Plymouth Better Places

We are delighted to announce that Michael Grubb Studio has been appointed as lighting consultants for Plymouth Better Places – a £27 million-pound regeneration project that will transform the city centre in time for the Mayflower 400 year celebrations and beyond.

The consultant team is led by WSP and LDA Design and includes South West and nationally based architects, designers and engineers responsible for work on high-profile projects including the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Battersea Power Station redevelopment, the Prince of Wales’s Poundbury development and the 2017 Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier.

Better Places will look at streets and spaces in the city centre to improve walking and cycling routes, make areas more attractive for shoppers and visitors as well as encourage more inward investment in retail, leisure, employment and housing into the heart of Plymouth.

Council Leader Ian Bowyer said: “We are pleased to announce the appointment of our consultant team to the ‘Better Places – Plymouth’ project and look forward to working closely with them over the coming years.

WSP and LDA Design bring engineering and urban design expertise to the consultant team which also features a range of specialists for specific areas of the project including Stirling Prize winners dRMM (architecture), RLB Rider Levett Bucknall (project management), Michael Grubb Studio (lighting), Robert Bray Associates (sustainable drainage systems), Robert Bevan (heritage); United Creatives (design) and DCA Public Relations (communications).

LDA Design Board member and project lead Robert Aspland said: “We are very proud and excited to be working with Plymouth City Council on this once-in-a-generation project to revitalise and re-energise tired parts of this historic city.

Lucy Jones, WSP Project Manager, said: “This project will transform Plymouth city centre, renewing and rejuvenating its open spaces and pedestrian areas in the lead up to the Mayflower 400 celebrations and beyond.”

The consultant team, who were appointed through a tendering process, are now moving forward into the next stages of the project which will include consultation with the public and stakeholders and the preparation of a business case to cover the detailed design and construction costs for each of the schemes in the city centre.