Archinect - News

British government refuses to release internal report on Heatherwick's cancelled Garden Bridge

2020-03-16T17:18:00-04:00

The Department for Transport is refusing to release an internal report on the cancelled Garden Bridge project, claiming this would prejudice the commercial interests of the trust that developed it, now in liquidation. The Garden Bridge scheme, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and championed by Boris Johnson while mayor of London, collapsed in August 2017. It left taxpayers with a bill of £43 million, making it one of the costliest public scandals in British political history.

According to Architects' Journal, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to see the report – an assessment of the financial position of the Garden Bridge Trust made by the DfT’s internal audit team in July 2016 – was refused and then refused again on appeal earlier this month. Apparently, the report is being withheld to protect the interests of the Garden Bridge Trust, who developed the project which has been in liquidation since April last year, Architects' Journal reports.

Shenzhen's elevated garden will bring pedestrians to the sky

2018-10-11T19:31:00-04:00

“Given the diversity of the buildings emerging within the Qianhai area, our preference was for a simple, bold, and confident insertion into the existing master plan,” says Spence. “The formality derives from the existing road grid and building plots, combined with our desire to maximize the area of raised green park linking the city to the bay. It creates a new horizon against which people can orientate.”

In the bustling city of Shenzen, the growing metropolis that bridges Hong Kong to China's mainland, an exciting sky garden project will bring the city's transportation infrastructure to the sky. The team at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners are creating a mile long elevated pathway. The main function of these elevated gardens, according to building developers, is to transition pedestrians from the ground level to skyscrapers in the city center.

Image via Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Creating this separation of transit levels will allow for pedestrians to enjoy a much slower paced transit experience, leaving the levels below the sky gardens for commuters riding by train or car. The project is soon to be finished in 2020.

Scrapped London Garden Bridge stirs up legal questions over $60m public funds spent

2018-08-01T14:01:00-04:00

The trustees of London’s garden bridge, including actor Joanna Lumley and the former Labour minister Lord Davies, could have breached their legal duties over the failed project, that cost taxpayers more than £40m, according to a leading lawyer. The legal opinion comes as pressure mounts for a formal investigation into how the charity behind the abandoned scheme spent so much money without construction work even beginning.

"The decision to press on with the construction contract led to public losses, initially capped at £16m, increasing to an estimated total of £46m by the time the scheme was cancelled in 2017," The Guardian reports. "The project, championed by then London mayor, Boris Johnson, was intended to be majority-funded by private donations. However, the bulk of the money spent came from the £60m in public funds handed to the project."

Boris Johnson faces continuing pressure over canceled London garden bridge

2018-03-19T13:40:00-04:00

Gwynne demanded Johnson provide evidence for his allegation against Will Hurst, the managing editor of Architects’ Journal who has won several awards for his coverage of the garden bridge, or withdraw them and apologise. The letter adds to the pressure on Johnson over his role in the troubled story of the planned pedestrian link across the river Thames, which he commissioned and championed as mayor of London, a job he held until May 2016.

During his term in the London mayoral chair, British foreign secretary Boris Johnson advocated passionately for the £46m Heatherwick-designed London garden bridge proposal, which ultimately lost public support and was scrapped by incoming mayor Sadiq Khan—while the financial burden for the controversial project remains on the public.

A new Labour initiative pressures Johnson to shed light on his allegations that Architects’ Journal managing editor Will Hurst essentially killed the project because of a "dislike that the Architects’ Journal journalist concerned had for Thomas Heatherwick". Hurst and the AJ categorically deny this claim.

Which architect would be best suited to design Boris Johnson's proposed Channel bridge?

2018-01-22T14:20:00-05:00

The clown king of novelty infrastructure fantasies has once again stolen the limelight with his preposterous plan for a 22-mile bridge across the Channel. [...] But none of this matters. In a world where Johnson got as far as flushing £37m of public money into the Thames on another fantasy project, the Garden Bridge, a great Channel crossing could easily be conjured into being.

The Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, responds to the former London Mayor's suggestion to build a 22-mile bridge across the Channel and physically connect the European Union with the brexiting island kingdom (on top of the already existing 31.35-mile Channel tunnel).

