Work will involve leaving parts of half demolished Broadmarsh centre in tact
Thomas Heatherwick has unveiled plans to turn a part-demolished 1970s shopping centre into a park and leisure space.
Called the Frame, the scheme will involve a 拢500m makeover of the Broadmarsh shopping mall which opened in 1975 and was partway through a redevelopment which ground to a halt when its former owner, retail developer Intu, went bust last year.
Intu had appointed Sir Robert McAlpine in 2018 for the work which was to be funded by 拢86m from the developer and the remainder from Nottingham city council.
The plans for the revamp involved replacing the brick exterior with a glass frontage, as well as new shops, a cinema, bowling alley and food court.
But after Intu sank last summer, the lease taken on by the council, which launched a public consultation and steering committee to help decide on the future of the site.
Members of the committee include Sir Tim Smit of the Eden Project in Cornwall and Greg Nugent, a former director of the London 2012 Olympics committee.
Heatherwick鈥檚 plan includes 750 new homes and a hotel as well as shops, offices, conference facilities and leisure space. Facilities include a climbing wall and vast trampoline or events space for boxing or music.
The designer said: 鈥�The challenge of what to do with the former Broadmarsh shopping centre has been a chance to think about the failure of our city centres. They should be about bringing people together, not just about retail. Rather than demolish the structure, we are proposing to keep the frame and breathe new life into it, creating a place that can hold the diversity and vibrancy that is so lacking from many city centres.鈥�
Developer on the scheme is London firm Stories which is also working on a mixed-use scheme in central London called St Mungo鈥檚 with AHMM and another mixed-use scheme in Bath called Bath Quays North also with AHMM.
Work is expected to take around 10 years to complete and will create 3,000 jobs during the building process.
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