Redesigned gardens ‘will return pulse’ to heart of Granite City

Published on Thursday 26 January 2012 01:04

ONE of the principal architects behind the winning vision for the controversial transformation of Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens has boasted that their design is “unlike any other in the world”.

Charles Renfro, an architect with New York-based company Diller Scofidio & Renfro, told a meeting of Aberdeen City Council yesterday that their futuristic design – condemned the “Teletubbie Park” by critics – would restore a beating pulse to the heart of the Granite City.

Mr Renfro, giving his first public presentation on the planned £140 million project, claimed their design would ensure that the site of Victorian gardens remained a “green oasis” in the city centre.

By building over the Denburn Valley, carrying the main Aberdeen to Inverness rail line and the city centre dual carriageway, the new design would more than double the acreage of the current site, creating 65 per cent more green space.

He said: “The park will be designed unlike any other in the world. We chose to invent a new approach which merges the natural and built environment in a new unique design that could only exist in Aberdeen.”

Mr Renfro told councillors that the “green heart of the silver city” had a “weak pulse”.

He continued: “The gardens are some 14 metres below street level.

“They are inaccessible to many people. They are damp and in shadow for most of the time. People rarely go there.”

But his firm’s transformational scheme, he said, included plans for a skating rink, a 500-seat theatre, a 5,000-seat amphitheatre and exhibition space which would turn the gardens into a “world-class facility” for visitors and residents alike.

Earlier, councillors listened to representatives from a series of delegations speaking both for and against the transformational scheme being championed by oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood.

Mike Shepherd, a spokesman for opposition group Friends of Union Terrace Gardens, urged the councillors to do nothing to progress the project until the results of the public referendum are made known on 2 March.

However, councillors voted by 24-15 to instruct officials to submit detailed business plans for the venture and to enter into negotiations with the City Gardens Trust on a development agreement for the scheme – should it be backed in next months’ public referendum.

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mbrmark

Friday, January 27, 2012 at 10:48 PM

I can only imagine that the space would have required Calatrava to turn it into something spectacular. Unfortunately, Calatrava did not produce what seems to be this plan.

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6

Onwards

Friday, January 27, 2012 at 02:08 AM

65 per cent more green space seems to eliminate any scaremongering that this would end up being a concrete carpark... Looks like a big improvement on the current gardens with the noisy dual carriageway.

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CASHKING7

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 01:00 PM

Anything new and different would be an improvement to dull Aberdeen

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WJohn

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 11:33 AM

#2. They mean the Houston of the West .......Scotland .......Ayrshire ......The original.

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WJohn

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 10:55 AM

It is the same as every other design with the same bunch of lonely people walking among flowers and greenery, no dogs, no beggars, no ruststained and mouldy concrete. It is different because of the building on fire.

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wee-scamp

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 09:44 AM

The daftest claim about the gardens is its economic benefit in that it will turn Aberdeen into the "Houston of the East".... Sadly I haven't heard about where the Space Centre is going to be sited.

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little-annie

Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 09:32 AM

What?? Amphitheatre?? Aberdeen weather?? Please!!! A degree of commonsense is required here. And a 500 seat theatre, when you have that gem, His Majesty's overshadowing the park?? Fa's kiddin fa?

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