Urban Regeneration Panel
In 2004 the Council set up an advisory Urban Regeneration Panel
to guide and challenge the proposals for the future development of
the city.
The following six national and international experts make up the
panel.
Professor Les Sparks OBE DipArch DipTP MRTPI HonDDes FRSA
(Chair)
Les Sparks is an architect/planner with substantial local
government experience at senior level.
He was Director of Planning and Architecture at Birmingham City
Council from 1991 to 1999 and previously Director of Environmental
Services at Bath City Council from 1980 to 1991.
While at Bath he was instrumental in establishing the English
Historic Towns Forum of which he is now an Honorary Life
Member.
In 1999 he was appointed one of the founding Commissioners on
CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment).
Professor Sparks was appointed a Commissioner of English
Heritage in 2001, and is the Regional Commissioner for the East
Midlands. He chaired the former Advisory Committee on the
Historic Built Environment (HBEAC) 2002-03, and is Deputy Chairman
of the English Heritage Advisory Committee (EHAC).
He has been Chairman from 2003 of the CABE/ English Heritage
Urban Panel, and a member since it was set up in January 2000 by
English Heritage to advise on major development issues in historic
towns and cities.
He chaired the Expert Panel on Historic Buildings and Land
for the Heritage Lottery Fund from 1999 to 2001. He acts as a
specialist adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Crown
Estates Commissioners, and Nottingham City Council.
Professor Sparks was appointed to the Ministry of Defence
Historic Buildings Advisory Group in 1994. Since 1999 he has been a
Visiting Professor at the University of West of England, Bristol,
where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Design.
He is a patron of the Urban Design Group and was formerly on the
Steering Committee of the Urban Villages Forum. He is a
Trustee of Birmingham Conservation Trust and has been a board
member of Groundwork Birmingham. He worked part time as a planning
inspector from 1999 to 2002, and is a consultant with planning
consultants Terence O’Rourke plc.
Professor Sparks has served on various Government steering
groups, on working groups of the Urban Task Force and the Urban
Green Spaces Task Force, and on the Urban Capacity Group of the UK
Round Table on Sustainability.
He was on the Demos/Comedia 'Richness of Cities' project team
and was a member of the URBED/ DTLR team managing the Towns and
Cities: Partners in Urban Renaissance Programme.
He was a specialist member of the Beacon Councils Advisory
Committee Round 4, and was a member of the DCMS Steering Group
reviewing designation and management regimes for the historic
environment.
In his professional career Professor Sparks has specialised in
urban design and conservation and was awarded the OBE in 1997 for
his services to Urban Regeneration.
Honor Chapman, CBE BSc MPhil FRICS MRTPI (Second Chair)
Honor Chapman has had a distinguished career spanning property,
marketing, business and urban development in both the public and
private sectors.
She has been closely involved with many of the key urban policy
issues in the UK including the early planning of several of the new
and expanded towns and the conservation of historic cities
including Bath.
She has worked on many schemes in the UK and on the Continent
including advising Daimler Benz on concepts and strategy for the
redevelopment of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin after the demolition
of The Wall, and the Secretary of State for Wales on the concepts,
case for and organisational structure needed to implement the
regeneration of Cardiff Bay.
As a board member of Cardiff Bay UDC and Chairman of the
Development Sub-Committee, she played a crucial role in what became
one of the largest urban regeneration schemes in Europe.
Honor retired from Jones Lang LaSalle (international property
advisers) at the end of 2003 having been a partner and
international director since 1979.
She also retired as a Crown Estate Commissioner having served
for seven years. In the mid 1990s (on secondment), she
established the London First Centre which markets London to major
businesses worldwide.
In September 2003, she was appointed Chairman of the London
Development Agency responsible for preparing and delivering the
Mayor’s business plan for London with an annual budget of more than
£300 million.
She is now Chair and Chief Executive of London’s new Centre of
Excellence in Regeneration to identify and bring world-class
experience to the professions of running, managing and developing
UK towns and cities.
She holds a MPhil in Town Planning, BSc in Estate Management and
Sloan Fellowship of the London Business School. She is a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Fellow of the
Society of Property Researchers. She chairs the Burlington
Gardens Committee of the Royal Academy.
In 1997, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours
List for her services to the property industry and in 1998 was
given the College of Estate Management Award for a lifetime's
contribution to the property industry.
Honor lives and farms in south Somerset.
Dickon Robinson CBE RIBA FRSA
As Development and Planning Director at the Peabody Trust,
London’s largest and longest established Housing Trust, Dickon
Robinson has been responsible for leading the greatly expanded new
build housing and regeneration programmes, which have repositioned
Peabody as a key London regeneration agency.
He graduated from the Portsmouth School of Architecture and
worked for a management consultancy engaged in environmental and
behavioural research and the Hospital Design Partnership before
moving into the housing arena as founder member and first Chair of
the Soho Housing Association. He was also involved in
community action groups in the West End, including the Save
Piccadilly Campaign and the Soho Society.
In 1975, he joined the London Borough of Camden Housing
Department. As Assistant Director of Housing for Property
Services he was responsible for the council’s private sector
housing programmes and the housing investment programme, building
new homes and modernising older estates.
In 1988, Mr Robinson joined the Peabody Trust as Director of
Development and Technical Services. He was the Chair of the
Foyer Federation between 1992/2001 and has been a board member of
St Mungo’s and Centrepoint.
He is a CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built
Environment) Commissioner and chair of CABE Space. He is also
a member of the English Heritage Urban Panel, a patron of the Urban
Design Group and a visiting Professor of Architecture at the
Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow.
Professionally, and as a West End resident for the past 25
years, he has a particular interest in:
- Mixed used and mixed tenure developments
- Harnessing the arts for regeneration projects
- Promoting innovative construction
- Achieving architectural excellence
- Sustainable housing design
Alan Baxter
Alan Baxter is an engineer and urban designer with a wide range
of interests and projects, which go far beyond the usual realm of
engineering.
His firm, Alan Baxter & Associates, handles projects from
the conservation of major historic buildings and new buildings of
architectural significance to masterplanning and transportation
studies.
He and his firm are handling a large number of significant urban
design projects from the extension of Ashford in Kent to
masterplans for Poundbury, Llandarcy, Kettering and
Northampton.
His work also encompasses the authorship of key publications
such as Places, Streets and Movement, Urban Design Compendium,
Better Places to Live and Paving the Way. He provides advice on
issues of relevance such as Codes and movement
engineering.
On many projects the integration of urban, conservation,
engineering and transport issues leads to valuable and creative
solutions.
Mr Baxter is a member of English Heritage’s Urban Panel, as well
as their National and London committee, and has just completed a
term on the Buildings and Land Panel of the Heritage Lottery
Fund.
He is a patron of the Urban Design Group and a Commissioner of
the Independent Transport Commission.
Professor Chris Baines
Chris Baines is one of the UK’s leading environmental
campaigners, and an award-winning writer and broadcaster.
He originally trained as a horticulturalist, and after an early
career in public parks, commercial contracting and landscape
consultancy he taught postgraduate Landscape Architecture at the
University of Central England until 1985, when he was awarded a
personal chair.
Self-employed for almost 20 years, Professor Baines works
primarily as a freelance environmental adviser to central and local
government and also to senior executives in the corporate
sector.
He has long-standing professional links with major companies in
the water, construction, minerals, energy and housing industries
and also with the World Health Organisation’s Healthy Cities
programme, the UK’s National Urban Forestry Unit, The National
House Builders’ Federation and the BBC.
He was a member of the UK Commission of Inquiry in to
Environmental Health and the government’s Ministerial Sounding
Board for the recent Rural White Paper.
Professor Baines is a member of the steering committee for
CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment)
Space and facilitator for the Green Leaders Forum, which brings
together chief executives from more than twenty leading
conservation charities and government agencies.
Professor Baines has just completed the maximum six-year period
as a trustee appointed by the Prime Minister to the National
Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
He also holds a number of honorary posts in the voluntary sector
including Vice-president of the Wildlife Trusts; President of the
Thames Estuary Partnership and the Association for Environmentally
Conscious Building and a trustee of the Waterways Trust. He
is also an Honorary Fellow of both CIWEM and ILAM.
Professor Baines writes and broadcasts frequently, particularly
for the BBC. He is a regular speaker or chairman at national
and international conferences, and he has a reputation as a
joined-up thinker and a partnership broker. He works from
home in inner-city Wolverhampton.
Sir Richard MacCormac CBE MA PPRIBA RA
Richard MacCormac is chairman of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard,
which was established in 1972 and incorporated in 2002. Richard has
taught and lectured widely, and published articles on urban design
and architectural theory. He is regularly invited to be an assessor
of architectural competitions and design awards. He is a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Arts and a Royal Academician. Richard has
served two terms as a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission and
has been a past commissioner for English Heritage. He served as
President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1991 to
1993. In 1994, Richard was awarded a CBE, and received a knighthood
in 2001. He is chairman of the Royal Academy Architecture Committee
and the Royal Academy Forum. Richard is also a trustee of the Sir
John Soane's Museum.
Notable building projects include: Cable & Wireless College,
Coventry (RFAC/Sunday Times Building of the Year Award 1994);
Garden Quadrangle, St John's College, Oxford (Independent on Sunday
Building of the Year Award 1994); Bowra Building, Wadham College,
Oxford; Burrell's Fields. Trinity College, Cambridge (RIBA Regional
Award 1997, Civic Trust Award 1997, and Brick Award, Supreme Winner
1996), and the Ruskin Library, Lancaster University (Independent on
Sunday Building of the Year Award 1996; RFAC/BSkyB Building of the
Year, Universities Winner 1998; and Millennium Products status
awarded by the Design Council 1999); the Wellcome Wing at the
Science Museum (Celebrating Construction Achievement, Regional
Award for Greater London 2000); and Southwark Station, Jubilee Line
Extension (Millennium Building of the Year Award, RFAC Trust/BSkyB
2000).
Current masterplanning projects include the expansion of Cambridge
University into West Cambridge and the Phoenix Initiative, a
regeneration project for Coventry.
Other current projects include Building 1 in Paternoster Square
adjacent to St Paul's Cathedral and the redevelopment/refurbishment
of the BBC at Portland Place. Exhibition design includes Ruskin,
Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites at Tate Britain, spring 2000 and
Surrealism - Desire Unbound shown at Tate Modern, end 2001.