Let's just say, Wainwright isn't a fan and pens an angry roundup of prominent architects that either have designed other Johnson mega-visions, like Heatherwick's Thames Garden Bridge and Lord Foster's Thames Hub, or have a history of going over the initially proposed project budget a tad or a thousand.

Controversial plan for garden bridge in London is finally scrapped

2017-08-14T13:58:00-04:00

Lord Davies, the chair of the trust, wrote to Khan outlining the reasons why the trust had taken the decision. He said it was “with great regret that trustees have concluded that without mayoral support, the project cannot be delivered”.

Back in April, London mayor Sadiq Khan announced that he would not spend any more taxpayer money on the controversial garden bridge plan. The project, propelled by Khan's predecessor, Boris Johnson, has been criticized for its inability to raise the private funds promised and its subsequent mishandling of public money. Upon taking office, Khan ordered an investigation into whether the bridge represented value for public money and ultimately, the city decided to remove financial backing. Without help from the city, the Garden Bridge Trust has struggled to come up with the remaining funds necessary to complete the project and the bridge has been officially scrapped by the organization.

Korea's High Line, the MVRDV-designed Skygarden, opens in Seoul

2017-05-23T14:38:00-04:00

Ever since the High Line appeared above the streets of Chelsea in New York, cities across the globe have been working on creating their own variations of the civic project. In London, this iteration was to be the Thomas Heatherwick designed Garden Bridge. However, the project was marred by controversy due to suspicious funding and motives and was finally nixed by the Mayor back in April. Well, as the Guardian points out, London could've stood to take a few pointers from the South Korean capital of Seoul, whose MVRDV designed Skygarden opened over the weekend to much excitement.

The firm won the bidding process back in May 2015 and have since been working to transform an existing overpass in the heart of Seoul into a 983-meter long public garden, overlaying a matrix of Korean flora onto the 16m elevated steel and concrete structure. The Rotterdam-based architecture and urban design practice has gathered 50 families of plants, collecting around 228 species and sub-species and arrange...

London Mayor Sadiq Kahn scraps Garden Bridge

2017-04-28T05:07:00-04:00

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has finally pulled the plug on the controversial plan for a garden bridge across the Thames, announcing that he would not provide the vital financial guarantees needed for construction to begin. In a letter to the Garden Bridge Trust, the charity leading the much-delayed project, Khan said he was taking the decision because of a continuing shortfall in fundraising for the scheme, and a lack of the necessary land use agreements despite three years of talks.

The Garden Bridge: a sign of our "post-truth" times?

2017-04-17T12:29:00-04:00

The garden bridge, proposed to cross the Thames from the South Bank to Temple, is nothing if not a landmark of the post-truth era. It has wrung tens of millions out of the public purse on the basis of deceptions, distortions and facts that proved to be fake. First sold as “a gift to the people of London”, entirely paid for by private sector donations, it is now due to cost a minimum of £60m in public money. Its estimated total cost has gone from £60m to “north of £200 million”.

Its claims to fundraising prowess are exaggerated, its promised transport benefits minimal. Its backers assert overwhelming public support on the basis of a poll that told those polled nothing of the costs and drawbacks of the project.

Biting independent review on Garden Bridge is a reality check for the project's authorities

2017-04-07T20:23:00-04:00

Today, the Greater London Authority released a biting investigative report on the Garden Bridge conducted by senior Member of Parliament Margaret Hodge. Last October, Mayor Sadiq Khan formally appointed Hodge to lead the independent review, as part of Khan's promise to investigate the decisions surrounding the mismanaged project when he first came into office. Based on Hodge's findings, prospects on the controversial project are still looking grim; it would be better to ditch the project than risk wasting more public money.

Rendering courtesy of Arup/Heatherwick Studio.

“This review does not seek to assess whether building a Garden Bridge over the River Thames is a good idea; that is a matter for the Mayor, and I made clear at the start of this review process that I had no view,” Hodge writes in the introduction. The report focuses on examining value for money for public funds. Hodge notes the likelihood of increasing project costs, which she states could rise to over £200 million w...

