Kate Curtis, Associate Architect, Smeeden Foreman
Sep 14 2010 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette
She's the architect charged with shaping the future of Redcar. Kate Curtis explains why she's relishing her biggest challenge yet.
IN the fiercely-competitive world of landscape architecture, possessing a creative eye that can transform the bland into the breathtaking should be a blessing. For Kate Curtis, it is equally something of a curse.
“I can be walking down the street - any street, in any town or city in the land - and I’m constantly thinking ‘they need a row of trees here’ or ‘I wonder if they’ve thought about a water feature there’. I drive myself completely insane,” she admits.
As an associate at landscape architects Smeeden Foreman, however, her perfectionist attention to detail is a character trait that comes to the fore on a daily basis, whether she likes it or not.
And now it is being put to the ultimate test, as Kate oversees an ambitious project designed to help combat Redcar’s economic decline and get visitors flocking back to the Teesside coast.
For Kate, it is her biggest professional challenge to date - and one that she is enjoying sinking her teeth into.
In July 2008, Harrogate-based Smeeden Foreman fought off rival firms from across the world in an international design competition to transform the town’s fortunes.
A bustling resort back in Victorian times, Redcar’s popularity with tourists and investors has plateaued of late.
It is pulling in a million visitors a year, but that figure has remained static for a decade, while the big-name firms have shied away from setting up shop on the High Street.
Determined to stop the rot, Redcar and Cleveland Council and the Environment Agency launched an ambitious, £40m bid to strengthen flood defences, pull in fresh investment, establish a creative industries hub and provide all the attractions needed for families seeking a day out.
In short, the classic British seaside resort wanted the mother of all makeovers - and the project now includes an impressive 80ft vertical pier.
“Winning a design competition chaired by the Royal Institute of British Architects was a huge deal for us. More often than not they will be won by the bigger firms, but we wanted to show the judging panel what a young and talented company could do,” says Kate.
“We were acutely aware of the importance of this project to the local area. We walked up and down the seafront, eating our fish and chips and lemon-top ice creams, and we looked at how we could bring this magnificent beach closer to the promenade.”
Since joining Smeeden Foreman a decade ago, Kate has been at the heart of many of its projects across the land - from residential to retail and health developments - balancing pragmatism with a spirit of adventure to deliver solutions for clients.
Today, she is solely dedicated to the Redcar renaissance - and visualising the transformation of the town has required all of Kate’s creative nous.
“It’s just an instinctive thing really, it’s difficult to explain,” she says. “I just fix on a concept that will really showcase the best aspects of a place and play down those that are maybe less attractive.
“With Redcar, there had been a great deal of public consultation carried out by the council, so we went through all of the responses with a fine-tooth comb to gauge what people wanted.
“Redcar has some fantastic assets and we had to make the most of them.”
