Official Leeds Thread 7 (seven)

[Leeds No.1]

So would he rather have the industrial deprivation as before? Its not a much better, more prosperous city; and the evidence that its the only city to have population growth over the last 10 years certainly reflects that. And its a young city; it has 2 universities, and has a booming nightlife and shopping scene- what students want; so what do you expect in one of the UKs biggest student cities.

[di Livio]

bdonline.co.uk (via europaconcorsi.com) 30.09.2006

Leeds - Leeds takes the high-rise lead. While in London the debate over tall towers rages, Leeds is ploughing ahead.

By James Rose

In a city in the north of England, more than 20 skyscrapers are awaiting planning approval as developers and architects rub their hands in glee at the prospect of soaring towers and soaring profits. But this is not resurgent Manchester, nor even burgeoning Sheffield. This is Leeds, where council support for tall buildings is prompting a revolution set to change the skyline forever.

The council has approved 12 new tall buildings, and has a further nine passing through the planning system. In comparison, Manchester has two on site and three more approved; Sheffield has one and two respectively; while in London, developers are starting to slash the size of planned skyscrapers amid fears the market will not sustain the glut of new space.

So can Leeds's economy sustain this boom? And will the new generation of skyscrapers be of high enough quality, with enough amenities, to create a thriving city centre?

A host of big names is working on towers, including Ian Simpson, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Assael Architecture, Carey Jones, Aedas, Make and Glen Howells. The council has given them a clear framework to work within.

'Unlike a lot of cities, which are very nervous about skyline strategy, Leeds has taken it on and produced a very clear, coherent strategy,' says Russell Pedley, a director at Assael Architecture, whose 31-storey Green Bank development in central Leeds is due on site later this year. 'Clients looking at a site can see that the principle is in place.'

Leeds City Council's civic architect John Thorpe has evolved a tall buildings strategy which encourages buildings of 20 storeys or more in given locations. He is bullish about the effect the new developments could have.

'A tall building is a major decision for a developer,' he admits. 'If this guidance works it won't matter whether we have two or three or 23. It's part of the economic development of the city and its emergence as a major financial and legal centre.'

Thorpe's planning team is happy to promote tall buildings strategically: in gateway sites on the four compass points of the city, on an arc of higher ground running north-south through the centre, clustered on the edge of the city's core and along infrastructure routes such as the ring road and main railway line.

A formal draft strategy will soon be distributed for consultation, but the approach has been clear to architects and developers for some time.

'John Thorpe has given developers the confidence to pursue tall buildings,' says Gregg Mitchell, a director at dominant Leeds architect Carey Jones. 'In the last three to four years developers have begun to look at tall buildings with the confidence that they are achievable.'

George Wise, a property agent at DTZ's Leeds office, says the city's strong business performance is a significant factor.

Assael's Pedley adds: 'Public transport isn't great so people want to live right in the centre.'

But Leeds's willingness to allow so many tall buildings has raised eyebrows in neighbouring cities. Sheffield, which is at an earlier stage in its development, has one on site and four more in various stages of the planning process. Its head of planning Les Sturch has taken a more prescriptive approach to tall buildings, restricting them to a few locations within the city.

'We want to be sure that tall buildings add to the cityscape,' he says. 'At their best, tall buildings can animate space, provide landmarks and help to encourage intensity of use in areas that we want to regenerate.

'However, they have the potential to destroy the skyline and cityscape, can have micro-climate problems of wind and shading, and if they aren't well grounded and don't have the appropriate public realm then they won't contribute to the city.'

In Manchester Dave Roscoe, group leader of the city centre planning team, also believes in careful control.

'At the moment, everyone with a postage stamp of land in the city centre wants to put 15 storeys on it,' he says. 'We believe that tall buildings have to be in the right places.'

'Developers have begun to look at tall buildings with the confidence they are achievable'

However, for architects in Leeds, the burning question is not whether they should be built, but whether the buildings are of a decent quality.

'We're not used to building them in Leeds,' says Ian Tod, co-founder of Allen Tod Architects. 'It will be very interesting to see what the quality is like.'

'It's going to enhance the feeling of Leeds as a city,' says Architecture2B principal Nick Brown. 'If Leeds wants to emerge as a major European city this could be a sign, but it depends on design quality.'

Thorpe insists that design is paramount. He routinely refers tall buildings applications to Cabe. In addition, Leeds city centre planning panel, which has operated for the last 18 months, allows architects and developers to make informal presentations on the evolution of their schemes, so Thorpe can keep design concerns on the agenda.

As well as changing its skyline, Leeds plans a significantly larger city centre population.

According to Kevin Grady, director of Leeds Civic Trust, the city centre's 4,000 flats will increase to 18,000 in the next five years.

With a high proportion of residential space essential to the financial case for most schemes, tall buildings are a significant factor in that growth.

'We are not unhappy to see them, but we are concerned with a lack of provision of amenities,' says Grady.

Architect and broadcaster Maxwell Hutchinson brought this debate to a wider audience last Monday with a BBC Yorkshire programme investigating Leeds's new wave of development. He raised fears that the developments neglected basic services and gave swathes of the city centre to absentee landlords, who had little reason to push for community facilities.

Predictably, developers take a different view. Richard Dean, development director at KW Linfoot, which is behind Ian Simpson's 54 and 32-storey Lumiere towers (News August 4), claims demand will produce the necessary facilities once the new wave of city centre residents is in place.

'We're being approached by private GP practices who are very keen to provide care to residents in the city centre,' he says.

And Carey Jones's Gregg Mitchell argues that tall schemes are now typically designed with active ground floor units which can be adapted to create local amenities.

Mitchell believes the bigger issue is whether approved schemes will actually be built.

'It comes down to pure building economics,' he says. 'The gap between gaining approval and getting on site can be two to three years and either the sales market or construction prices may have changed. The equation is not as rosy as it was two years ago.'

KW Linfoot director Richard Dean agrees. He expects only 'five or six' of the proposed tall buildings to be built inside four years, with a couple later on.

Even this number will have a huge impact on the city. With Thorpe in the driving seat, Leeds is entering its high-rise era. Time will tell whether future generations will thank him for it.

..

[Molly]

[QUOTE=di Livio;10026773]

Originally Posted by Molly

I heard it was a small cafe mostly for serving drinks rather than serving meals.QUOTE]

I don't know any of the details, but it's quite a big space so it could easily accomodate meals if it wanted to.

I thought the News Room was once part of the art gallery and on that basis i assumed it had an entrance from both the library and the gallery. I'm not so sure now. It's still a bit frustrating to see the art gallery looking increasingly neglected and pointless, while other citires are investing megabucks in state-of-the art cltural facilites.

Ah yes...maybe they will be linked... there was something mentioned about that earlier. ...but yes a new state of the art Art Gallery....and general cultural facilities for Leeds will be great...I love Leeds but I do sometimes think is there life beyond the shopping mall and beyond eating and drinking. Our University image is so superb I think promoting culture would go hand in hand with the city...but as well as the increasing high society I see these days ideally also I would love to see for all people an affordable culture. The problem is in the UK 'culture' the arts, as in theatre and concerts, and even football now etc is so expensive most people an only afford to watch it on TV while munching a pizza! I certainly feel increasingly very culturally deprived but not as culturally deprived as my children.. and they do better in visiting life outside their own limited little cage than so many kids. This is so with UK society though as a whole rather then just a local issue. At least the free concerts in the parks in the open air or in the tents are a real blessing if you an get tickets.

[Val Verde]

I know it was on telly a couple of weeks ago but could someone explain to me how come Maxwell Hutchinson criticises the development of Leeds City Centre (although there were some common sense points such as a lack in amenities and an obvious need to widen the tenure of such residential developments to include other social groups such as families and older couples (and the estate agent on the programme who priortisied designer boutiques over corner shops in the Clarence Dock development should be taught the basic things in life)) does not mention that the same trend of widespread resi development is occuring in other cities accross the UK as well as Leeds (maybe hes being paid by Manchester ) and why if he feels so strongly about the issue not devise a solution to the 'problem'? Whilst city living does have some flaws I can see it becoming more established as its been going on for over twenty years now.

Its a shame the forums were down when the programme was broadcast as I imagine there would have been a lot of debate on here post that programme.

[Molly]

Its a shame the forums were down when the programme was broadcast as I imagine there would have been a lot of debate on here post that programme.

yes..real bad timing! The BBC forum was full of comments though.

The clip I liked best was when the guy was asked about the availavility of schools.. his face was so blank in gosmackedness as he thought confuseably...'but I'm too old to go to school'

does not mention that the same trend of widespread resi development is occuring in other cities accross the UK as well as Leeds

yes he did..didn't he basically say Leeds was going to be as disasterous as London Docklands! lol! I certainly do hope it is!

[di Livio]

If Leeds really wanted to sell the city to tourists, there should/could be substantial cultural offerings located in what i believe to be hugely under-used architectural jewels such as Temple Mill, St. Pauls House (which would bring Park Square to a wider audience), the Infirmary, the Dark Arches and, by removing Hitler's Atlantic Wall (aka the St. John's Centre) the fantastic St Johns Church could be allowed to breathe again. A children's library on Briggate or the Headrow would be pretty bold too... bah, enough of my daydreams.

Leeds...it's the business!
City's top 30 European league achievement hailed
BY NIGEL SCOTT BUSINESS EDITOR
LEEDS'S growing reputation as a major international business city has received a massive boost in a new poll.
The city has been named as one of Europe's top 30 best cities for business in a survey by global commercial property consultants Cushman & Wakefield.
Yorkshire's regional capital is rated 28th in the list of "Best European cities to locate a business" according to the survey which was based on interviews with senior executives representing more than 500 of the biggest companies in Europe.
It is the first time that Leeds has featured in the annual survey, which looks at a range of factors considered by companies when deciding where to locate their business operations. It was first conducted in 1990.
Four other UK cities were included in the list, with London taking top spot as best European city for business.
Outside the capital, Birmingham was the highest ranked UK city (18th place), followed by Manchester (21st) and Glasgow (25th).
Leeds's strengths are said to include the availability and value for money of office space; the cost of staff and quality of telecommunications; freedom from pollution and external transport links.
Frank Griffiths, chairman of the Leeds Initiative's Going up a League Executive and emeritus deputy chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University, welcomed the survey's findings.
He said: "Obviously there's still a lot more to be done in terms of raising the city's profile, improving the city's transport infrastructure and bridging the skills gap.
"But the fact that we have broken into the top 30 European business locations for the first time is tremendous news and confirms that we are succeeding in our aim of establishing Leeds as an internationally competitive city.
"By keeping this momentum going we hope to be in an even stronger position next year."
Coun Andrew Carter, deputy leader of Leeds City Council, said the survey's findings "firmly put in perspective some of the ill-informed criticism from the doom-mongers".
"We know there's no room for complacency but this is really good news," he added.
Jan Fletcher, chairman of the city's marketing agency, Marketing Leeds, told the YEP: "We carried out a survey three years ago with business leaders across Europe and Leeds barely registered with them.
"Now they clearly know about our city and see it as an aspirational, vibrant place to do business, live, work and play.
"Congratulations are due to everyone in the city for pulling together and putting Leeds on the international map – it just shows what we can achieve when we all focus our objectives on the same goals."
nigel.scott@ypn.co.uk
02 October 2006

[LeedsLad]

In the Leeds Metro area of the forum it states circa 6500 views - but I alone have 500 posts - and don't post every time I view. Also there's many people who have many more posts than me... Doesn't seem to add up somehow...

[Leeds No.1]

Cameron: 'We need road charges in cities'
By Anne Alexander
Political Editor

Road charging in our cities is "absolutely necessary" Tory leader David Cameron says.
The Tory leader says the party has the only answer to the gridlock in urban areas.
Mr Cameron said Britain would have to go down the route of road tolls and other charges to pay for "additional road capacity" and to cut down on congestion.
He threw his weight behind road tolls as Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling indicated a Conservative government would not have turned down the failed Leeds Supertram.
Mr Cameron said: "I think charging, whether its tolls or other forms of road charging are absolutely necessary.
"We want to improve our road structure but we have to pay for it and we have to keep taxes down, so I am very interested in looking at some element of road charging."
He said his policy commission on transport was looking at the issue. Mr Grayling said a Conservative government would put more into improving transport in the big cities.
"If we want to encourage more and more people back to live in our cities we will need a new generation of urban public transport," he said.
"Labour told us in their 10 year plan that they would transform urban transport.
"I say to those who live in Leeds ask Labour why they cancelled Supertram?"

I say to them, why do the Conservatives then propose to introduce road charging and not re-instate a Supertram plan?

[JOliver]

Originally Posted by di Livio

...A children's library on Briggate or the Headrow would be pretty bold too... bah, enough of my daydreams.

But there is one on Headrow, well maybe it's not ideal but it's OK. Have not seen better libraries here, did you?

[Fred2]

Originally Posted by JOliver

But there is one on Headrow, well maybe it's not ideal but it's OK. Have not seen better libraries here, did you?

Leeds City Libraries has taken over one of the many empty stalls in Kirkgate Market and made it into a small library.

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by Fred2

Leeds City Libraries has taken over one of the many empty stalls in Kirkgate Market and made it into a small library.

Surreal.
S'ppose i meant something along the lines of Will Alsop's celebrated Peckham Library.

[Molly]

Originally Posted by JOliver

But there is one on Headrow, well maybe it's not ideal but it's OK. Have not seen better libraries here, did you?

that library is so old and ugly... totally stuffy! It would have made a great museum though! I loved the Museum when it was housed there and think the age of the building was perfect for exhibiting old things like fossils, dinosaurs, stuffed critters and crumbly old mummies!

A library though wants to be bursting with life vibrancy and vitality! And fresh and light and inviting.



di Livio I really love your ideas!

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by Molly

di Livio I really love your ideas!

Ta very much.

Spotted this article in last weeks Guardian, in which Jenkins reveals his antipathy to skyscrapers yet again. Having been shocked by the soullessness of Canary Wharf's isolated tall buildings, my enthusiasm for skyscrapers has also dipped a bit recently.

British politics can't survive if it treats provincial cities as overseas colonies

Manchester was a huge shock for the Westminster circus. Now it could be even more daring and try Birmingham or Leeds

Simon Jenkins
Friday October 6, 2006
The Guardian


There was one star of this year's party conference season, the city of Manchester. Delegates and journalists came away in wide-eyed amazement. Every Labour speech eulogised what Tony Blair called "a place transformed". Gordon Brown gasped at "what a Labour council can do". Westminster journalists seemed stunned. They kept mentioning that Manchester had towers, restaurants, galleries, historic buildings, even that chimera "ordinary people". Not since Magellan landed on Tierra del Fuego had the noble savage's habitat so entranced the visitor. If New Labour required a monument, here surely circum spice.

Politics is like estate agency, it depends on location, location, location. The truth was that few of these people could have been to Manchester for years, if at all. Those who work in the Westminster sweatshop regard provincial Britain as a boxwallah might regard upcountry Bengal. They could walk blindfold round New York, Washington, Paris or Rome. But ask them the way from Toxteth to Everton, Ancoats to Hulme or Aston to Digbeth and they could not guess the planet.

To most at Westminster, Britain is a place of country cottages and party conference venues, the latter a land of dejected seaside resorts, casinos, unspeakable hotels, fish and chips, and fat girls with tattoos and nose studs. Such images enter the political soul. If the only provincial politician is a bejewelled mayor of Blackpool and Brighton, homeland Britain can seem a has-been haze of McGill postcards and end-of-the-pier shows. It is somewhere to grab a quick haircut, a walk by a grey sea and new socks from Marks & Spencer.

The abandonment of Brighton by the Tories and Labour was a minor breakthrough. Brighton deserved punishment for abusing its glory to become a downmarket Marbella. Even conference delegates noticed the awfulness of the conference centre, the collapsed West Pier, the cheap landscaping and the dreadful marina. Bournemouth has a bay and is charming, though politicians make scant use of it. The most alarming comment on Cameron's team was to allow themselves to be entombed in the most ridiculous security ever seen. Is Britain really at risk of attack from offshore submarines and sewer-borne ninja turtles?