Paul Goldberger on Thomas Heatherwick: "21st-Century Eames"

2016-11-10T19:39:00-05:00

[...] part architect, part furniture designer, part product designer, part researcher, part landscape architect, and part Pied Piper of design, and the things he comes up with manage somehow to be at once charming and brash. [...] shares not only the Eameses’ determination to be wide-ranging but also their fascination with technology, their interest in communication, and, most important of all, their passionate belief in the meaning of actually making things and in using materials in new ways.

Other recent Thomas Heatherwick sightings in the Archinect news:

If London Garden Bridge is cancelled, NAO report says taxpayers could lose £20m

2016-10-12T19:58:00-04:00

Ministers have repeatedly given more public money to London’s planned garden bridge, despite official advice against doing so, and risk losing more than £20m if the controversial project is cancelled, according to a report from the National Audit Office...The Garden Bridge Trust has yet to secure the necessary sub-lease on the area of the South Bank where the bridge will land, the report notes, while the main contractor [is] on standby and construction has been delayed for at least 18 months.

For previous news on this ongoing struggle:

London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks extra funds for garden bridge

Allies and Morrison propose an alternative to the garden bridge

London's garden bridge, the saga continues

Sadiq Khan investigates troublesome details in Thames garden bridge project

London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks extra funds for garden bridge

2016-07-11T03:34:00-04:00

The future of London’s proposed garden bridge has been called into further question after the city’s new mayor, Sadiq Khan, halted preparatory work on the structure over fears this could involve more public money being spent. The Garden Bridge Trust says the bridge from South Bank to Temple, featuring 270 trees and thousands of plants, will be a “tiara” for London, being both an iconic landmark and a vital pedestrian bridge.

Read more about London's Garden Bridge on architnect:

London's garden bridge, the saga continues

Why are Heatherwick's proposals succeeding in New York but tanking in London?

Sadiq Khan investigates troublesome details in Thames garden bridge project

Infrastructure or advertisement? Sky to sponsor the Garden Bridge

Allies and Morrison propose an alternative to the garden bridge

2016-06-16T11:00:00-04:00

When is a garden bridge not a garden bridge? When it’s a bridge garden, according to Allies and Morrison, the Southwark-based architects who have come up with a cheap and cheerful alternative to the eye-wateringly expensive, contractually dubious proposal by Thomas Heatherwick and Joanna Lumley for a floating forest across the Thames.

Read related news here:

London's garden bridge, the saga continues

2016-05-31T04:44:00-04:00

A Labour MP has formally asked the government’s independent spending watchdog to investigate how the trust behind London’s proposed garden bridge has spent almost two-thirds of the government funding for the project before construction has begun. “We’ve had millions of pounds of public money spent and we have no idea what it’s actually been spent on, and it was spent before it even got full planning permission,” Hoey said.

Although Khan originally showed reservations, it was revealed last week that he would back the project pertaining to certain conditions.

Read more on the controversial project here:

Why are Heatherwick's proposals succeeding in New York but tanking in London?

2016-05-26T18:25:00-04:00

“The Garden Bridge is a land grab,” says Michael Ball of Thames Central Open Spaces. “That is, a major piece of public space and amenity – the South Bank, the River Thames, and the views across central London – would be sequestered for private interests, albeit cloaked in some appearance of charity and beneficence. When I saw Pier 55 I realised it was an even more blatant example of the same idea.”

In this piece design critic par excellence Alexandra Lange analyzes two similar Thomas Heatherwick designed-projects, London's Garden Bridge and New York's Pier 55, in the hopes of discovering why one seems to be resonating with the public while the other has inspired satiric contests to replace it. Murky funding issues, misleading renderings, Absolutely Fabulous tie-ins: it's all here.

For more on the saga of the Garden Bridge:

Sadiq Khan investigates troublesome details in Thames garden bridge project

2016-05-17T05:34:00-04:00

[Mayor Sadiq Khan] has already begun scrutinising Boris Johnson’s decisions relating to the controversial project, to which £60m of public money has been allocated in circumstances previously criticised by parliamentary spending officials as unorthodox. [...] The proposed bridge has secured vast sums of public money despite being initially promoted as entirely private-funded. It has recently been bedevilled by accusations that its designer was selected before the actual tender process began.

