Leeds City Square set to become urban woodland

A proposed ‘urban woodland’ by design consultancy re-form landscape architecture has been named winner of a contest to transform Leeds City SquareWorking with Arup, artist Nayan Kulkarni and children’s play expert Tim Gill, the local practice saw off Atkins, Gillespies, MICA and a team featuring Graeme Massie Architects and AECOM to scoop the RIBA-organised competition.Re-form said its scheme, dubbed The Glade, would see fragments of the Forest of Loidis – the ancient forest on which the West Yorkshire city was built – ‘re-emerge as a setting for city life’.The 0.3ha mainly paved public space next to Leeds Station and Channel 4’s new headquarters is crossed by up to 40,000 pedestrians every day but is currently hemmed in by several lanes of busy traffic. It was originally laid out in the late 19th century and was last modernised in the early 2000s.Re-form landscape architecture director Andrew Price claimed its ‘ambitious response’ would create a ‘space for everyday street culture’ and a place where people and nature could ‘co-exist in the heart of a thriving urban centre’.The £3.5 million revamp is part of Leeds City Council’s Our Space strategy to create a ‘world-class, vibrant and inclusive public realm’ across the city. The competition is backed by Balfour Beatty, which is already working with the local authority on the project via the Scape National Civil Engineering Framework.The competition was launched in September, just a few months after the West Yorkshire Region was awarded a £1.8 billion devolution deal, allowing it greater control over transport, education and infrastructure investment as well as its own mayor.The programme is worth about £38 million a year for 30 years and will finance major public transport upgrades, including a redevelopment of Leeds Station and early work on developing a new mass transit system.Highlights of the deal also included a £25 million boost for plans to create a British Library North at the listed Temple Works.The five shortlisted teams in the City Square contest each received a £6,000 honorarium to develop their design concepts for the area.The re-form team is expected to be officially appointed by the council’s executive board at a meeting tomorrow (23 June).