Building the team delivering York Central’s world-class ambition

With so many different sets of skills required to tackle a project with the ambition and scale of York Central, we brought representatives of all the design teams together for a day to introduce each other, to meet and reconnect with colleagues from all over the country and share the collective vision for bringing York Central to life.

The day kicked off with an inspirational introduction from York Central’s Tom Gilman, Managing Director of McLaren Regeneration. Born and bred in York, Tom is passionate about the size of the opportunity York Central presents for his hometown and the legacy it will create for future generations. This was followed by presentations from the teams involved in designing the different plots within the first build phase of York Central.

Jason Syrett from Allies & Morrison, who has been involved in the plans for the past nine years, explained how the masterplan is a process not a product and reiterated how York Central is all about people of York, while emphasising the importance of the National Railway Museum in the bigger picture. He urged his colleagues and fellow creatives to “expect the unexpected and to plan for the opportunity ahead.”

Nab Speakes, from 3D Reid, working with a team including GT (Gardiner and Theobald), Arup, Burro Happold and Grant Associates gave an overview of proposals to transform the far side of York Railway Station. Plans include a new hotel and a new, accessible Western Station Entrance, with bike parking and retail and leisure units.

Allies & Morrison’s Chris Trundle shared the aspirations for a new Innovation Hub at York Central and the ambition for it to be the most sustainable commercial building in the UK, setting a new green standard. All the while, the team is focused on keeping within the York Central design guide and embracing “Yorkness” to ensure the development dovetails into the look and feel of the city perfectly.

Chris Gilman from GMI and Dan Tassell from Haworth Tompkins talked about York Central’s scale and regional significance for York and how the build to rent  residential scheme will set new standards for the sector as a whole for sustainability, not seen before in York or anywhere else in the UK.

Mixed tenure homes for sale were outlined by Ian Walsh from Cartwright Pickard, with apartments and townhouses facilitating multi-generational, car light living with high quality, sustainable design. Members of the Haworth Tompkins team also talked through the ambitions and design work for the extensive affordable housing that we will be making available.

Chin Chen from Grant Associates looked at collaboration and sustainability at York Central, focusing on Central Park and Coal Drops Square.  She shared the how the design work is being inspired by nature and is running through the masterplan from day to night, through all levels and in all spaces, fusing heritage elements with modern features.

Rob Wolfe from CHY Consultancy wrapped up the morning session championing social value and the opportunity York Central presents to drive real social and economic change. He reiterated how the team has an early stage opportunity to embed a culture of social value and use collective influence to drive positive change for the city.

In the afternoon session, the group was challenged to “Dream Big” and in teams work up an idea or way of doing things, that would make York Central a better place and deliver a world class city quarter locals would love.

After some lively and engaging workshop sessions, a series of ‘Big Ideas” were presented back to the audience. Each one demonstrated how it would incorporate the York Central ethos of 5Ps and also why York locals and visitors would love it.

The day inspired team building and collaboration and highlighted the scale of the ambition and enthusiasm for the project, where ‘pride’, ‘being remarkable’ and ‘embracing the exceptional’ were some of the key values and behaviours prominent in the thinking behind the scheme.

A final poll to sum up the day described York Central as a transformational opportunity to leave a legacy to be proud of.

It was a pleasure to welcome such a brilliant collaborative group to the National Railway Museum. Thank you to Steve Hobbs for expertly facilitating our collective of creatives and to everyone came along for sharing details about each of the different work streams, which all contributed to an informative and inspiring event.