New quarter has a vital role in ongoing evolution of Newcastle

Feb 27 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

Solutions must cater for the future

The on-going redevelopment and regeneration of Newcastle's Discovery Quarter is a major opportunity for the continuing evolution of a city with an ever increasing pace of change, says Gavin Black.

DEVELOPMENT has taken place mainly along the eastern side of St James’ Boulevard and into Gallowgate, creating as it has an important office location and a destination for leisure and residential schemes, some of impressive quality.

There is more to come and by bringing both public and private sectors together we can energise the debate about the long-term considerations for this large (95 hectare) and important area of Newcastle.

We need to address a number of issues. What proportion should be office space, how best to provide car-borne access and how should developments be taken through to fruition bearing in mind the rapidly changing world around us?

Happily there are already interesting changes being put in place. Science City is a very exciting concept, for example. There is more intriguing thinking taking place about long-term considerations and the change we have seen is very much the beginning of the transformation of Discovery Quarter, itself a key component of the Regional Economic Strategy.

Development so far has been infrastructure-led with the new St James' Boulevard acting as an extension of the inner city west route.

I see this as the beginning of the transformation of large, vacant and underused, brownfield sites in the west end of the city. Two key issues need to be addressed – what is the type of development most applicable for the long-term which will sustain employment and how does the Discovery Quarter relate to the policy of integrating development across housing, commercial development and leisure?

These are important questions because the city's history shows that, in the past, building and development addressed a fairly certain future of maybe 100 years.

Today the horizon is very much closer and the trends and issues are changing much more rapidly.

Therefore, solutions need to be found that address current needs but which remain flexible enough to cater for the future.

Development must address the critical issues of the day such as land use, access, car parking and even possible road charging which is the most immediate policy to be debated nationally and, very recently, locally.

Gavin Black is a partner at Gavin Black & Partners and is also on the board of the City Centre Partnership and a member of the City Centre Working Group.