St Mary's Hospital
RLD was commissioned in 2001 to join the masterplanning team for the development of residential proposals for this former mental hospital.
In keeping with best practice, the site was assessed for its landscape, historic, arboricultural and ecological features, with a view to the masterplanning process being guided by a series of sieve analyses that safeguarded the more significant features. The resultant development proposal was one that sat comfortably within the former hospital grounds, with minimal impact upon the key landscape features of the site.
The proposed landscape strategy to accompany the development was further developed to mitigate incidences of visual impact and to establish a new pattern of parkland that ensured the integrity of the site’s landscape would be maintained into a second century of use.
Key to this was the proposed Conservation Plan for the historic parts of the grounds and the introduction of a management plan for the entire site. This guaranteed that the airing courts – as a distinctive feature of historic value – would retained and maintained as a recreational asset of regional or even, given the importance of the original asylum design, national importance.
In addition, the Landscape Strategy Plan ensured that there will be no loss of playing fields; that publicly accessible parkland would be created; and that a major north/south footpath would be created, linking the residential components of the scheme with the wider public rights of way network.
Capital value approximately £1.5 million.
Tyne and Wear :: NE1 1PG :: Tel: 0191 230 4339 :: Fax: 0191 230 5509
info@robinsonlandscapedesign.co.uk | www.robinsonlandscapedesign.co.uk
