Bradford City Centre Regeneration

[Da Bomb]

Originally Posted by Da Bomb

Middle East to sink millions into city

By Will Kilner

Middle Eastern investors are being lined up to pour hundreds of millions of pounds into Bradford's regeneration, it was revealed today.

Bosses of the Abu Dhabi firm bankrolling the proposed £90 million student village in Listerhills say their scheme is expected to open the floodgates to other overseas investment funds.

A delegation of businessmen representing four Middle Eastern investment funds will visit the city next month to be briefed by Bradford Centre Regeneration (BCR) on its key future projects.

Mohammed Ikhlaq, chief executive of Projenco Al Khaleej, the Abu Dhabi oil and gas consultants funding the Listerhills scheme, was in Bradford this week to see the five-hectare site for the first time.
continued...

The proposed mixed-use development, which has already been granted outline planning permission, would include student accommodation, shops, restaurants, work units and a hotel.

Mr Ikhlaq said: "If this goes smoothly, the guys who are coming over as part of the delegation will be able to see an example of the exciting opportunities that exist in Bradford.

"This is a great chance for a lot more Middle Eastern money to come into this area.

"But this (Listerhills) is a flagship project which we have to get right."

Mr Ikhlaq said delays caused by planning or land acquisition issues could prove off-putting to other overseas investors who have their eyes on Bradford.

He said: "Traditionally, we have seen a lot of investment from the Middle East in London and the south, but this is the first time we have really diverted our attention to somewhere like Bradford. It's crucial to get it right."

Mr Ikhlaq, who was educated at Cardiff University and now lives in Abu Dhabi, is on the board of three other investment companies. He said he was first attracted to Bradford by the regeneration model presented to him.

He said: "The model of Liverpool and Leeds was offered and we were then told that Bradford was in a very opportune and advantageous position for investment, whereas it was too late for Leeds or Liverpool because it's already happened there."

Mr Ikhlaq said Projenco Al Khaleej's investment in the Listerhills site could rise to more than £100 million if full planning permission is granted for everything proposed. And he said his company was already aware of three more major regeneration projects in the city.

Mohammed Ishtiaq, director of International Energy Projects, the European investment wing of Projenco Al Khaleej, said he was working closely with BCR and Bradford Council to bring about some of the proposed regeneration projects.

He said: "We will invest in the key projects which the city and the Council wants to see."

Marc Cole, BCR's director of regeneration, said: "We are delighted that an investor from as far as Abu Dhabi has seen the potential in Bradford. Mr Ikhlaq's substantial investment in the Listerhills Urban Village will bring student accommodation, hotel, offices and leisure space and will significantly revitalise the area.

"We recognise the importance of attracting investment from national and international sources. We continue to work with new investors to develop a desirable city in which to live, work and learn."

Dave West, regeneration projects manager for Bradford Council, said he also expected the Listerhills project would act as a catalyst to the regeneration of the surrounding area.

He said: "If the Listerhills site becomes a bridging link to help the university and the college link in with the city centre, it's doing a fantastic job."

And Clive Wilson, director of estates for the University of Bradford, said: "The university is trying to remodel itself and if the area around can do likewise the whole learning village becomes more vibrant."

This has since been approved.

£90MILLION URBAN VILLAGE PLANNED FOR BRADFORD CITY CENTRE

24 July 2006

Outline planning consent has been granted for the Listerhills urban village, a mixed-use development which is set to bring student accommodation, key worker housing and leisure facilities to the area. The scheme is being developed by Mi7, with principle investment from International Energy Projects, the investment wing of Abu Dhabi-based oil and gas consultancy Projenco Al Khaleej.

Mohammed Ikhlaq, Chief Executive of Projenco Al Khaleej, said he was first attracted to Bradford by the regeneration model presented to him: “The model of Liverpool and Leeds was offered but we were then told that Braford was in a very opportune and advantageous position for investment.”

