York Area Developments

[Electric_City]

A new thread for developments in the York area, including Super-Talls, Stadia, Subway Metros and other such projects

Meanwhile, in the real world...

Updates on the two current major city centre developments, information on which was last posted by Bulldozer, I think.

[Electric_City]

A mixed-use development covering some 4 hectares, the first phase of which is residential.

This photo was taken back in February:


These were taken yesterday, showing the progress that has been made:








Another one taken in February from the adjacent River Foss:


These taken yesterday from the same location:






Phase 1 development in the distance with the marketing suite in the foreground:


Some blurb from the website:

[Electric_City]

Scheduled for completion in the 2008 academic year, this new building will house:

* New facilities for the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, including facilities for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy
* State-of-the-art lecture theatre
* Seminar rooms
* Seminar breakout rooms
* Specialist and general teaching environments
* New postgraduate student support and advancement unit

View from Gillygate, taken in February:


Taken yesterday:




View from Clarence Street, taken in February:


Taken yesterday:

[Bulldozer]

Cheers for update Electric_city, a bit of progress then. Appear to be concentrating on getting the frames up on the flats blocks, but a bit of brickwork appearing on the 1st blocks.

Any new developments about in York ?

[Electric_City]

I'm not aware of any major projects under construction at the moment (but that doesn't necessarily mean anything!). I know there are some in the pipeline, such as the new Humanities and Education Research Centre up at the main University.

I'll let you know if I find anything out.

[Val Verde]

The Yorkshire Wheel will be dismantled next month and will be moved overseas with the prospect in the future of a new permanent wheel for York coming to the city in the future. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/n...re/7658953.stm

Month left for York wheel rides


About 1 million people have visited the Yorkshire Wheel
The Yorkshire Wheel will make its final spin at York's National Railway Museum (NRM) next month.

About a million people have visited the wheel since it opened in April 2006.

Its final day of trading will be on Sunday, 2 November and it will take up to three weeks to be dismantled before being moved to a site overseas.

World Tourist Attractions, which owns the wheel, plans to submit a planning application for a new wheel a quarter of a mile (402m) across the city.

Judith Whitaker, from the NRM, said it had been a "very successful venture".

"We'd like to say a huge thank you to all those who have ridden it over the past two and a half years," she said.

In August John Lowry, senior operations manager for World Tourist Attractions, told BBC News they wanted to build another wheel in North Street on the banks of the Ouse.

Mr Lowry said the new custom-built wheel, which will be 200ft (60m) high - the same height as the present structure and only about 9m lower than the city's famous Minster - would have more commercial potential in its proposed new location.

Seems like the York Wheel was a big success despite obviously jumping on the bandwagon for big wheels since the London Eye was opened in 2000. Is there any indication of how likely a permanent wheel will be to be constructed in its possible location closer to the centre of York and would it be 100% private sector funded or will some money come from the public purse.

Also out of interest is there any other development news in the York area?

[Electric_City]

I must say I'm surprised that the current wheel has done so well - the views from that side of town aren't really that great. A more central location would be good but some people would oppose that, claiming that it would be too intrusive.

[Electric_City]

I managed to take some more pictures of the St. John University development, which now can't be far off exterior completion. I must say though, that this kind of thing is becoming more of a chore - today I had blokes coming out within seconds to ask me what I was doing. I get the feeling that they've just been instructed to hassle anyone taking photographs. If they don't want anyone to see it, then why don't they cover it up?

[Electric_City]

Some more recent pictures of the Hungate development, which is now assuming a more recognisable shape:

Taken from the Hungate site itself:






Taken from the River Foss:

[Electric_City]

For anyone who's interested in other aspects of the Hungate site, this information was released last week:

Archaeologists dig deep to shed new light on city's Viking heritage

By Paul Jeeves
IT has long been acknowledged that York is an archaeological gold mine, but the true scale of the city's long history still remains buried underfoot. However, one of the most significant discoveries in a generation has thrown up new evidence to provide a clearer picture of how far the city sprawled during the Viking era.

A thousand years ago York ranked among the 10 biggest settlements in Western Europe, but archaeologists have now found the remains of a Viking settlement at the Hungate dig close to banks of the River Foss.

The discovery is less than a mile from the remains of similar buildings found during the world-famous Coppergate dig 30 years ago, providing further clues as to the true size of the Viking town of Jorvik.

The Hungate excavation's project director Peter Connelly said: "For any archaeologists, this is a hugely exciting find. We are extremely privileged to be working on a dig like this, but we could only hope to find something as significant as this building.



"We now have definitive proof that people from the Anglo-Scandinavian period built settlements on this site, and this gives us more evidence that Jorvik was far bigger than many people thought.

"We knew that it was a large town of real significance and it was probably the biggest settlement in the north of England at the time, but now we have more vital evidence."

The excavations are being carried out ahead of the £150m Hungate development, and it is the biggest archaeological dig in the city since Coppergate in the 1970s and early 1980s which saw the creation of the Jorvik Viking Centre to house the finds.

The timber-lined cellar of a two-storey Viking age structure was unearthed more than 10ft below the current street level at Hungate last week, and it is thought the building dates from the mid to late 10th century.

While its exact use is still not known, the York Archaeological Trust's experts think the building could have been used as a workshop or for storing food and other perishable items.

However, shards of pottery, discarded animal bones, a comb and an amber bead dating from the Viking era have all been found buried in the soil in the building's cellar, indicating that it could well have been a domestic dwelling.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the find is that timber from a ship has been used in the building's construction – the first discovery of its kind in York.

The recycled timber provides further proof as to how valuable wood was during the Viking era as it has been re-used in the building and has thrown up clues that Jorvik was an important trade centre, with boats arriving on the nearby River Foss.

The York Archaeological Trust's chief executive John Walker claimed the fact that the building had a cellar showed land in Jorvik was at a premium, as the builders had taken the effort to hollow out the room from the ground.

He said: "They could quite easily have built a store further away, but the decision was taken to create the cellar. The discovery of this building is phenomenal, and does throw up so many questions as well as some answers.

"We always knew that Jorvik was big, but we never knew quite how big."

Archaeologists are nearing the half-way point in the five-year £3.3m dig on the 10-acre Hungate site to pave the way for more than 700 new homes, shops and offices.

The timber from the house will be taken away for scientific tests at the trust's laboratories in the hope of unlocking further secrets from the past.

The remains of the building will eventually go on display, possibly on the Hungate site once the development is finished.

More than 11,000 visitors have toured the site in the last 16 months, and the city's residents are able to help in community archaeology digs.

The York Archaeological Trust started work on the main part of the Hungate site in spring last year and the excavations have revealed a host of finds dating back more than 1,000 years.

Discoveries include traces of Viking age life such as bone ice skates, fragments of combs and a rare small glass bead.

[Molly]

Wow that's shot up! I've not walked round there for quite a while. Thanks for the pics.

[Val Verde]

News on a significant possible development by HSBC Bank to create a £300 million date centre facility with 2,000 jobs during the construction period and 100 jobs handling data initially when the site is opened in the Monks Cross area of York. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/n...re/7747840.stm

Bank plans £300m centre for city


image hosted on flickr

HSBC has applied for planning permission at the site in York
Banking giant HSBC has submitted a plan for a £300m data centre on a business park on the outskirts of York.

The firm wants to build a 325,000 sq ft centre at Monks Cross and if planning permission is granted a final decision on the project will be made in 2009.

Officials at the company believe the work on the centre would take two years to complete and create jobs for thousands of building industry workers.

Initially 100 jobs dealing with data would be based at the site.

In a statement HSBC said that data centres were a critical part of the bank's information technology infrastructure, handling among other work, billions of pounds worth of transactions a day between individuals, companies and institutions.

When completed, the York site would be paired with another data centre in Yorkshire and will be the largest and most important HSBC data centre facility in the world - the other pairs are in Hong Kong, Chicago and Mexico City.

A new fibre optic infrastructure would be delivered to the site by HSBC, with potential availability to other business in the city.

Where abouts in Yorkshire is HSBC's existing data handling centre? Still it should be good news for York and it would surely provide some needed construction employment, although it would have been better imo to have to have sited this closer to the city centre as opposed to what I presume will be green belt land (and it is something generally seen in York which has had quite a lot of edge of city developments such as Monks Cross, Clifton Moor, McArthur Glen etc). Will work from existing HSBC sites including those based in Leeds be moved to this York site and were any other sites put under consideration prior to HSBC chosing to site this development in York?

Still it would be something for Yorkshire to have a data centre for HSBC alongside the likes of Hong Kong, Chicago and Mexico City considering HSBC have been resiliant to the problems which have faced many other banks in recent months as a result of the credit crunch.

[Electric_City]

Update of the St. John University development, which looks to be almost completed now...

This part on Lord Mayor's Walk just needs the sign to go up in the recessed bit of the wall:




Junction of Lord Mayor's Walk, Clarence Street (ahead) and Gillygate (behind):


Boards on Clarence Street are all gone now, revealing this open corner bit, with a rather forlorn-looking seating area:


Further in...


They've already got tables and chairs inside..


Wavy bit on Clarence Street:


Finishing touches - installing the security cameras (ironic that they didn't like me taking photos of their building not so long ago!)..

[Electric_City]

The scaffolding is gradually coming down at the Hungate development, Phase 1:







Taken from the other side of the development, across Foss Islands Road.


From this angle, these buildings will be almost completely obscured in Summer:

[di Livio]

The st. john development looks very good - nice combo of modern design and traditional materials. I'm a bit more sceptical about the 'iconic design' of Hungate, a bit of promo manipualtion there i think.

My one wish for York would be to demolish the Park inn on the waterfront and put up a Newcastole/Gateshead SAGE type building. And demolish the public toilets outside M&S.

[Electric_City]

There's a whole load of buildings in York which I'd like to see demolished. The Park Inn could be one of them but it wouldn't be at the top of the list!

[Electric_City]

There's a new development at Heworth Green, further up the River Foss from Hungate, which I had completely overlooked:







There's also this building round the back of the development, which I never realised existed:

[Electric_City]

Historic industrial site comes on to the market for £11m

Published Date: 30 January 2009
By Greg Wright

HOLGATE Park was once crammed with workers who made railway carriages which carried millions of people around Britain during the heyday of steam.

The site is now up for sale with an £11m price tag, and despite the recession, property consultant King Sturge believes it could attract a buyer who hopes to cash in on plans to regenerate York city centre.

The 18.3 acre industrial site, which is close to York Railway Station and a mile west of the city centre, is being sold by King Sturge, on behalf of a London-based private client. The building was originally built as a carriage works in the late 1800s, accommodating paint workshops, a smith's shop and machining areas.

By 1906 the works employed more than 4,000 people who were responsible for producing carriage stock for the North Eastern Railway.

Andrew Summersgill, head of the King Sturge Investment Team, said the site potentially had "major strategic significance" as it may be included in proposals relating to York Central, a 75-hectare regeneration site, immediately north east of Holgate Park, which is earmarked for redevelopment within the Yorkshire and Humber regional spatial strategy.

The York Central site is being promoted by Yorkshire Forward, Network Rail and the National Museum of Science & Industry.

A development partner is being sought for the mixed use scheme which could combine retail, employment, housing and leisure uses.

Proposals for the York Central site also include a transport interchange.

Holgate Park currently commands a total annual rent of around £1m. The largest tenant is Network Rail which occupies the main industrial unit on a lease which expires in July 2010.

Mr Summersgill added: 'While the current proposals for York Central remain unknown and market conditions are difficult, Holgate Park is an interesting investment proposition in its own right.

"This is a unique investment providing income which has the potential to be improved and consolidated further in the short term.

"The size, prominence and position of the site clearly offer various possibilities in the medium term, including redevelopment once market conditions improve."

Yorkshire Post Business Supplement

[Electric_City]

Here are some pictures of developments in York, taken a few weeks back.

First of all, a new mixed-use scheme on Bootham Row/Bootham:









This next one shows how the structure has been set back from the existing building on Bootham. This is an alteration to the design, done in order to comply with planning instructions, so that the new building doesn't dominate its surroundings too much:

..one of the corner girders looks a bit bent there - is that normal?

[Electric_City]

The scaffolding is all but gone from the Forum residential development now: