Greenwich councillors have approved plans to give Cutty Sark Gardens a makeover.
The designs from Dutch firm, OKRA, include 6,540 sq m of new stone covering, less steps to make it more pedestrian friendly, and an interactive “wet floor” feature designed to mirror the tide of the River Thames.
Five new green planting area will be established and there will be a clear route for cyclists.
The plans came in for sharp criticism from World Heritage Site Executive. They said the “soft landscaping” was at odds with their preferred “dockside” character and criticised the “flower beds” and “pond” for having no relationship with the river and its industrial setting.
The Planning Board gave their unanimous support to the new designs at a meeting on Thursday night at Woolwich Town Hall. The project is expected to be completed in time for London 2012 but a programme of archaeological work must take place on the site before the redevelopment can begin.
Darryl from 853 posted photos this week showing latest illustrations of how the restored Cutty Sark will look.
IN a time of cuts, when Greenwich has a lot of pressure on its housing and social budgets…
WHY are we spending millions to redevelop these gardens for the SECOND time in a decade?
WHY does the £45 million restoration of the Cutty Sark look so pathetic? Like the old shop crash-landed on a cheap greennhouse? WHere has all the money gone?
It seems that Greenwich Council really don’t know how to commission sensitive urban architecture in the town and rarely take into account the special character of the historical surround. When the World Heritage Site Executive has to comment you have to know that things are going wrong.
The town has been a building site for too long now and many developments in the last 15 years or so have been shoddy (eg: Cutty Sark Gardens) and added nothing to the area. Personally, I do not take a Prince Charles like view of architecture and I think that modernism can sit comfortably with historical architecture but the design needs to be sensitive to what it is standing against (and that does’t mean you need to build a cheap pastiche like the DLR arcade)
The council’s only decent call recently has been to oppose the abomination that Greenwich Hospital are planning to throw up where the market currently stands, but they need to view the town as more than just a cash cow to fill their coffers and begin to take a holistic view of it as both a tourist destination and a community
Anything is better than the concrete slab of the Cutty Sark Gardens. Not sure who the “World Heritage Site Executive” is, they don’t look like they are related to UNESCO. If they are, then commenting on a small sliver of land in the marked site is a little trivial as long as they don’t touch the Old Naval College, the Park and the Royal Observatory.
The real question is whether they can get everything done by 2012. The quicker they can do this, the more tourists they bring in.