The Listerhills development will be located in the heart of the Valley area of Bradford – one of the four distinct regeneration zones of the city centre, identified by Will Alsop’s visionary Masterplan. Bradford Centre Regeneration (BCR) is the local URC tasked with spearheading the renaissance of the city centre.

Mohammed Ishtiaq, Director of International Energy Projects, said: “A couple of years ago we began researching potential investment opportunities in Bradford. After briefings with BCR and Bradford Council we decided to invest in the Listerhills scheme. It is an ambitious project that will become a bridging link to help the University of Bradford and Bradford College connect with the city centre.”

The development will consist of four key phases of building work, with the first stage expected to commence early next year. Phase one incorporates student accommodation, healthcare facilities, a bookshop and a laundry. Bradford University has already agreed to take 500 of the 600 student units, which are scheduled to be completed in 2008.

Plans for phase two feature a 600 space multi-storey car park and 150 residential apartments. The third phase is set to include 150 residential units, varying in size, to cater for key workers such as nurses and teachers. Further retail units are to be introduced on the ground floor, including, a convenience store and café.

The final stage is expected to include a 120-room hotel, 60,000 sq ft of offices and a banqueting hall. Talks are underway with existing building owners in close proximity of the site, to purchase additional land over the next six months. Subject to agreements the development is expected to cover nearly three acres of land and will act as a catalyst to aid the regeneration of the surrounding area.

Commenting on the anticipated benefits of this scheme, Marc Cole, Head of Regeneration at BCR, said: “The Listerhills development is a catalytic project that is set to integrate the education facilities with the Valley Neighbourhood Development Framework and the city centre, whilst triggering more investment and development to regenerate this section of the city.

“This project will bring huge benefits to the area, including the creation of new jobs and the arrival of new businesses that signal the significant confidence in the city.”

This project has triggered a surge of interest from the Middle East. Already there are plans to bring a contingent of businessmen from four Middle Eastern businesses to meet with BCR and Bradford Council to hear more about the key projects involved in the renaissance of the city.

Other planned mixed-use developments

Listerhills urban village is one of many mixed-use projects that are emerging on the city’s skyline, some of these include:

• Gatehaus – the mixed-use development, already under construction, will incorporate residential apartments and commercial offices.

• Channel urban village – the £350million waterside project is set to feature a mixture of shops, restaurants, offices, leisure and healthcare facilities.

• The Odeon – the flagship project will include a hotel, residential and education facilities.

Maud Marshall, Chief Executive of BCR, said: “Bradford has a wealth of iconic buildings and stunning architecture, these new developments will boost the landscape of the city centre and are paving the way to make Bradford a great place to live, work and learn. A range of high-quality mixed-use developments will allow us to compete with other major European countries.”

[Da Bomb]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brassington

Talking of Centenary Square, does any one know what sort of design will come of the building to the back of it where a red crane currently stands? I've heard it'll be apartments (again), I just hope it has an inspired design in such a central location.

I think what your talking about is the redevelopment of a pub into 30+ apartments which I have forgotten the name of.

[Bradford Lad]

The regeneration currently taking place in parts of Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford can only benefit the region as a whole. It appears to be an exciting time for the region.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by Da Bomb

I think what your talking about is the redevelopment of a pub into 30+ apartments which I have forgotten the name of.

Ah, I've found out, it's called the Empress Pub and will become Empress Apartments:

''New homes could end Empress reign
From the Telegraph & Argus, first published Tuesday 26th Oct 2004.

A landmark apartment building may be built on the site of the Empress pub in the heart of Bradford city centre.

Councillors will tomorrow consider a planning application by IDS Ltd of Horsforth for an "unashamedly modern" building overlooking Centenary Square on the prime site.

The 1970s pub beside the modern Aldermanbury office block would be pulled down if the regulatory and appeals committee approves the move.

