Newcastle Quayside developments begins with public consultation

An architectural firm has been appointed to carry out a survey to gauge public opinion on the future of Newcastle’s Quayside.

NE1, a business improvement firm, has appointed Gehl Architects to help shape a vision for Newcastle’s Quayside and to gather public and stakeholder opinion, ideas, and comments on the future for this iconic part of the city.

Gehl will be working with NE1, businesses, residents, and key stakeholders to develop key themes and principles for the area, identifying opportunities that could transform how people interact and engage with the Quayside over the years to come.

Gehl’s work has helped deliver similar transformations in Copenhagen and in Melbourne and in other global cities like New York where their work with NYCs Department of Transport (DOT) paved the way for pedestrianising Times’ Square.

The starting point for this exciting project is a fact-finding exercise and public consultation programme that launched this week, with a Maptionnaire, an online questionnaire which it is hoped will garner a wide range of views, ideas, and wish-lists from the public and major stakeholders on the future development of the Quayside.

This online survey will be active for the next two weeks and NE1 hopes that as many people as possible will visit the page to give their views and have their say. Following the Maptionnaire, Gehl will run a series of workshops in Newcastle in February with residents, businesses, and other major stakeholders to explore the findings.

They will report on their findings in early spring, identifying the key principles and themes on how the area can evolve in the future.

Stephen Patterson, NE1 chief executive, said: “Over the next 5-10 years, in excess of £750m worth of investment is planned on the north and south banks of the Tyne, underlining the huge transformation that will happen in the area.

“It is the bits between the buildings, our civic space that stitches all of these amazing developments together. We need to think and plan for how the Quayside in its entirety is equipped for the future and this is the beginning of that conversation.”