Design team appointed to oversee £350m Watford Riverwell

Watford Riverwell, which comprises Watford Borough Council and Kier Property has announced the appointment of Pod Architects to oversee the design of the northern zone of the Watford Riverwell site. Pod led a design team, comprising Nicholas Hare Architects, Cumming and Co Architects, and Open Landscape Architects, which won an architectural competition for the project. They join Lewis & Hickey who are leading the design of the two main residential zones.

Significant progress has been made on the scheme since outline planning permission was given in 2014 with the opening of the new road to the hospital, the submission of a planning application for the first 90 homes and the Trade City scheme which completes next month comprising 12 industrial units – available for let, creating 180 local jobs. The Partnership has also been working closely with West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust to ensure that the masterplan allows for the hospital to bring forward its plans to improve health provision in Watford.

Pip Prongué managing director (South) for Kier Property and responsible for the scheme commented:

“We have a fantastic design team in place to take forward our vision for this exciting regeneration project. We have tasked our architects with drawing up the initial plans to share with the community this summer, to support us in designing the best scheme for Watford.”

Paul Shedden of Pod Architects added:

“We are delighted to have been appointed for this major project to realise the strategically important northern zone of the Watford Riverwell. The northern zone focuses on a vibrant commercial hub featuring high quality public spaces tying the masterplan together as a whole.”

“It will promote a calm friendly neighbourhood featuring family housing and community facilities set around traffic calmed streets. Our concept is framed by our proposals for exciting landscaped areas, which take inspiration from the natural topography with an emphasis on promoting health and wellbeing.”