winning schemes. WEL is a company jointly formed by the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians with the specific intention of promoting the Waterfront Granton regeneration.
Granton Strand – information Jun 04
Waterfront Edinburgh PR: Harbour Road
New residential and commercial sites now available for development
Following close on the heels of its first land sale for residential development, Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd has offered developers additional sites.
Harbour Road is part of the Company’s Central Development Area and is based on the Master Plan designed for the Company by Glasgow-based architects, Page and Park. The plan envisages five phases which can provide up to 900 residential units, together with 3,000 sq m of commercial space. The first two phases released today offer two prime residential sites to be sold as separate lots or as a single site – Site A is .69 hectares and Site B is 1.0 hectares.
Councillor Elizabeth Maginnis, Chairman of Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd, said: ‘The Waterfront Edinburgh project is now developing significant momentum. Having concluded our first deal with Upper Strand Developments Ltd for 500 residential units, we are looking forward to hearing from developers from throughout the UK and beyond who want to work with us to create Edinburgh’s new New Town.
‘The aim of the project is to develop a major new community on the shores of the Firth of Forth which will provide a wonderful environment in which to live, work and enjoy excellent new leisure opportunities.’
Chief Executive, Stephen Izatt, added: ‘At 346 acres, not only is
Waterfront Edinburgh Scotland’s largest urban regeneration initiative, it has a unique advantage in that the views from the site over the Firth to Fife and up to the Bridges are breathtaking.
‘We are well on the way to making Edinburgh’s waterfront available, not just to the neighbouring communities in the North of Edinburgh but to the wider city and to those who, in the medium term, will move into the City to live and work.’
Harbour Road is bounded by the Project’s major infrastructure corridors. The Spine Road runs from east to west through the site and incorporates a road and tram reservation as well as cycle paths, pedestrian walkways and substantial landscaping. The Walk, the major services and pedestrian walkway, runs at a diagonal to the Spine Road.
The site is situated to the east of the recently sold Upper Strand site where a conditional missive has been concluded with Upper Strand Developments Limited, a joint venture established by The Places for People Group and The Burrell Company.
The first two phases to be made available are sites A and B which occupy prominent positions on the corner of the Spine Road and of The Walk. The developed buildings will have wonderful views across the Firth of Forth and around the City Centre.
Agents for the sale are international property specialists, Jones Lang LaSalle. National Director, Cameron Stott, said: ‘I think the Harbour Road sites are among the best in the whole Waterfront area and they will appeal strongly to residential developers. There is now a critical mass of quality projects underway at the Waterfront and, in addition to financial issues, we will be looking for a purchaser who can continue the high standards of design that have been established.
Waterfront Edinburgh : Granton Strand Buildings PR 28 Jul 2003
News Excerpts re Granton Strand:
Granton: Burrell Company + Places for the People
Waterfront Edinburgh, the City Council-run project to develop the capital’s Granton area, signed a £60m deal with Edinburgh’s Burrell Company to build 500 homes on the site. The deal is the first residential contract awarded by the company and will account for half of the group’s 1,000-apartment target. The homes are to go on the market in the summer of 2004. Burrell is working with Lancashire-based housing firm Places for People to develop the site. It is the Edinburgh company’s biggest deal in its 23-year history, and its English counterpart’s first major venture in Scotland.
20 May 2003
Granton Strand: Places for People
Jewitt Arschavir & Wilkie Architects are pleased to announce they started on site in Pilton with Phase 1 of their development for 220 houses/flats for Places for People.
Jewitt Arschavir & Wilkie Architects
12 Apr 2003
Granton Masterplan
Granton: Upper Strand – Research and Development Centre PR 3 Nov 2005
UNVEILING OF AN INNOVATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTRE TO SUPPORT THE MARKETING LAUNCH OF AWARD-WINNING DEVELOPMENT OVERLOOKING THE RIVER FORTH
Part of the larger Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd regeneration programme, Upper Strand is a joint venture between urban regeneration specialists, The Burrell Company, and The Places for People Group, which will see 500 new homes built in six phases over the next five years.
The development itself will boast many innovative features, including the use of district heating and a state-of-the-art refuse system, which will be reflected in the Research and Development Centre.
Decorated in Upper Strand’s eye-catching green and orange colours, the striking suite will feature ‘pods’ and other exhibition media designed by Reiach and Hall Architects, to provide information on the development including specification, landscaping, transportation, energy, waste, security and the local economy. Examples of the kitchens and bathrooms in the apartments will be available to test. Scale models of the development will also be on display along with images.
Andrew Burrell, Managing Director of The Burrell Company, said:
“Upper Strand will provide real competition in the Edinburgh property market, especially amongst first time buyers, with its striking design features yet retaining affordability. We wanted these factors to come across in our marketing of the properties.
With the opening of the Research and Development Centre we can offer potential homebuyers a much greater insight and feel for what we have to offer at Upper Strand, not just in terms of design and specification but also lifestyle.”
Upper Strand, involving two award winning architects, Edinburgh-based Reiach and Hall and Glasgow-based Elder & Cannon, has already been recognised as one of the best examples of housing design, layout and landscaping in the UK, after being named Best Housing Project at the National HomeBuilder Design Awards earlier this year.
Eighteen properties, comprising a range of one, two and three bedroomed apartments, have been released for early sale. Prices start from £116,000.
Colin Rae, Development Director in Scotland for The Places for People Group, added:
“Finding a high quality property that offers affordability and innovation in Edinburgh can be quite a challenge. At Upper Strand we are able to offer the best of both worlds in a vibrant community offering a mix of private and rented accommodation.”
Madelvic Granton
Wm Morrison Granton
Granton Strand – Building PR Nov 2005
Granton School
Waterfront Edinburgh: Heart Approved
13 storey tower proposal by EMA architecture + design at Plot Q – Saltire Square for Barrett East Scotland + Ashfield Land Ltd: 167 units – flats, maisonettes, townhouses & commercial units: minded to Grant. Two storeys higher than Reiach and Hall architects’ Upper Strand tower but designated in masterplan for 5-7 storeys. Scathing comments from A+DS on CEC portal. At junction of Waterfront Avenue and The Walk
Mar 2006
Upper Strand : Scottish Design Awards 2006 – Proposed Place Making Award – Architects Commendation
Comments / photos for the Granton Strand Edinburgh page welcome
Granton Strand – page