Urban design consultant EDAW is believed to have won a competition to draw up a masterplan for Central Milton Keynes, the commercial centre of the city.
It beat seven other firms, including Richard Rogers Partnership, Terry Farrell & Partners and Urban Strategies, to the £250 000 contract. The commission was awarded by English Partnerships, which inherited the sites from the former development corporation and Milton Keynes council.
EDAW’s brief is to review the first masterplan, drawn up 30 years ago, and amend it as appropriate for the next 20 years.
The original was drawn by Derek Walker, chief architect of the former development corporation. Now the idea is to “involve local citizens as stakeholders, not just as consumers”, says Sylvia Short, assistant director of planning at English Partnerships.
“A safe accessible centre with a distinctive identity is a key requirement,” added Short.
Central Milton Keynes is famous for its unremittingly rectilinear layout and purpose-built regional shopping centre, one of the first in Britain. In the past couple of years, it has enjoyed a £300m resurgence, with a dry ski slope, theatre, leisure development and £180m extension to the shopping centre.
EDAW is an American-owned international consultancy involved in the regeneration of Manchester city centre, the new “Sportcity” in East Manchester, London Docklands, Dundee and Southampton.
