GLOUCESTER RENAISSANCE
“We were very mindful of that when we were doing developments,” said Mr Oldershaw. “We wanted to ensure that Gloucester remained a green city.” Design excellence is critical in any regeneration scheme and it was important to set up a design panel to help “raise the bar.” Mr Oldershaw said: “Pulling in some of the leading design professionals in the area was a good way of making sure, wherever possible, that you get the best standards of design in terms of building. Interestingly, we had the the then Bishop of Gloucester, Michael Perham, on the design panel. “He made a very interesting comment that he had probably the most important building within the city, the cathedral, and from a design point of view we needed to make sure we did not restrict views of the cathedral. That needed to be built into the design briefs and was very important.” Sadly, the Bishop died from cancer in 2017. Mr Oldershaw said he expected it would take at least 18 months to get the community, businesses and design professionals on board. “You do need some early successes and that is why having the South West Regional Development Agency and Homes and CommunitiesAgency/ English Partnerships on board was so important, because they gave a commitment to finance and ended up putting about £50 million in between them. And having some big boys like Peel who could go to launch events and say 'this is what is
Blackfriars has been transformed
56 | July 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs