Trinity, Leeds | 1m sq ft retail development | Now open!

[rabbits field]

Well isn't the unique appeal of Leeds' shopping experience that it is pleasant to walk around the beautiful arcades and streets, rather than the sheer amount of shops it crams in?

If Leeds already has a quality shopping environment, doesn't that set a benchmark? Why dilute it by settling for something mundane.

Climbing up some pointless retail league only impresses people who like to bicker on SSC's City Talk forum.

[dkeeno1]

I would hardly call the design in the picture mundane! It is still a stunning design and the roof still loks fantastic, but as already mentioned most people would not look up at the roof. The design of the centre in general still looks fantastic and i think people should be grateful that your getting anything at all! Coming from a city originally thats seen very little generation at all over the past 20 years and is basically dying on its feet i would love to see something like this, I enjoy Leeds a lot more than my home city becuase its such a lovely place to walk around and this centre is going to be anbother great addition, you can hardly say its worse than what was there before!

[wiggleyleeds]

anyone got a picture of the original 'better' roof to compare to the new roof?

the glass roof in the render a few posts above looks really good. I dont remember previous designs having a better roof (?)

[LoveTheCity]

Best I could find of the original roof..

[Skychaser 2005]

Originally Posted by Even Flow

http://www.propertyweek.com/story.as...rycode=3122314

Don't see why people are saying its worse than the original render. I think its less fussy and more dramatic in its design

[rabbits field]

It's exactly like Cabot Circus in Bristol:







Not bad by any means. It's just a typical glazed gridshell design that has been used many times before. With the organic shapes of the Miralles design, Leeds would have been getting something unique.

[Smoggie_Si]

I don't really see the problem with the new roof, looks rather impressive I think, there's something of Fosters British Museum Great Court roof about it.

I do like the original design but I don't feel strongly enough about it to feel that such a vitally important scheme should be left as an empty hole in the city centre for who knows how long. It develops an absolute eyesore area that has been so visible to visitors and an embarassment to Leeds for so many years and is vital for the city centre, more so than Eastgate IMO due to being slap bang in the core city centre rather than on the periphery. I agree with LoveTheCity, LN1 and Skychaser.

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by rabbits field

What happened to the roof!?!?

Oh for f*ck sake, this is a joke. Looks like a crapper version of Bristol's new Broadmead development. If this is what they are now building, Leeds has wasted a huge opportunity. Disgraceful stuff.

This development has had almost ten years of dumbing down. We now have a generic anytown development that looks identical to Bristol's Broadmead, Nottingham's Broadmarsh and Birmingham's Bullring. The new design isn't terrible but we're getting to the stage where Leeds has almost nothing to distinguish it from its competitors.
The only thing that would make me feel better is if the rendering is actually of the Shopping Plaza side of the development.

Yours,
Mr. Grumpy.

[Molly]

Well at least it will have a roof! Which is a relief after visiting that new one at Liverpool! I couldn't believe they forgot to put on a roof!

[dkeeno1]

Oh of course Mr Grumpy Leeds has nothing to distinguish it form other cities, id completely forgot that all cities had the VQ and architectually rich streets like Briggate and The headrow!
Weve seen one image that shows a slightly altered roof design, theres been no announcement that the original design has been dropped, and everyone on here has suddnely blown everything majourly out of proportion! We're still gonna end up with a development that looks fantastic and is going to be a massive boost to the city in regards to the impression it makes to visitors coming into the city.
Considering the markets you should be glad that the developers arent just leaving us with a massive hole from the demolition and that there actually going to build!

[touchthesky]

I do think that people do look up at the roof if its visually attractive...and the fact that it has been trumpeted as Miralle giving Trinity a USP should mean that they shouldn't water down the design. While I think how we should have the Trinity I don't want it to be a watered down version because it will be a few decades until the next refit and we would be stuck with it then.

There's tonnes of stunning buildings around Leeds but I can confidently bet they cost a lot of money to get the details right; a lot of our new buildings just don't leave behind that sort of visual legacy and that's such a shame to see.

[rabbits field]

Originally Posted by dkeeno1

Oh of course Mr Grumpy Leeds has nothing to distinguish it form other cities, id completely forgot that all cities had the VQ and architectually rich streets like Briggate and The headrow!

All great Victorian architecture, yes! If only there were some ambitious and unique contemporary architectur to match that...

Rob, I'm not knocking Cabot's Circus. It's an impressive development indeed, and I'm excited about it opening. Fair point about emphasis shifting from the roof to the quality of the finishes on the buildings themselves. I hope that is the case at Trinity then, although the latest renders appear to suggest a monotonous reconstituted stone finish to everything whereas Cabot's Circus has a huge variety (but then I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with this scheme now since its dumbing down!)

[di Livio]

Yorkshire Post business section. Page 4. Trinity feature.
Main paper has some stuff on a controversial development in Hebden Bridge

[STOPGO]

Nice article in YEP today. It mentions that Trinty will be the city centre's first one million square foot shopping centre. How does that compare with excisting malls, is it 25% or 50% bigger or twice as big.

[Leeds No.1]

It's significantly bigger than any shopping centre in Leeds atm. However, only 1/4 of the 1m sq. ft is new space. Indeed, much of it is already built in the form of the Leeds Shopping Plaza (formerly Bond St. Centre, to be renamed Trinity West).

[wiggleyleeds]

well the largest city centre mall in the UK is the arndale centre in manchester and that is 1.4m sq ft.

So trinity is pretty big! Whether this is a good thing or not i dont know

[Leeds No.1]

I don't think it's a problem in Leeds where no city centre shopping centre dominates, and where there is an extensive high quality outdoor shopping environment to contrast with the shopping centre.

[5th Elevation]

Originally Posted by STOPGO

Nice article in YEP today. It mentions that Trinty will be the city centre's first one million square foot shopping centre. How does that compare with excisting malls, is it 25% or 50% bigger or twice as big.

We need to put this one to bed. Trinity is not over a million sq. ft - never has been, never will be even close to that. It was a marketing ploy made up figure intended to convince retailers that Trinity was serious competiton for Eastgate (which is genuinely about 1.2 million sq. ft). Asa result, they had to go through some pretty creative mental gymnastics to get to the magic million. This isn't unusual for Land Sec - I've been at meetings with them where they have descibed Trinity as having 3,000 car parking spaces, which is clearly b*ll*cks. Scratch beneath the surface, and they tell you that there are "broadly" that number of car parking spaces within a 5 minute walk or so from the scheme. Again this is so they can try and convince retailers they are in competition with Eastgate.

The same methodology applies to the area calculation. As far as I can tell, the 1 million sq. ft. claim is made up as follows; (I stand to be corrected on the absolute figures if anyone knows better)

Shopping Plaza - 350,000 sq. ft
Trinity Quater - 350,000 sq. ft
M&S - 100,000 sq. ft (NOT part of Trinity ownership)
Total - 800,000 sq. ft

As far as I can tell, the figure was then rounded up to the nearest million and voila! You have Leed's first million sq. ft retail scheme. Genius. Trouble is, only about 50,000 sq. ft is actually new retail space.......

Apologies for the rant, but it's this type of petty developer appendage waving that really annoys me. The scheme is great, won't compete with Eastgate (it's smaller, more centrally located, will appeal to different retailers and will be hugely successful), so why try and set yourself up in competiton?

[Leeds No.1]

Confirmation of roof change:

08/05201/FU/C Trinity Quarter
Developments Ltd.
Reconfiguration of previously
approved shop units and realignment
of shop fronts at all levels, changes
to internal vertical circulation,
elevational improvements and
realignment of building frontages,
design changes to the roof and
replacement of proposed office
element (Class B1) with a leisure
component (Class D2), landscaping
and associated works as a revision
to planning permission 07/06793/FU
Grid Ref: 430124433430
Land Bounded By
Boar Lane, Briggate,
Commercial Street,
Albion Street Including
Bank Street And
Burton Arcade
Drivers Jonas
J Cooper
5 New York Street
Manchester
M1 4JB
City & Hunslet
02/09/08

[STOPGO]

The article was just reporting these two developments,I don't think there is any competition between them. I know some of you are disapointed with the roof and the style of the development, but I think any development in the City Centre is going to be an improvement.