The Guardian also points out that former London Mayor Boris Johnson met with Thomas Heatherwick five times, and is quoted as being "keen" on Heatherwick's design, before the selection process for the bridge's designer even began. Also somewhat worrisome was one of Johnson's last acts before leaving office: lowering the fundraising minimum for the bridge, allegedly to make sure that the project continued.

Related on Archinect:

Landscape architect Takeo Uesugi has died at age 75

2016-02-18T17:58:00-05:00

As a designer, Uesugi created serene landscapes that adapted the elements of a Japanese garden — rock, plants and water — to the climate and lifestyle of Southern California. Among his most significant projects are the restoration of the Japanese Garden at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Pine Wind Garden at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center and the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego's Balboa Park.

In memorium, a few photos of Uesugi's landscape work at the Japanese Garden of The Huntington Library:

Infrastructure or advertisement? Sky to sponsor the Garden Bridge

2016-01-14T04:00:00-05:00

Hey London, how do you feel about a major span across the Thames being corporately sponsored? Because that's what's going to happen with the Garden Bridge. It's just been announced that Sky, the media behemoth owned by Rupert Murdoch, has given an undisclosed amount to the Garden Bridge Trust. But this is no altruistic gesture: one of the gardens on the bridge "will be named by Sky".

As the article notes, there are a slew of issues – besides aesthetic ones – plaguing the newest Thames crossing. First, Sky is set to sponsor the bridge. Second, attendance projections suggest that queues will be necessary and South Bank will get even more crowded (so much for expediting travel). Third, your cell phone will be tracked while on the bridge.

Yikes.

Related:

London Garden Bridge will track visitors' phone signals, submitted plan says

2015-11-11T04:00:00-05:00

Visitors to the garden bridge in London will be tracked by their mobile phone signals and supervised by staff with powers to take people’s names and addresses and confiscate and destroy banned items, including kites and musical instruments, according to a planning document. [...] Caroline Pidgeon [...] said she feared the bridge was following “a worrying trend of the privatisation of public places, where the rights of private owners trump those of ordinary people”.

Previously on Archinect:

London Garden Bridge wins new supporters with revised funding deal

2015-11-02T19:34:00-05:00

The controversial and seemingly doomed plan for a garden bridge over the Thames in London could be resurrected after the group behind the project reached an agreement with council officials over the level of public funding. On Monday...a joint announcement by Lambeth...and the Garden Bridge Trust said negotiations would resume after a deal to limit the money Transport for London (TfL) would have to pay towards construction to £10m, from an original £30m.

Previously on Archinect:

London's Garden Bridge endangered by public funding shortfall

As Garden Bridge procurement process is headed for review, London group claims that 30 new parks could be funded instead

Satirical “Folly for London” competition mocks Garden Bridge project

Zaha Hadid, Piers Gough, other leading cultural figures criticize Heatherwick's London Garden Bridge

You can find more previous news on the Garden Bridge here.

London's Garden Bridge endangered by public funding shortfall

2015-09-25T04:34:00-04:00

The London garden bridge project has been placed in jeopardy after a London council withdrew its support because of public costs and the Labour mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan, said he would ditch the proposed horticultural Thames river crossing if he took office.

Thomas Heatherwick's proposed Garden Bridge, which recently inspired a satirical contest of unpalatable entries, may be doomed to remain a hotly contested rendering. The £30 million of public funds needed to fund the bridge has temporarily been withdrawn because Lambeth council leader Lib Peck said the cost is "unjustified." Both current Mayor Boris Johnson and chancellor George Osborne have pledged £30 million of his own to the project, but it will still need additional funding to bridge the gap.

Cheeky "A Folly for London" winners announced

2015-09-24T06:19:00-04:00

While Thomas Heatherwick's proposed Garden Bridge hasn't attracted universal acclaim, it has spurred an unusual competition. A purposefully free-to-enter satirical contest known as "A Folly for London" encouraged anyone and everyone to submit "absurd, illogical, egotistic and obtrusive designs for the public green space on London’s South Bank which would be sacrificed for The Garden Bridge." Judged by Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, journalist Owen Hatherley and political cartoonist Martin Rowson, the overall winner, "Green Fire of London" is a perennial flame fueled by trees culled from London's parks to "free up vast tracts of new land for developers to use for luxury constructions." It beat out entries in a variety of categories, including Absurd Transport Infrastructure, Priapic Humour, and Greenwash.

