Ian helped shape city as we know it

LANDSCAPE architect Ian Temple, who helped design Meadowbank Sports Centre and commissioned Leith Walk's famous pigeon statues, is to retire from Edinburgh City Council on Thursday.

He has spent 40 years shaping some of the best-loved parts of Edinburgh. His projects have ranged from the Jack Kane and Craiglockhart sports centres to cycle paths along the Water of Leith.

Mr Temple joined the city council in 1968 after graduating from Edinburgh College of Art.

One of the first projects he worked on was designing the external work at Meadowbank Sports Centre, in time for the city's Commonwealth Games in 1970.

As project officer for improvements to Elm Row in 1996, he commissioned the celebrated flock of pigeons, which were designed by sculptor Shona Kinloch.

Despite vandalism and theft, the plump bronze birds remain equally popular with visitors and locals – although they are to be moved to accommodate the tram line.

Mr Temple qualified as a landscape architect in the 1980s and set about creating the cycleways of Edinburgh on the disused railway network, which have transformed the way people move around the city.

He said: "The radical thing that's happened in Edinburgh as far as I am concerned is the development of the long distance paths and the path systems across the city.

"And parks are now seen in a structured context – they are not just pieces of grass with railings around them any more. Very much more community involvement has happened with parks."

Perhaps his proudest achievement was designing the walkways that now run the length of the Water of Leith, through the Dean Village, Stockbridge and Canonmills, including the Standard Life Bridge at Canonmills.

He said: "It gives people access to interesting places and improves quality of life in those parts of the city.

"And it means people can move around the city away from the roads, giving safe pedestrian access."

In recent years, he has worked as a rights of way officer and landscape advisor in the city's planning department and he says it is his colleagues and the 'buzz' that he will miss the most, as well as "being part of the functioning of the city".

"When I walk around Edinburgh I see things I have influenced all over the place – it might simply be a tree that I have protected," he said.

Mr Temple retires on March 20 and is looking forward to spending more time with his wife, Jean, three children and three grandchildren, as well as embarking on a new project, researching the doo'cots of Edinburgh.

He said this would bring his career full circle, as one of his first projects was helping restore the Hermitage doo'cot.