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18/11/2010
Andytown PSNI Site 'Delay' Slammed
An international design competition for the former site of the Andersonstown police station has been launched - and while the Social Development Minister Alex Attwood has advanced the move as progress - a local MLA has slammed alleged delays.
Minister Attwood announced that the Department for Social Development (DSD), working with the West Belfast Partnership Board and PLACE, the Centre for Architecture and the Built Environment, invited expressions of interest from architect-led design teams.
Mr Attwood said: "Earlier this year, the West Belfast partnership and PLACE carried out extensive community engagement on behalf of my Department. The result was a design brief for a building of real quality: a new landmark for West Belfast that could house regeneration, arts and cultural activity. The West needs a landmark building and this could be the opportunity.
"I gave a commitment in August this year that I would champion this project during my time as Minister for Social Development, and the competition that begins today is a key milestone.
"I am confident that the competition will stimulate the thinking of the world's most creative architects and produce some striking and practical designs. At the same time, the local community must be at the heart of the process."
The process launched will have two distinct stages. Firstly, brief expressions of interest will be sought and these will be shortlisted by a panel of judges in the New Year.
The shortlist of five design teams will then be asked to produce detailed proposals over a five-month period, with the leading design selected in the summer of 2011.
He said that the world's foremost practising architect, Daniel Libeskind, has agreed to preside over the judging panel for the international design competition that is being conducted on behalf of the DSD by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
However, the Sinn Fein MLA for West Belfast Paul Maskey has said that the community have waited for "far too long" for the construction of an iconic building on the site of the old Andersonstown Barracks.
"This has been a very slow process," he complained. "If an architect's competition can provide this then so be it but we need to see delivery in conjunction with the local community as well," he said, also insisting: "For far too long the Department and the both Ministers, Margaret Ritchie and Alex Atwood, have spent large amounts of money on consultations and glossy programmes for west Belfast. It is now high time that they start to deliver for this community."
(CD/BMcC)
Minister Attwood announced that the Department for Social Development (DSD), working with the West Belfast Partnership Board and PLACE, the Centre for Architecture and the Built Environment, invited expressions of interest from architect-led design teams.
Mr Attwood said: "Earlier this year, the West Belfast partnership and PLACE carried out extensive community engagement on behalf of my Department. The result was a design brief for a building of real quality: a new landmark for West Belfast that could house regeneration, arts and cultural activity. The West needs a landmark building and this could be the opportunity.
"I gave a commitment in August this year that I would champion this project during my time as Minister for Social Development, and the competition that begins today is a key milestone.
"I am confident that the competition will stimulate the thinking of the world's most creative architects and produce some striking and practical designs. At the same time, the local community must be at the heart of the process."
The process launched will have two distinct stages. Firstly, brief expressions of interest will be sought and these will be shortlisted by a panel of judges in the New Year.
The shortlist of five design teams will then be asked to produce detailed proposals over a five-month period, with the leading design selected in the summer of 2011.
He said that the world's foremost practising architect, Daniel Libeskind, has agreed to preside over the judging panel for the international design competition that is being conducted on behalf of the DSD by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
However, the Sinn Fein MLA for West Belfast Paul Maskey has said that the community have waited for "far too long" for the construction of an iconic building on the site of the old Andersonstown Barracks.
"This has been a very slow process," he complained. "If an architect's competition can provide this then so be it but we need to see delivery in conjunction with the local community as well," he said, also insisting: "For far too long the Department and the both Ministers, Margaret Ritchie and Alex Atwood, have spent large amounts of money on consultations and glossy programmes for west Belfast. It is now high time that they start to deliver for this community."
(CD/BMcC)
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