And officers are recommending members to approve plans for a building which would contain a car park, offices and 40 apartments including penthouses with bird's eye views of the changing face of the city.

The proposal for the seven-storey building in Sunbridge Road comes as an unprecedented boom in city living hits Bradford.

Asquith properties and Landmark Development Projects are the main companies which have transformed existing buildings into scores of apartments which have been quickly snapped up by buyers.

Asquith has almost finished building a new development and is about to construct another in a car park at the junction of Manor Row and Hamm Strasse.

Today the plans for the building on the site of the Empress were welcomed by Marc Cole, director of operations for Bradford Centre Regeneration - the joint venture company set up to spear head the renaissance of the city centre.

He said: "I think it is a substantial improvement on what is there already.

"The mass and scale fit and anything bringing more residents in the city is welcome."

He added the use of the ground floor for offices would also bring vitality to the city during the day.

Bradford Council planning manager Dave Preece will tell the committee the existing building is an eyesore which does not make a good contribution to the architecture and history of the area.

He will tell members the new building would be "unashamedly modern", but would respect the proportions and solidity of the Victorian buildings beside it.

Committee chairman Councillor Stanley King (Con, Heaton) said: "On the face of it, it looks a good development. It looks as though it will blend into the street scene.

The design has a hint of the late 1930s facade of Sunwin House."

Russell Baker managing director of Asquith Properties said: "It is an endorsement of Bradford city centre as a place to live."

And Richard Morton director of Landmark Development Projects Ltd said Bradford should encourage more modern architecture.

The committee will be recommended by Mr Preece to approve separate applications to demolish the pub and construct the new building.

The developers propose using stone, glass and coloured panels and the building would have a flat roof.''

So 7 storey's and the first floor is offices. Shame they didn't return the first flloor to it's original function; a good old pub. Perhaps they could've added a floor and put the offices on the second floor. I mean who wouldn't want to live on top of a pub, you'd live at your local. Ah well, spose your surrounded by establishments there, but no real pubs. Aside from that it seems it'll be ''unashamedly modern'' but apparently similar to Sunwin House, which looks like this:



Although It's gone under a refurbishment since then which I can't understand why, as it now looks worse:




Hopefully the councillor was commenting that it looked like the original 30's design and not the refurbished one. Still can't find any designs, but the site currently looks a bit like this:



Yeah, bit unconstructed. Just hope it's imposing enough as it'll be overlooking Centenary Square, some sort of geometric roof feature would be nice, but apparently it has a flat roof, we'll have to wait and see again.

Anyway, onto to Listerhills Urban Village. This seems good, as what's there currently is hardly the pride of victorian style warehouses, it's pretty run down to be honest. The designs I've seen for this are very good actually, seems to have an older influence in some of the designs, like Georgian crescent terraces:



Sort of archaic, but a really interesting idea, I like it. There is also some newer looking buildings in this project:



A lot of the new designs are in Adobe Acrobat format though, so I'll put a link to that in at the end. As for the investment here, the project is supposed to be part of the 'Ecoversity' project at the Uni and should incorporate Carbon costing, wind power and solar panels, so I'm a little worried that some of these guys are associated with oil companies and such. Hope it doesn't hinder the project's original aims. In other University related news, I've discovered a webcam showing the progress of the new atrium building, which looks almost done:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/estates/A13013.php

The site also says it will be used for music events. I certainly hope so, it would be ideal.

Anyway here's the link to an Adobe Acrobat presentation:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/ecoversi...ecoversity.pdf

[Rob]

That looks like a really great development for Bradford University, with an increase in volume and most of all quality facilities for students. It will certainly help overturn the problems the university has reportedly had in attracting students, as they will be coming to impressive new facilities and residential developements rather than slummy old ones.

A great step for Bradford as a whole, as students boost the local economy no end.

