A New Way Of Doing Business

Today marks the first day of Zurich employees at work in their new Swindon office, Unity Place. From an airy atrium, to the rooftop terrace and landscaping (complete with sculptures), worker wellbeing has been central to the building's design.

Some may say one office building is very much like another, but compared to the 1960s and 1980s buildings nearby to it (being converted to flats), Zurich's new building fizzes with modernity. 

46 Years at the Centre of Swindon

The Plaza overall roof. The engineering influence of railway station train sheds can clearly be seen.

Today marks the 46th birthday of the Brunel Shopping Centre. It's importance to Swindon cannot be underestimated, it sits at the physical heart of the town centre.

Architecturally, it still impresses, if you take the time to look. From the delivery spirals on Farnsby Street and Commercial Road, to the smart overall roof above the Plaza, the echoes of railway station engineering in it's design still sound through.

The roof design : simple, elegant and substantive. The blue skies and white cloud mixes with the floor tiling on the Plaza below.

Practically for shoppers it gives lots of walking routes, in whichever direction you might be going. Modern planners and architects are keen (as are clients and developers) to produce developments with effective permeability. The Brunel has been doing it well for nearly half a century!

The majority of the centre's walkways are lit by natural daylight. Even on cloudy days, natural light easily penetrates down to the ground floor.

With The Crossing, well cultivated mix of chains and independents, and good sense of retail theatre (the prominent new fruit and veg stall being the latest welcome move), this 46 year old is serving Swindon well.

Plus it has two architecture awards* under it's belt!

* RIBA South West Regional Award 1977 and the Constrado Steel Award 1978.

Links

The Brunel Shopping Centre https://www.thebrunel.co.uk

Market Forces

Today was the last day of trading at Swindon's Tented Market.

Department Store Abstract

On a, finally, sunny day, here's the last remaining part of Swindon's Mcllroys department store building. The architecture of the original building is much missed, but the 1960s/1970s rebuild is often overlooked.

Swindon's Regeneration : Welcome to Union Square

The Phase 1 area of Union Square on the former Police Station site between Princes Street,  Gordon Road and Fleming Way. An 850 space multi-storey car park, 45 sheltered housing units, space for the new NHS walk-in centre and offices are currently being built.

Sometimes a regeneration is so big, there's only one way to see it from, above. So, yes, you've guessed it, another rooftop!

This time, the roof of the Jurys Inn on the corner of Fleming Way and Princes Street gives a perfect spot to watch the changing face of Swindon with the Union Square project. 

The first phase of works on Union Square is completed, the new Whalebridge junction.

On the vast empty plots of land around Princes Street, Fleming Way, Corporation Street and Manchester Road the project will provide 650,000 square feet of office space, room for a new NHS Walk-In Centre, a 100-bed hotel, 150,000 square feet of retail, cafe and restaurant space, 450 residential units, an 850 space multi-storey car park, a new bus station, lowering of Fleming Way, a new public square, new road junctions at Whalebridge and Gordon Road, and new public spaces.

Piling work has started on the Union Square Phase 1 area.

The work on Union Square is phased over 10 to 15 years, a scheme of this type has never been seen in Swindon before. It will entirely change the town centre, there's no doubt about that. The first phase is well underway on the land of the former Police Station between Gordon Road, Fleming Way and Princes Street. The car park, sheltered housing units, and offices are currently being built (space will be provided for the NHS Walk-In Centre on the Phase 1 site).

The land in the middle-ground, the open car park, walk-in centre and fenced space will be Union Square Phases 3 and 6.

The Union Square project will stretch all the way along Corporation Street to the junction of Manchester Road and then along to the present bus station at New Bridge Square. The current bus station and multi-storey carpark, along with the vacant land will be brought back into use for houses, offices, shops and public spaces. One interesting touch in the design is the resurrection of several former street and road lines that were lost when the land was previously developed. The line of Broad Street and Carfax Street is retained and the line of Gordon Road will continue across Fleming Way. Because the majority of Union Square is based around a pedestrianised centre space, making the new development inviting for people as a thoroughfare is central to the design of it's layout.

An artist's impression of the Union Square project, looking immediately north of Fleming Way. The Zurich Tri Centre is the white building, with the buildings in the right foreground occupying the site of the former Post Office. These buildings are Phase 2, with the buildings across the new public square Phases 4 and 5.