If the Tories in Bournemouth had been smart, they would have begun their conference by crowding into Sunday matins at Street's masterpiece, St Peter's Church, with its evocative memories of Keble, Gladstone and Shelley. They would have harnessed the Amazonian jungle of the Bourne gardens for press conferences and held receptions in the most eccentric small museum in England, the Russell-Cotes. Why else go to Bournemouth but to reach out to constituencies of interest with such visual aids to hand?

Hence the traumatic value of Labour's Manchester adventure. The city brought conference delegates down to size and gave them a taste of evolving urban Britain that few had recognised. It treated them like visiting supporters at a Manchester United game: welcome, stay in your pen and goodbye. Delegates found themselves wandering down alien streets, along canals and through shopping centres. Local citizens went about their business as if the conference did not exist. There was no sea. Some of the buildings were big and covered in glass, just like in London.

I like so much about Manchester that I hesitate to point out that, after Liverpool, it must be the worst advertisement for Labour caucus government that has dominated Britain's cities for a third of a century. The council's destruction of the inner suburban ring of Victorian properties in the 1970s (now being repeated under Ruth Kelly's "pathfinder" programme) was class-cleansing on a scale that dwarfed what Shirley Porter was doing in Westminster. The rebuilding of Hulme, described in Clare Hartwell's excellent city guide as "one of the most notoriously defective and dysfunctional estates in Europe", has had to be completely flattened. Moss Side is a testament to Jane Jacobs's thesis that architects, not people, make slums. Today these are among the worst places in Britain for guns and drugs crime, truancy and health service deficits. I wonder how many starry-eyed delegates bothered to visit them.

The city centre's pockets of character, such as Castlefields, St Ann's Square and the Rochdale canal corridor were almost all saved against the local council, not because of it. As for revival after the 1996 IRA bomb, Arndale is today a gigantic lost opportunity. Like almost all Manchester's new building, it testifies to the inability of British architects to design streets rather than bland, monumental shopping centres. The council's obsession with random 40- and now 60-storey towers is reminiscent of a banana republic with a virility crisis. The result of such icon worship, as can be seen in Salford Quays, is a landscape of glass boxes set in tarmac, the same future slums that Manchester built in the 70s. For the council leader, Sir Richard Leese, to cite such environmentally disciplined cities as Amsterdam, Stockholm and Copenhagen as his models is extraordinary. He is mimicking Houston, if not Bangkok. Nobody strolls of an evening round the footing of these megaliths.

Manchester is one of the great world cities and unquestionably England's "second", with a commercial and cultural life, universities, theatres and museums to match. It has a Chinatown and a gay quarter. But for lasting renewal, for a pattern of old and new responding rather than shouting at each other, for an urban personality in depth, I would look to Leeds or the newly emergent Liverpool. Manchester received the same media hype during the 2002 Commonwealth games, showing how transient is the celebrity of "event investment".

But the city and Labour have won a point. They have turned a spotlight on metropolis. Can Cameron really go back to Blackpool next year? It would be like taking Camelot to Coney Island. The Tories should hit Birmingham or Newcastle or Leeds. They cannot survive if they do not recapture these places, and the best way to start is by flattering them with attention. Indeed, British politics in general cannot survive if it regards provincial cities as if they were colonies overseas.

The parties should take a leaf out of the Olympics book (or that of the Welsh Eisteddfod) and go peripatetic. Take Britain's annual festival of political participation to places that the national media never reaches. Cut loose from the smothering security, the lobbyists' stalls, the grim corridors and ghastly bars, and give politics back its legs.

The only alternative, if the parties cannot bear such exposure, is to stop travelling altogether and accept what wise heads now advocate for the Olympics, if only to bring down the cost: select one site and stay there. The conference season can then merge with its natural soulmate, a police and security convention. Delegates can stay in a fortified zone and the whole shebang can go online. In six years an ideal location will be the defunct 2012 Olympics encampment at Stratford, in east London. Stadiums will be unused. Westminster's pundits need travel only half an hour up the Mile End Road from Islington, and the VIP lanes will already be painted.

Then there need be no more shocks like Manchester.

· Simon Jenkins's Thatcher and Sons is published by Penguin

simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk

[mistertee]

Leeds mentioned on 'Neighbours'!

So I was watching Neighbours and Boyd was talking about how his holiday had been ruined by "6 lager louts from Leeds"

Not really Skyscrapers, but funny.