Some of the honorable mentions, including "Jesus Square & Bridge" took a subtler approach, proposing the construction of an underwater bridge that would allow any species wal...

As Garden Bridge procurement process is headed for review, London group claims that 30 new parks could be funded instead

2015-06-22T13:24:00-04:00

[...] has ordered a review of the procurement process for London’s garden bridge design after the Architects’ Journal revealed apparent irregularities in the tendering process. [...] Heatherwick’s £173,000 fee was more than three times more expensive than the £49,939 offer by Wilkinson Eyre, and more than 11 times that of the £15,125 offer by Marks Barfield. [...] cost of the project could fund 30 new London parks or 30 times the amount of open space the bridge would provide.

Previously

Satirical “Folly for London” competition mocks Garden Bridge project

2015-06-12T19:22:00-04:00

As controversy carries on over the notorious Garden Bridge by Heatherwick Studio proposed for London's South Bank, some opposers of the project are expressing their discontent with good ol' British satire in the soon-to-be-launched "Folly for London" competition. If you have a cheeky sense of humor, you'll have fun in this one.

Previously on Archinect

UPDATE, June 15, 2015: Will Jennings, artist and initiator of the "Folly for London" competition, sent us this statement to further explain the cause until the design ideas contest officially opens for entries.

Details of the competition will be announced in due course and we will seek entries from across professional architectural and design circles, established and amateur artists, citizens of London and anyone else with an interest in the capital - adults and children alike - before a panel of judges, including architecture writer Owen Hatherley, will meet to decide the best follies.

The website is not only intended as a ‘home’ for the competition, with details being added as we get closer to the launch, but will also have writings and responses to the many issues around the city, politics, finances and architecture which are raised by the problematic Garden Bridge project.

While we will invite crazy, ridiculous and satirically nonsensical projects and ask p...

Zaha Hadid, Piers Gough, other leading cultural figures criticize Heatherwick's London Garden Bridge

2015-06-02T16:29:00-04:00

'Architecturally, the ends of the bridge are abysmal: they are sort of hacked off. It’s not a good termination of the bridge – it’s inelegant – and the views of the ends of the bridge are particularly poor and ungraceful. It doesn’t look good. It isn’t a nice piece of work.' — Piers Gough

As the cherry on top for the widely dreaded Thames Garden Bridge, The Guardian rounds up a somewhat entertaining mix of critical reactions from prominent British architects, novelists, and artists on the proposed project, which faces an imminent judicial review.

Previously:

Further legal setbacks for London Garden Bridge

2015-04-22T17:37:00-04:00

Campaigners opposed to the planned Garden Bridge over the River Thames in London have won the right to challenge a council's approval for it. The judicial review of Lambeth Council's decision to give planning permission for the £175m bridge will be heard in June. Questions were raised about bridge's funding and its impact on views across the river of St Paul's Cathedral.

Previously: Let the fighting begin: London Garden Bridge faces legal challenge

Let the fighting begin: London Garden Bridge faces legal challenge

2015-02-17T13:57:00-05:00

A legal challenge is being launched in the High Court against plans to build a garden bridge over the River Thames in central London. A south London resident claims Lambeth Council unlawfully granted planning permission for the £175m bridge. Michael Ball, from Tulse Hill in Lambeth, fears its impact will be "devastating". Lambeth Council said the bridge would potentially benefit "both the local and wider London economy".

Previously

London's Garden Bridge: not so public after all

2014-11-19T14:30:00-05:00

[...] the bridge will be closed at night, won't allow entry to cyclists or groups of 8 or more without prior booking, and will ocassionally be closed off for fundraising events. Right. So less a public bridge than a privately-managed tourist attraction, then. [...] The east of London, on the other hand, could actually use another crossing, with or without limits to access

Previously: London's Garden bridge: 'It feels like we're trying to pull off a crime'

London's Garden bridge: 'It feels like we're trying to pull off a crime'

2014-06-24T13:11:00-04:00

Take one voguish designer, one national treasure and one icon-hungry mayor and what do you get? A floating forest across the Thames. But can anyone actually say what the £175m garden bridge is for?