Guildford Cultural Quarter, Guildford, Surrey
CLIENT ADVISER
JENNIFER DIXON
2006 – 2010
CLIENT
Guildford Borough Council
SERVICES PROVIDED
– masterplan brief development
– strategic masterplan
– business planning support
– public consultation strategy
– design strategies
– concept briefs for performance venue and hotel
– technical governance.
Challenges
Why was a Client Adviser required?
Jennifer was appointed (while Principal of Austin-Smith:Lord) to develop a masterplan brief for this strategically important area of Guildford in Surrey. The Borough Council had endorsed a strategy involving sale of part of an existing public car park to create a much needed four star hotel in the town centre, the funds from the sale of which were to construct a new concert hall complex on the same site. The initial task was to develop a brief and a variety of feasible options for achieving the objectives in a complex political environment involving multiple stakeholders. The collapse of the global economy in 2008, and the inevitable knock-on effect on a local authority seeking to develop a publicly funded arts facility, created significant challenges requiring several reappraisals of the project. Jennifer provided expert client-side advice in the early stages of the project, supporting Guildford Borough Council to find solutions to the complex brief and to satisfy the wide variety of stakeholder concerns. This was a critical period during which the project could easily have faltered.
The challenges of the project lay in apparently mutually exclusive requirements by key stakeholders, an almost impossible programme driven by Council election dates, and a faltering economy.
Outcomes
What value was created
Ingenious strategies were devised for physically accommodating the hotel and theatre buildings and their complex servicing requirements while maintaining the full quota of town centre public parking, while also enhancing the small public park. Intensive consultation with public stakeholders and the owners of residential properties surrounding the site was systematic and highly productive, and visibly enhanced the project outcomes.
The programme required a full planning application for this important public building to be submitted within four months of the appointment of the consultant team. This required project strategies to be devised, tested and approved remarkably quickly, and any design compromises identified and mitigated. Later in the process, the project was temporarily suspended for sense checking in the light of the global financial crisis, and Jennifer encouraged review and rationalisation of the design during the suspension period in order that the architectural quality might be further increased. Fulfilling an ambitious brief on a restricted site required the team to work to very tight tolerances from early in the project.
Once the masterplan was established, successful sale of the hotel site to a private sector developer funded development of the performing arts facility. In order to achieve complementary planning consents for both the ‘G-Live’ auditorium complex and the Radisson hotel, Jennifer was required to advise both clients separately, mediating to optimise the needs of both. After planning consent was achieved, both projects were delivered by separate teams. ‘G Live’ received an RIBA Regional award in 2012.
A decade after completion, G Live has fulfilled the promise of its original brief. The main house has a capacity of 1,700 for a standing gig or just over 1,000 for seated events, and this flexibility helps the operators to ensure that the programme is as broad as possible. Benefitting from a sophisticated acoustic installation that ensures a natural sound, it is home to the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra and offers a full programme of live gigs, concerts and performances. The flat floor format is used when hosting festivals, exhibitions, gala dinners and award ceremonies. The public spaces and café have made a significant contribution to the vitality and identity of the town.