[Leeds No.1]

I didn't know Bradford was finding it hard to attract students.. With nothing against Hull, Hull is a much worse place and attracts lots of students! Maybe Bradford should market itself as a forward thinking city, and use Leeds as an advantage. For example it could boast that Leeds was less than half an hour away and then go onto what Leeds has, to get people to go to Bradford. Marketing means advertise to the target- more than advertising. Thats what is important for Bradford to consider.

[Rob]

It's probably not so much Bradford, more to do with the poor facilities and fairly run down area it is in (although the facilities are improving all the time). Hull University is in one the best areas in Hull near some very nice housing, and has some really good halls of residences etc.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

I didn't know Bradford was finding it hard to attract students.. With nothing against Hull, Hull is a much worse place and attracts lots of students! Maybe Bradford should market itself as a forward thinking city, and use Leeds as an advantage. For example it could boast that Leeds was less than half an hour away and then go onto what Leeds has, to get people to go to Bradford. Marketing means advertise to the target- more than advertising. Thats what is important for Bradford to consider.

Hmmm, could be hinted at, but I'd disagree on the whole on making this central, it'd be like selling out the city just cause it's close to Leeds. Bradford has to assert it's own identity more, which is what the regeneration is all about. They did try and market the Uni on it being a cheap place to live, and I have admit that got me here, my other major choice being Bath Spa, which would've cost the earth and while looking nice is not a huge city, may get bored quite easily, not so if you have Leeds next door and some fairly good entertainments in the city itself. Of course Leeds shouldn't be ignored, it's very handy, but Bradford has a really good Museum, twinned with that excellent cinema facilities (Pictureville & IMAX aswell as the cinema complex) and decent Theatrical facilities (Alhambra in particular).

Originally Posted by Rob

That looks like a really great development for Bradford University, with an increase in volume and most of all quality facilities for students. It will certainly help overturn the problems the university has reportedly had in attracting students, as they will be coming to impressive new facilities and residential developements rather than slummy old ones.

A great step for Bradford as a whole, as students boost the local economy no end.

Now as for a few other things, I can see why there's a been a downturn. The first most prominant was the riots. I read an article on the BBC that suggested there was a drop in students right after this happened. It has however increased, seeing its largest increase this last year. Where else it fails though are on such things as Nightlife and Music. Although there's an easily manageable collection of bars, clubs and pubs and you can get a pretty decent pub crawl, there just isn't enough of them. Bradford was also deemed the second to last out of 22 for its nightlife. The ''west-end'' is far too small and needs to expand beyond that if it is to encourage some decent business. Students and other people see it as being a bit rubbish and so go to Leeds, there then is fewer people out in Bradford and demand might decrease as a result. The only way to break the cycle is to provide more. Don't get me wrong I like a number of the bars and clubs in town and the Love Apple and Wetherspoons are nice additions, but the rest aren't too classy and there just isn't enough. A jazz club would be nice.

Music is the other thing. It's hard to spot a decent gig in Bradford and there's only really St. Georges Hall, Rio's and a place called the Town and Country (county?) Club which are big enough gig venues to hold bigger bands. The Odeon would have helped this out, but the council are too busy developing mixed use apartment-hotel-office-restaurant-cafe-culture-thingies. They want to sort this out if they ever want to increase business in the city centre and stop the exodus over to Leeds.

As for your point on slummy accomodation, I don't think they were awful, there is some asbestos in some halls but they're knocking them down, they're also knocking all the other 60's looking one's down as well, but your point is taken, this will definately encourage more students. Just to show you the extent of demolision of these here's a rather crudely edited aerial photograph of the area, which also shows where the Listerhills development will be and it's relation to other city centre developments:



The red crosses signify the demolision of the student halls, the white area is the student village, the blue shows room for expansion, the yellow circles shows a nice area of houses discussed below and the green is the areas of city centre developments to put it in perspective with the rest presenting the Bowl area, The Odeon, Broadway, The Channel and Highpoint. Bit meticulous I know, but I think this shows the extent of what's going on.