What are currently empty, unwelcoming spaces in the very centre of Swindon will be brought back into use where people will live, work and relax.

For Union Square and Swindon, it's just the beginning.

Swindon's Regeneration : A Change In The Air

A brooding sky, quiet street and birds circling overhead, give an unsettling feeling on Monday lunchtime.

Demolition sites can be fascinating places, allowing people to act like children and watch big machines crush buildings to dust. But give a change in the weather, a break in work and an absence of people and they can take on a sinister air.

The only sound alongside the breeze was the gentle hiss of the water spray.

With a moody sky, the hulking pile (for it's no longer a tower) of debris where the central tower once stood threw-out odd shapes against the sky. In Edmund Street, the breeze coming down Eastcott Hill rocked the access gates back and forth, squeaking and clattering on it's hinges. Behind the hoarding, the spray was left on, like a leaky steam pipe in a ship's empty boiler room. Small areas of dust would blow around the yard, bouncing off the walls.

On the hill, tables at The Beehive, overlooking the demolition were vacant, and streets were quiet, sitting in a purgatory. The neighbourhood seemed to know it was at a crossing point of eras, with time for the remaining one crumbling away like so much concrete dust.

Swindon's Regeneration : The Final Piece

The tower of the former Swindon College is marooned amongst the piles of metal, glass, plastic and concrete as the demolition enters it's last few stages. This was the 10 storey tower that stood between the long rectangular block towards Victoria Road and the reception and hall at the Eastcott Hill end of the site. It's taken on the look of an oriental pagoda, helped by the one piece of sloping roof still clinging on.

The wall that's kept Eastcott Hill hidden from view for so long, is nearly all down.

Swindon's Regeneration : The Mary Celeste, Faded Glories & The Last Day

The perfect day to be up on the roof.

Today's visit to the former Swindon College site at Regent Circus was what we'd been waiting for. After painstaking work by the asbestos team, the main building is now safe to access and there was only one place to go when arriving, to the roof!

A perfect day and a great location gave a view for miles around. Back inside, we methodically went through each floor, working our way down. Any former students will remember the floor and room numbering system at Swindon College, for example, I had Environmental Science in 4.16, which was on the 3rd floor, as the ground floor were numbered '1'. Each floor had it's own colour too!

Room 4.9's room timetable from week commencing 3rd July 2006. Anyone recognise the staff names? Who took Entry English on Wednesday evening?

A few rooms had their classroom timetables still in place behind perspex on the room outside. Did you have a class in room 4.9 in that last week of it's use in July 2006?

On the stairwell, at each half-landing was a large piece of student-produced artwork, which are all intact and still in-situ! I did retrieve a piece of artwork on an office wall that was also remarkably undamaged, more of that in a later post!

The view towards the half-landing between the 3rd Level (2nd floor)  and the 4th Level (3rd floor). Do you remember the mural of the countryside? 

The library is much smaller than I remember, but the red carpet is still there and apart from some missing ceiling tiles, debris and graffiti, the structure looks solid enough.

The silent study area of the library.

Does anyone remember the careers library? That small room on the right when entering the library, it now has a grand view of the workshops demolition happening right outside.

Anyone need careers advice?

The main building is the eeriest of all to walk through, most likely because of it's size. We also got a look in the hall and Vincents Restaurant (the refractory). More pictures of those soon-to-disappear spaces in the next few days.

Swindon's Regeneration : You Are Starting Here

Demolition of the former Swindon College Regent Street site from Edmund Street.

For a world that's increasingly experienced online, with events seen through a glass-look screen, regeneration is refreshingly different.

The Swindon College sign clings to the wall for a short time longer.

You can produce shiny websites and exciting, eye-catching artist's impressions of grand plans, but you've still got to physically build the project.

For those residents of Edmund Street coming back from work tonight, their view and street has quickly changed.

Until that physical activity happens, all those expectations and plans mean little.

Bite-sized chunks taken out of the roof, with the town hall clock tower in the background.

The demolition of the former Swindon College began last week and the residents of Edmund Street are currently getting a grandstand view. The view of the workshop buildings will just be a memory in a few days, as they're the first structures on the site to come down with the demolition.

Our regeneration starts here, in unassuming Edmund Street.