Sunderland Seafront
Sunderland City Council
The Seafront projects sought to reinvigorate Sunderland’s coastline following Sunderland City Council’s Seafront Regeneration Strategy. The intention was to make the most of the city’s primary coastal assets in a coherent manner and deliver an accessible public realm which delivered the passion for change from residents, businesses and visitors.
Whilst Sunderland is widely recognized for its industrial past, the City also boasts two stunning beaches in the historic resorts of Seaburn and Roker.
The team lead an ambitious city-wide public consultation to establish what people who live in, work in and visit Sunderland felt should be the vision for the future of the Seafront. Various graphic tools were utilised to best showcase emerging design and concepts, whereby Adobe Photoshop was used to enhance hand sketches and create proposal layouts.
The Masterplan formalised the shared vision and enabled the detailed design development. In co-ordinating the design process, the design team was able to ensure consistency and co ordination of consultation documents by utilising Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign
Innovation and sustainability are at the heart of the projects and early involvement with artists, craftsmen and lighting engineers helped subtly integrate new features such as LED street lighting, street art and a bespoke range of railings, handrail and gates, signage and the iconic Pod’s. Other sustainable features which are unique to the projects are the use of reclaimed local stone carefully incorporated into the bespoke features which were reclaimed from site and clever use of driftwood washed up on Roker beach within the planting beds.
"Due to the Sunderland Council’s public realm works, soft landscaping and artworks at Roker on Marine Walk, Roker, our development company BBL NE Ltd invested circa £750,000 in building both retail/commercial and residential units on vacant, derelict land. It is unlikely that this private investment would have taken place if the aforementioned works had not happened.
Both the public and private schemes have been a great success, attracting thousands of visitors to the sea front at Roker, a place formerly not visited by many people. This has not only helped our business but the development has also created approximately 30 new jobs. The public realm investment was also the catalyst for the relocation of Fitz Architects to the seafront. On the back of this success we plan to invest further on a new scheme on Marine Walk, Roker in the very near future."
Craig Fitzakerly, Managing Director Fitz Architects
Sunderland’s resurrection of Roker’s front is one of the greatest regeneration stories of the century. Once, the twin resorts of Seaburn and Roker were the Brighton and Hove of the northeast. Then we learnt about the Costa del Sol and the once loved resorts were dropped like footballers wives, descending into despair and disrepair.
But in 2010 Sunderland City Council decided that Roker Beach was simply too beautiful to be allowed to die, and embarked on a £7million regeneration project: £1.35m was spent restoring the pier, with its fabulous Alice- in –Wonderland striped lighthouse, and another million was spent on Adventure Sunderland, a watersports centre offering an array of activities, including surfing, paddle boarding, kayaking, pier jumping and new for 2017 raft building and beach buggies.
The Sunday Times, Top 50 Beaches, June 18th 2017