Originally Posted by Rob

It's probably not so much Bradford, more to do with the poor facilities and fairly run down area it is in (although the facilities are improving all the time). Hull University is in one the best areas in Hull near some very nice housing, and has some really good halls of residences etc.

Hmm, facilities aren't so bad, it's all fairly competent, but of course I'm all for improvement and enlargening the campus with further facilities cannot be a bad thing. As far as teaching goes and learning facilities it's not bad at all though, decent library aswell. I read the University also came 3rd for science in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge, pity I don't do science! As for the surrounding area, I'd say this was partly true. The Shearbidge area is a bit run down, I'd know I'm living there next year, plus those two dark satanic mills up there don't help (a clean-up would do it well though) also next door to a tipping zone. However in the main student area between Great Horton Road and Morley street there are some rather nice houses, good pubs as well. I recommend The Westleigh and MacGrory's on Easby Road. Cheers!

[Bradford Lad]

Interesting times regarding the regeneration currently taking place within the cities.

[Dan B]

As I mentioned before about the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the new developments, some guy's written a book about the Good, the Bad and Ugly of the already built enviornment. Here's the BBC report, thought it might be of interest:


'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!'
Chris Hammond is passionate about Bradford's architecture, so much so that he's just published his very own walk around the city centre pointing out not only the best but the worst buildings along the way.


Bradford: An international city?

Chris Hammond believes that buildings tell you a lot about a place. He says: "All you need to do is lean back and let buildings speak to you." As a trustee of Bradford Building Preservation Trust he has led several walks around the city centre. Now he's made his walking "notes" available in a new book, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.


The good?

We asked Chris if he had to name his favourite building in the city, what would it be? He believes his answer may surprise some people: "I think the good thing, part of it, is Centenary Square and that really is a really great success story - the development of the bars, and so forth, complements City Hall as well as the streets leading off. But I think my favourite building has got to be a curious one - it's the old Co-Op building on Sunbridge Road which looks a little bit like a ocean-going liner. It's designed in what is called the international style. It's just been listed as a building of special historical interest, the same as the City Hall has. To me it gives a little whiff of the seaside in Bradford. It's very much modelled on a pavilion in Bexley-on-Sea in an international open sanatorium sort of style."



And his least favourite? "It's a choice between the Arndale Kirkgate Centre, a sort of semi-windowless block of concrete, or just above it, the former West Yorkshire Building Society - that great almost windowless block, which, if you come from outside Bradford on the hills, you see this monster sticking up. I say to people on the walk, it's a little bit like the Ministry of Love in George Orwell's novel, 1984. Out of the four ministries, this was the most horrific - windowless of course, it's a torture place. Orwell says people didn't go near the place because of the guards around it. To me that's Bradford's equivalent."


The ugly? These buildings have now gone!

But despite these 'warts' Chris has a lot of good things to say about the look of the city centre. Many of its buildings, he believes, reflect a time when Bradford regarded itself as an international city with trading links stretching far across the world: "There's a huge wealth of Victorian buildings still remaining in Bradford. A large swathe was demolished in the 1960s." Now buildings put up in the 1960s and 1970s are being demolished: "You've got this great big empty space in the centre - in some ways it would be nice if it stayed an empty space with market stalls and things."


The bad?

Chris adds: "Above that, and around Manor Road and Cheapside, you've got some wonderful bank buildings and classical buildings and mills and warehouses. Quite unlike, say, Leeds. I think the architectural quality of some of the buildings in Bradford exceeds Leeds quite considerably. If you go back 40 years, Bradford certainly was a wealthier and architecturally better endowed city than Leeds. It was also much more of an international city too. Leeds was still a West Yorkshire town, but Bradford was a little bit like Liverpool, with merchants from all around the world buying and selling wool and cloth and so forth. The architecture reflects that. Bradford is like Liverpool or Glasgow in the aspiration of its buildings and it still reflects this even though in the 1960s a huge amount was demolished in the city centre as a huge redevelopment programme got underway, but that's all gone now.

