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Denburn Valley Development

John Michie - Partner, Michies the Chemist, Aberdeen City Centre Partnership, Aberdeen BID, AGCC Council Member

Introduction

For over 150 years, various plans have been proposed for the Denburn Valley. The fact that a modest part of the open space has been landscaped and used as a park since 1879 has not prevented generations of Aberdonians from proposing fresh ideas to address the changing needs of our City through time. For a City, success is often judged in terms of competitiveness and live ability.  It is now commonly accepted in economic development and regeneration circles that cities must be both.

Aberdeen is a successful regional City. Its economy is strong and it has a rich cultural, architectural and industrial heritage. We want to be in the top tier of regional European cities with the label of a World Energy Centre. To achieve this, we need to improve both our competitiveness and live ability. I believe we need to make a step change in three areas:

• Attractiveness –to make Aberdeen a must visit City and place us at the top of the list of attractive places to live, work and study.
• Functionality – to encourage Aberdeen to function more like a City and less like a town. This is about returning the City Centre to its historical role as the regional focal point; socially, administratively and commercially. This is not just about hosting events; it is also about providing a variety of environments and activities; quarters of character and interest. Importantly it is about generating the critical mass of people necessary to create a buzz and a sustainable City Centre.
• Access and walkability – the development of the Denburn Valley offers a unique opportunity to provide the portal to the City. Road and rail infrastructure already exist in the valley floor but there needs to be a halt/delivery point within the development. Vertical access would improve efficiency and remove congestion. At the surface level, the benefit would be walk ability in all directions, thus bridging the natural east-west barrier of the Denburn valley. This concept would also create an impressive and lasting first impression on arrival through the principal gateway to the City.  The diagram overleaf sets this out in a mind map.

The Denburn Valley Development presents an opportunity to be the catalyst which will allow the City Centre again to be the heart of the City and the City to be the heart of the region. The City would function better and the development would provide a site for a truly amazing international venue.

Vision

In attempting to quantify and describe my vision, I am inspired by successful examples from elsewhere. The development should include various aspects of best practice, all incorporated into a solution for Aberdeen which will meet the growing needs and provide greater opportunity for our children and fellow citizens. The Gardens Redevelopment should become central to the masterplan for the future, on a rolling 25 year plan.

The Valley Development alone may not be able to deliver all of the complex conditions for success. However, it can  be the catalyst and could produce the step-change needed to start the process and secure future jobs. This will also encourage additional investment in and the refurbishment of other languishing parts of the central area, including Union Street, Bridge Street, Market Street, George Street and even the West End.

“Recognisable Features” and “Amazing Attraction”

Although these are two different attributes, we need a blend of both. At present the City Centre has no recognisable identity.  It also has no “must visit” attraction, no magnet and, importantly, nothing to place Aberdeen on the map of City-break destinations. By way of example, consider Gateshead. It is becoming increasingly well known for iconic architecture including The Sage Gateshead, The Angel of the North and The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Clearly, the Angel of the North is a recognisable feature. However it also represents regeneration and demonstrates how a series of physical projects can transform the fortunes and civic pride of a City. The Sydney opera house is another highly recognisable feature which both provides a service and is a symbol of success.

Museums, galleries and heritage sites, many of which have free entry, improve regional self esteem and are major destinations in their own right. An example of an iconic attraction transforming how people view cities as destinations is Bilbao with the Guggenheim Museum.  

Also, Liverpool, where the new Museum of Liverpool on the waterfront will be the largest newly built museum in Britain when it opens in July, will reap the economic benefit. The new museum building itself is costing £72m but it will yield £112m of benefit per year. Similar returns are anticipated when the V&A Extension is built in Dundee at an estimated cost of £45m.

La Pyramide Inversée

Although apparently dissimilar, the Aberdeen project has a number of parallels to the Louvre pyramids. In 1983, French President François Mitterrand proposed the Grand Louvre plan to build a glass pyramid to stand over a new entrance to the Louvre, the Cour Napoléon. The pyramid and its underground lobby opened five years later. Here, a similar development could make good use of the volume below street level while retaining surface access.

The buildings on Union Terrace, the Theatre, Art Gallery, the Trinity Mall, the Green and the rail and bus Stations could all be accessed via the subterranean space under the garden deck. With Aberdeen planning a bid to become the UK City of Culture in 2017, the valley development could become the social and cultural Centrepiece of the City Centre and give us a date  to plan towards.

Ideopolis

A development in the Denburn valley similar to the Louvre Pyramid would create a virtuous circle for the City. Aberdeen has many positive attributes; physical infrastructure, intellectual capital, commercial enterprise and social interaction. The Trump development and the long awaited AWPR are hugely welcome but the City Centre remains in need of a development which has the ability to pull all of this together; to facilitate and pump-prime the City Centre to again be the heart of the City and the City the heart of the region.

My view is that the Denburn Valley Development will also sit comfortably with the idea of Aberdeen being an Ideopolis, first suggested in 2003.  The Ideopolis concept is a City of ideas, where knowledge including universities and a research base, creativity, enterprise, connectivity and quality of life combine to create a dynamic and sustainable local and regional economy. The concept of raising the gardens as part of the valley development has been given an enormous boost with the generous £50m offer from Sir Ian Wood, our own home-grown but international businessman and philanthropist. The next step in the project stimulated by Sir Ian’s offer was the development brief now circulated as an architectural  competition to a local and international market.

Research undertaken for ACCA and the City council in 2008 showed the need for the City Centre to facilitate important social interaction. The excellent work by the Council to prepare a City Centre Development Framework recognises this. However, the valley development could really accelerate this by providing a new type of “place-making” and dramatically improve the east-west and north-south links for pedestrians. This is not just about filling a void, physical and intellectual, it is about taking full advantage of the opportunity and creating a three-dimensional and enterprising catalyst. In a hundred years the this development will rank historically in social and economic importance with the building of our splendid harbour and the creation of Union Street, the Boulevard of the North.

Aberdeen already has a number of the ingredients for an Ideopolis. The glue that holds the concept together will be social function and human interaction. To allow the glue to work we need to create the right environment in the City Centre; a functioning living space which also provides the areas or quarters of character and special interests. Cities have this. Towns do not.

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