First Central, London
Grontmij was part of the masterplanning team for this 22Ha site which won approval for a substantial new business park with housing, hotel, leisure, public open space, wildlife corridor and parkland.
The masterplan created a contemporary parkland setting for the business park orientated around the retention of a mature belt of specimen trees. A new 5 acre public park was created with a 4.5 acre landscape buffer and wildlife corridor between the new link road and railway land.
The park was based on the concept of a valley with new lakes emulating the progress of a river from source to mouth. A series of weirs animate the water as it travels down stream, thus growing increasingly calmer until it reaches a contemplative pool in the wooded valley floor.
Grontmij has retained a constant connection with the project and is currently commissioned as landscape architects for a new lakeside residential development in the park.