Tall & Urban News

Sheppard Robson has submitted plans for a 783-home build-to-rent scheme in Globe Road, Leeds, making it the third practice to design a proposal for the city-center site.

The £180 million (US$227 million) scheme, backed by private rented sector developer Get Living, features eight residential blocks on the thin canal-side plot west of Leeds City station.

In 2013, Feilden Clegg Bradley won permission for a £92 million (US$116 million), 609-home project for then-owner Taylor Wimpey, itself a replacement for an earlier 887-home RIBA competition-winning design by Assael Architecture from 2005.

Sheppard Robson’s all-new 63,000-square-meter scheme will include a 23-story tower as well as a waterfront pavilion called the Hub, containing co-working space above a ground-floor restaurant.

The scheme would create a 2-hectare neighborhood, featuring a range of homes from studio apartments to family houses as part of the West Yorkshire city’s South Bank district.

Amenities such as food shops, retail units and a gym would be created between the housing blocks.

Get Living executive chairman Rick de Blaby said: “A neighborhood of this scale commits us fully to the long-term growth and success of Leeds, and our role will see us working alongside the council and its own ambitious plans for the city.

Our proposal is a significant investment, and one we anticipate will support businesses that need to recruit and retain staff and – most importantly for the people of Leeds – one that delivers great homes within new public spaces.

We have listened carefully to local people to create these ambitious plans for a new green neighborhood, and we’re particularly excited that this proposal would see us opening up the site to the waterfront and creating new public routes along this stretch of the canal side.”

For more on this story visit Architects’ Journal.