In-Person Building Tour
Park Hill on its 60th Anniversary
This event took place at 3pm, Friday 17th September 2021
You can view a recording taken at the event on the RIBA youtube channel here - https://youtu.be/NXnoSPEHwXk
Led by Mikhail Riches
Meeting at S1 Artspace, 1 Norwich Street, Park Hill, Sheffield, S2 5PN.
2021 saw the 60th anniversary of the iconic flats which sit in their hilltop position overlooking the city of Sheffield. Britain’s largest Grade II* Listed Building was designed by architects John Lynn and Ivor Smith, inspired by Le Corbusier’s Unite d’habitation – known as ‘streets in the sky’. It was the first successful slum clearance scheme of an entire community after World War Two and once built was hailed as the most ambitious inner city development of its time. A time remembered fondly by residents, but by the 1980s Park Hill had unfortunately become run down. The development was saved via listing in 1998, and then began the process of regeneration, undertaken by developers Urban Splash. Phase 1 is now complete and occupied. Urban Splash held a competition for Phase 2 of the work, which Mikhail Riches won in 2015. Phase 2 is now underway.
This short video follows our tour, conducted in September 2021, which offered a unique insight into the design process and key drivers of the phase 2 project, and gave access to some of the apartments in the completed phase 1.
Beginning in the central S1 Artspace, Annalie Riches, Founding Director of Mikhail Riches, presented a welcome and introduction. Following this we set off around the redevelopment, first visiting the sales suite where David Lewes of Urban Splash puts the whole project in context. Liz Swan, resident of phase 1, took the group to view her two apartments, one of which is at the highest level and gave the opportunity for guests to view the shared outdoor spaces and enjoy views across the city. Next, Alim Saleh of Mikhail Riches, project architect for Phase 2 of the redevelopment, led the tour around perimeter of the ongoing construction works, and on to see the completed student residential blocks at the top of the hill – Beton House. Our tour concluded on South Street, where commercial units line the ground floor of Phase 1.