News: Elegant revamp for Rotherham town centre car park
Global award-winning architectural firm, Aedas, is set to provide another landmark building in Rotherham town centre as part of a multimillion pound revamp of the interchange car park.
Rothbiz revealed last year that investigations had shown that the car park on the site of the bus station requires £4m worth of repairs. Plans have now been submitted for the detailed design of the renovation and re-cladding of the multi-storey car park that could provide Rotherham with a rival to Sheffield's "cheesegrater."
Opened in 1971, the car park has since developed widespread defects and the existing tight spaces and drab appearance mean that occupancy levels only average approximately one third of its 678 capacity.
Aedas has previously designed the revamped Rotherham Central Station and has is now working again with the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), who own and operate the four-storey car park which sits between Frederick Street and the River Don.
The existing cladding system, which consists of proprietary louvres and is designed to allow air to permeate through the car park, has been poorly implemented and will all be replaced. Highly durable anodised mesh panels will be used instead with the junctions and recesses in the structure used to break the building into an appearance of three blocks.
A colour scheme has been chosen that pays homage to the industrial heritage of Rotherham. The exterior panels will feature three tones of brown and gold that mimic the colour of iron before it has been manufactured into steel. The anodised material is expected to "softly shimmer as the sunlight is cast upon it."
The internal areas, which in some places are now in a poor state of repair, are also set to be totally revamped.
The existing four bay parking layout will be replaced with a three bay parking layout. This is designed to free up significant space for manoeuvring, as well as allowing people to get in and out of their vehicle with greater ease. However, this will result in the number of parking spaces reducing down to 485.
The plans propose to introduce "an abundance of colour" on the car park floors and as part of the internal refurbishment there is the opportunity to clarify the layout by introducing markings for pedestrian zones, improving signage, enhancing space markings, and clarifying road markings.
The plans state: "The car park is not fulfilling it's economic potential. By replacing the façade with a more elegant and contextual solution and upgrading the interiors so that people feel comfortable and safe within the car, not only will more people use the car park, but the whole area will be held in higher esteem."
The submission of this planning application suggest that proposals for a more significant redevelopment of the site are not being progressed. The SYPTE, Rotherham Council and the owners, Norseman Holdings, met to discuss potential alternative development options for the site and Norseman committed to review the options of a leisure facility at the site and report back on options.
There are no plans to alter the bus station element on the site and the renovation works are due to take place without any reduction in bus services.
The SYPTE has budgeted for £2.4m to be spent on the project in 2014/15.
Images: Aedas
Rothbiz revealed last year that investigations had shown that the car park on the site of the bus station requires £4m worth of repairs. Plans have now been submitted for the detailed design of the renovation and re-cladding of the multi-storey car park that could provide Rotherham with a rival to Sheffield's "cheesegrater."
Opened in 1971, the car park has since developed widespread defects and the existing tight spaces and drab appearance mean that occupancy levels only average approximately one third of its 678 capacity.
Aedas has previously designed the revamped Rotherham Central Station and has is now working again with the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE), who own and operate the four-storey car park which sits between Frederick Street and the River Don.
The existing cladding system, which consists of proprietary louvres and is designed to allow air to permeate through the car park, has been poorly implemented and will all be replaced. Highly durable anodised mesh panels will be used instead with the junctions and recesses in the structure used to break the building into an appearance of three blocks.
A colour scheme has been chosen that pays homage to the industrial heritage of Rotherham. The exterior panels will feature three tones of brown and gold that mimic the colour of iron before it has been manufactured into steel. The anodised material is expected to "softly shimmer as the sunlight is cast upon it."
The existing four bay parking layout will be replaced with a three bay parking layout. This is designed to free up significant space for manoeuvring, as well as allowing people to get in and out of their vehicle with greater ease. However, this will result in the number of parking spaces reducing down to 485.
The plans propose to introduce "an abundance of colour" on the car park floors and as part of the internal refurbishment there is the opportunity to clarify the layout by introducing markings for pedestrian zones, improving signage, enhancing space markings, and clarifying road markings.
The plans state: "The car park is not fulfilling it's economic potential. By replacing the façade with a more elegant and contextual solution and upgrading the interiors so that people feel comfortable and safe within the car, not only will more people use the car park, but the whole area will be held in higher esteem."
The submission of this planning application suggest that proposals for a more significant redevelopment of the site are not being progressed. The SYPTE, Rotherham Council and the owners, Norseman Holdings, met to discuss potential alternative development options for the site and Norseman committed to review the options of a leisure facility at the site and report back on options.
There are no plans to alter the bus station element on the site and the renovation works are due to take place without any reduction in bus services.
The SYPTE has budgeted for £2.4m to be spent on the project in 2014/15.
Images: Aedas
7 comments:
I've never once used this car park because access to it is a faff, NOT because of its appearance. Spending £4m on providing better access (specifically to the east side of town) would be more sensible. I've never heard of anyone choosing one car park over another because it was cosmetically handsome.
So,changing the colour is going to make me use it is it?,dont think so its the cost what keeps me away.
All thst for cladding... knock it down and build a shopping centre slash car park.. I.e. Frenchgate
If it's not free it will not get used. Do meadowhall charge? That's the competition. Compete.
Looks like a huge waste of money...Heritage? Again. Why?
Let's start looking forwards not backwards. We were great at steel and coal - fine. We all know this, but we need to move on. To attract inward investment we need to be forward thinking, not backwards looking.Time for a change in leadership I think...decisions like this are costly and wrong.
Why spend all that money on a car park when theres no decent shops for people to use
It all needs knocking down and rebuilding, the bus station is dingy and unwelcoming, the platforms need more rails to get people to queue back and forth as they just stand anywhere. The carpark is a mess inside and out, it needs more than panels to make it work, it needs better lighting ( put solar panels on roof fro free electric to run lighting and anything else needed for carpark )
It also needs security cameras to make people feel safer for themselves and there car. Only a rebuild will adress all problems
Revamp a car park in brown you are joking , no cars will use it and the cost to park will be too much, as there are no shops left in the town center. Be better to rip it down and build more over priced flats that no one wants or can afford.
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