"When the redevelopment went up people thought it was a good thing - dirty black Bradford after the war then new white Portland stone buildings with safe underpasses separating the pedestrians from traffic. Of course, it all went sour. The buildings weren't very well built, the limestone didn't fit in very well, the underpasses instead of being safe became quite the opposite. The deterioration in social behaviour which took place in the late 60s was quite unforeseen by the architects and developers of the time, so it became almost out of date ten years after being built."


Looking up! King John tears up the Magna Carta

But as a new look city centre starts to take shape, what's to stop this happening again? Chris is optimistic: "I'm quietly confident. We're not going to get a Norman Foster or Richard Rodgers to do it, but the architects are a good commercial practice...I think the big plus for the proposed development is that it's going to be clad in Yorkshire stone and it will link in Little Germany with the city centre which the previous scheme blatantly didn't. It's also going to link in with the Aire corridor up towards Shipley where there are proposals for canal-side villages. So it's not just a city centre redevelopment, it's looking at the whole structure of the centre of Bradford which is very promising.

"Good architecture is a key factor to attracting people into the city - architecture like we find in Centenary Square and the extension at the back of Waterstones bookshop in the Wool Exchange which is superbly done. If we get that quality of building it will at least emulate in some way the Victorian buildings too."


Looking up: Bradford's great Wool Exchange

Chris suggests we all look more closely at the buildings around us: "The thing about architecture is you don't need to know lots about it. All you need to do is stand back and let the building speak to you. Be careful not to get mowed down by cars or other shoppers, just take a bit of time and look up at the upper storeys which are often unchanged and which people don't normally see...I think in general people notice the smaller buildings more than they notice big ones. People's vision is limited to ground floor level, they probably never look up at tall buildings and the details above them." His new book will help us do just that!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is published by the Bradford Building Preservation Society. The Society buys and converts redundant buildings that other developers are unlikely to take on. For more details check out the BBPT website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/conten..._feature.shtml
http://www.bbpt.org.uk/index.asp

I'd mostly agree with him here. It does look like the Yorkshire Building Society Building or Highpoint will get a complete reworking:




http://www.pulselifesupport.co.uk/highpoint.html

Of course anything's better than what it is, but I'd of prefered something like one I mentioned before:



Would've stood out much more, Hope it gets put in somewhere in the city.

As for other ugly buildings, I'd add these to the list:


Arndale House


Jacob's Well

Hope they're demolished as soon as possible. A replacement for Arndale House would be a good spot for a tall Skyscraper, standing out from the rest.

[Bradford Lad]

The new found confidence in the regeneration of our built environment is not only good for attracting inward investors into our towns and cities but it also encourages more people to relocate to Yorkshire.

[Rob]

The Pulse site mentions this Highpoint conversion starting in spring. Has work started yet ?



It will transform central Bradford, as the ugly block can be seen for miles as it is on such a high elevation, to transform it into an attractive and taller building will look great and almost dominate the Bradford skyline. It'll start to give Bradford a little bit of a 'city look' back.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by Rob

The Pulse site mentions this Highpoint conversion starting in spring. Has work started yet ?



It will transform central Bradford, as the ugly block can be seen for miles as it is on such a high elevation, to transform it into an attractive and taller building will look great and almost dominate the Bradford skyline. It'll start to give Bradford a little bit of a 'city look' back.

