Lower Steenbergs Yard

The development is located adjacent to the award-winning Toffee Factory managed workspace, which Cundall helped design, and represents a continuation of a long history of our work on complex riverside regeneration schemes in this area. This narrow site is located adjacent to the Ouseburn River, had complex buried services to build around, a significant retaining structure at the west of the site and a river wall in poor condition.

Cundall worked with the design team to co-ordinate the pre-application and planning submission process. Key challenges included creating a high-quality scheme within tight costs constraints on a complex site, accommodating residential development within an existing commercial area. We also had to ensure that noise concerns could be overcome whilst accommodating development on a site with significant engineering constraints including existing retaining walls.

Ian Cansfield, Director of Planning, comments, "This has been a fantastic project to work on over the last eight years since we started feasibility work. The Cundall team have been a key part of the project, with every discipline in the practice involved. The site had several key challenges packed into its small dimensions. These have included challenging ground conditions and land contamination, remnant structures and river walls to reinforce, flood levels to manage, access and circulation challenges, a demanding sustainability brief and lots of detailed negotiations throughout the planning process. Now that it is finished, we can all rightly stand back and be proud of what we have achieved!"