This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Interview: Vivienne Ramsey


London Borough of Newham Olympic Delivery Authority


19


From the beginning, the regeneration of the site of the Stratford Raillands was always about jobs for local people – employment-led regeneration, in keeping with the borough's unitary development plan. Yes,


there could be a significant amount of housing as well but it was actually about employment- led regeneration. Westfield is the first part of that and it brings a significant number of jobs with it, which was Newham’s ambition from the start. We were looking at a whole series of initiatives that would help in that way. People can find work in Westfield now, and perhaps will be better equipped to work elsewhere afterwards. It’s not just about re-development of a site, it’s a much wider set of ambitions, which are sometimes more intangible and difficult to quantify. We tried to look at precedents set by other big projects but there wasn’t much around at the time that was a large, mixed-use development. We had a look at Greenwich Peninsula and what Greenwich was doing. I talked to one or two other local authorities that had big mixed- use developments in discussion or in the pipeline but Greenwich was the biggest one that happened just before Stratford City really – there wasn’t an awful lot around that was directly comparable. What we wanted to avoid was the type of development you see at Canary Wharf that, at its edges and in its abrupt changes of materials, reinforces a ‘them-and-us’ attitude. Our campaign to get the International station at Stratford was all about opening up the rail lands in order to enable redevelopment


of the redundant site. Then the Olympics coming along made the pace of development more focused. The Olympic Park changed the dynamic of how this place could evolve. In making the big campaign to get the Channel


Tunnel rail link come north of the Thames and have a station in Stratford, certain decisions were made about the tunnelling. In order to have a slightly cheaper international station in Stratford, it had to be an open box, which meant there had to be a cut right through the middle of the site. Chelsfield was also being taken over by Westfield, so there were changes that had to happen because Westfield’s ideas of a shopping mall were different to what we’d been thinking: in short, the masterplan was in need of amendments. We had talked about constructing something that comprised a modern take on the Victorian arcade rather than an air-conditioned mall, whereas Westfield are much more about the air- conditioned mall. So, after much debate, we’ve ended up with a combination of the two – we’ve got the outside street and the inside galleria. What we don’t have are small, connecting side streets with small shops. That would be a little too fine-grained for the Westfield requirements. Newham, at the time of the Stratford City Planning Permission, didn't have a design review panel or an access officer, so some resources just weren't there. This is a big beast that is being developed on the doorstep and I wanted to make sure that the quality coming out of it was the best we could achieve. This is where the Design Review Panel came in, which I built in as a requirement of the planning permission, which benefited both the borough of Newham and Westfield.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142