Commendation for Best Landscaping of a Development
FROM BROWN TO GREEN
Port Marine, Station Road, Portishead, Bristol BS20 7DB
Take the 53-acre site of a disused power station and its derelict dock once used by coal barges and lighters and you have the typical industrial brownfield site that most housebuilders shied away from. Not any more, but it takes an experienced company like Crest Nicholson and an equally experienced firm of landscape architects such as Lovejoy (formerly the Derek Lovejoy Partnership until his death last year) to tackle such a daunting task, especially as this first phase is only part of a much larger project, the 545-acre site for which was bought in 18 separate parcels in 1999.
Working to a master plan prepared by Llewelyn-Davies and BBA Architects, the resulting transformation will have produced 950 houses and apartments and a 450-berth tidal marina when its first phase is completed in 2006. - and almost 3,500 homes when later phases north and south of the marina are developed with housing and associated retail, office and leisure uses in a joint venture between Crest Nicholson and Persimmon.
This massive regeneration project started with a £9-million remediation of the contaminated land, followed by a £3-million construction of the marina in the power station's former coal dock, with new double lock gates and footbridges to create the second-largest tidal marina lock in Europe. Last year this project won the award for Best Use of a Brownfield Site.
Now the housing (designed by four different firms of architects) is well advanced and the new landscaping is looking remarkably mature. Pulverised fuel ash over most of the site was replaced with topsoil, enabling the natural habitat for wildlife to be restored. There are now many areas of open space, a nature reserve, coastal walks, and landscaped footpaths and cycleways connecting the different residential areas (with their tree-lined avenues and squares). It is now hard to believe that this attractive area of Bristol was inaccessible to the public for more than 100 years.
Homebuilder: CREST NICHOLSON (SOUTH WEST) LIMITED
Crest House, Lime Kiln Close, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8ST
Tel 0117 969 6600
Fax 0117 969 5792
Website: www.crestnicholson.com
Contact: Lorraine Kendrick, Sales & Marketing Director.
Email: lkendrick@crestnicholson.com
Landscape Architects: LOVEJOY
Caxton House, 1 Fore Street, Birmingham, B2 5ER
Tel 0121 329 7676 Fax 0121 329 7677
Website: www.lovejoy.uk.com
Contact: Andy Williams, Project Director.
Email: awilliams@lovejoybirmingham.uk.com