I haven't been up that way in quite a while so I'm not sure whether anything's being done. On my last visit to Bradford last monday, I had a look across the city from the top of the Richmond Building, it didn't seem like anything was going on, but I'm used to things being delayed. But the addition of 4 floors will make it even more of a landmark while completely altering it's Aesthetics. Still would've hoped for perhaps a better design element, something a bit more striking and the use of a sandstone colour would've helped, while it can be done incredibly badly (police station), it can work (Law Courts), but anything's an improvement. I think (from counting windows) that it'd be 13 storeys now. Anyway, there's a couple of pdf's here of the Market region development covering the Highpoint designs. There's a bigger picture on the first and on the second another proposed version (curved building with a rather interesting roof):

http://www.bradford.gov.uk/NR/rdonly...edApproach.pdf

http://www.bradford.gov.uk/NR/rdonly...erventions.pdf

[Bradford Lad]

I for one cannot wait until some of these developments and conversions are completed.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by Bradford Lad

I for one cannot wait until some of these developments and conversions are completed.

Yeah, me too, though not sure if I'll see it all by the end of my time at Uni. As for progress, I counted 5 cranes in the city centre the other day. 3 on Gatehaus, 1 on the restoration of Eastbrook Hall and another on the Empress Pub Apartments site. I'd expect this number to rise dramastically once Broadway and further still The Channel get on the go. Just wish it wasn't delayed till the second half of 2007. I read the first phase of the Gatehaus should be finished by the end of this year, with the glass fin completed by late 2007. Things are looking up.

Speaking of Eastbrook Hall, it now has an official website:

http://www.eastbrookhall.com/

Oooh, Quick update, Highpoint is now listed on skyscrapernews.com, it has been approved and will be 13 storeys and 40 meters high, bigger picture as well this time:



http://www.skyscrapernews.com/

[di Livio]

The 'World Mile' idea sounds fantastic, and quite similar to one i had for Leeds a few years ago.

[Bradford Lad]

The 'World Mile' idea could bring further benefits to the city by attracting people from outside Bradford to visit this unique shopping zone.

[Dan B]

Originally Posted by di Livio

The 'World Mile' idea sounds fantastic, and quite similar to one i had for Leeds a few years ago.

Originally Posted by Bradford Lad

The 'World Mile' idea could bring further benefits to the city by attracting people from outside Bradford to visit this unique shopping zone.

It seems this'll mainly be put in practice through a shake-up of the road network an improvement in shop frontages to 'go' with the building more and trees and such. More an aesthetic improvement than a vast overhaul and rebuilding work. It seems that the one way bus loop will help no end, leading to an increase in pavement width and the pedestrianisation of many roads up the top of the Market. I find it hard to get around up there, so this de-scalement of roads will aid such a world mile. The covered street (hopefully like an arcade) by Highpoint should be encouraged. More of these arcades like they have in Leeds. Hopefully the project will go through, and we'll see the benefits in a few years.

[Da Bomb]

Looking at the proposals for Highpoint only fills me with great disappointment as I feel it is very much an opportunity missed.

With its elevated position it can be seen from all gateways into the city centre.

I personally think that this building should be completely demolished and replaced by a tall iconic building of considerable quality.

What on earth are the BRC thinking of re-cladding the single worst building in the whole of Bradford!!!

I think the Bradford locals should be asking the BRC for an explanation for some of the proposals being put in place.

I really think Bradford is just one tall iconic building away from people to start standing up and taking notice of what’s going on in the city and putting it well and truly on the map. Until that happens there isn’t much hope I’m afraid.

[Bradford Lad]

Originally Posted by Da Bomb

Looking at the proposals for Highpoint only fills me with great disappointment as I feel it is very much an opportunity missed.

With its elevated position it can be seen from all gateways into the city centre.

I personally think that this building should be completely demolished and replaced by a tall iconic building of considerable quality.

What on earth are the BRC thinking of re-cladding the single worst building in the whole of Bradford!!!

I think the Bradford locals should be asking the BRC for an explanation for some of the proposals being put in place.

I really think Bradford is just one tall iconic building away from people to start standing up and taking notice of what’s going on in the city and putting it well and truly on the map. Until that happens there isn’t much hope I’m afraid.

I beg to differ, the city is finally moving forward and beginning to make the strides forward to realising Bradford's potential.