Background
Transforming an urban square into a new public park in the City of London
We helped our client, British Land, realise their vision of creating a better quality, healthier, and more sustainable mixed-use destination with universal appeal. The public realm re-landscaping at Exchange Square has created a 1.5-acre park, the first to be delivered in the City in recent years. In doing so, British Land has quadrupled the amount of green space at Broadgate.
The park features an exciting mix of planting and trees, a ‘tiered pools’ water feature, amphitheater seating, and new retail and event spaces, all of which will be open to everyone.
As part of the enabling works, we undertook inspections on the waterproofing layer and liaised extensively with Network Rail as the square sits above Liverpool Street Station.
The project won both the Grand Award and Principal Award in the Hard Landscaping Construction category at the BALI National Landscape Awards 2022. Judge’s comments on the scheme included that the project is “an exemplar of public realm landscaping excellence”’ and that “technically this was an extremely complex scheme, which has been project managed and executed to perfection”.
In addition, Chair of the Judging Panel John Melmoe concluded: “The repurposing and reusing of existing materials on this project has reduced the environmental impact and financial costs of the new scheme and must surely be a sustainable way forward for future public realm projects.”
Beyond the design and delivery of the scheme, one of the key challenges was the management of the key stakeholders including owners and occupiers of the four surrounding buildings as well as Network Rail, all of whom we were required to liaise with on relevant aspects of the works as we undertook them whilst they operated in live environments.