[LeedsLad]

(Slightly) interesting fact of the night - I've stood in front of the narrow looking white house (to take photo) left of centre in today's banner (Valparaiso)...

. ^

[mistertee]

More interesting than my 'Neighbours' fact?

You must try harder.

[LeedsLad]

***Hangs head in shame***
OK here goes - I also have stood in front of Boyds house and took a photo!
(I'm thinking this still isn't as interesting as your orignal fact)

[di Livio]

Originally Posted by mistertee

So I was watching Neighbours and Boyd was talking about how his holiday had been ruined by "6 lager louts from Leeds"

I'm trying hard not to unleash a jet-stream of bile here.

This isn't the first time there have been worrying indications of the state of Leeds' international standing (remember Woody Allen?). I fear there's a real danger of Leeds becoming a byword for everything that is 'not very good' about this country, despite the fact it has always been a moderate city: moderately successful, and, during times of depression, moderately unsuccessful. It is not and never has been the sick man of Britain.

Gordon Brown Dances, Delicately, With Bush
New York Times, United States - Sep 15, 2006

... London completed its transition from fog-bound fish-and-chip parlor to cosmopolitan metropolis. Even the likes of Liverpool and Leeds got a face-lift. ...

I'd like to see Alan Bennett make a big thing about his Leeds roots if he wins the best screenplay Oscar for The History Boys. It's about time we started hearing some positive things about Leeds. And it's about time 'national' journalists started writing for the nation.

Francis, 33, is from Leeds. These days he lives in Camden, London, but remains close to his home-town friends...He is down to earth, but not in the studied way that many northern comics turned London starlets are. He doesn't make a song and dance about the price of cappuccinos or the existence of garlic bread in order to emphasise his Yorkshire roots.

[pfeatherstone]

We must accept that Leeds has a few years to go with it's development until it can compete on an international stage. The city is moving in the right direction though, I do think that the relocation of some of the dilapidated housing close to the centre would be a good thing and potentially help to reduce crime. The new shopping centre is also extremely important - the plans look to be of a high quality of design.

[Val Verde]

Just noticed this article which made the front page of the YEP today:

Leeds could get its third university
By Ian Rosser
Education Reporter
LEEDS could be heading for its THIRD university.
Trinity and All Saints College (Tasc) in Horsforth is hoping to increase student numbers by more than 40 per cent as part of an expansion programme. The city already has 84,000 university students.
The increase would support plans for the college to gain university status, allowing it to award its own degrees and introduce more courses.
"Gaining university status will allow us to have more academic freedom, both nationally and internationally," said principal Freda Bridge.
"It will make us a much more mature institution. We are already reviewing our curriculum to see how we can expand what we offer. We want to diversify our provision."
At present, Tasc is affiliated to Leeds University, which awards degrees to the college's graduates. Tasc currently has about 3,500 students studying on courses including teacher training, journalism, English and sport.
Plans to increase student numbers to 5,000 over the next five years at the 40-year-old college will run alongside a £6m investment scheme to provide extra student accommodation and much-improved sports facilities.
Many of the extra learners are expected to enrol on part-time postgraduate and vocational courses.
Dr Bridge, who took over as principal last month, having been dean of education and professional development at Huddersfield University, said: "Our size and our church foundation make us very different to most other higher education institutions. People often comment on the strong family environment here.
"We already have an excellent reputation, however, we need to grow and develop into a well-regarded, pro-active and dynamic institution regionally, nationally and internationally."
Outside London, only two other English cities have three universities – Birmingham and Liverpool. Manchester did have three, but two merged in 2004 to create Manchester University.
Leeds Metropolitan University has 52,000 students and Leeds University has 32,000.
11 October 2006

Great stuff if it happens as it should reinforce Leeds's status as a university city. However wonder what will happen with regards to development in Horsforth (presumably as theres that NIMBY councillor isn't there) and also as most Trinity & All Saints College students live in the established student areas of Headingley, Burley, Hyde Park etc surely this would reinforce the need to spread the provision to the south of the city perhaps to Beeston which could be developed as a secondary student district. However guess if this does go ahead then it would be good for Leeds.