Member Article

North East urban designers celebrate first birthday

Innovative North East urban design company +PlusUD have celebrated their first anniversary after the business has seen a flurry of success this year.

Directors Tony Wyatt and Richard Charge honoured the one year landmark this week after the experienced businessmen have seen the company go from strength to strength.

Projects worth a £75 million have been secured by +PlusUD since August 2011, including North East projects at Littlehaven, South Shields, supporting sea defence and walkway proposals by Royal Haskoning DHV and assessments in Northern England for landowners using LDF planning processes.

The company have since branched out to projects across the country and worked alongside Peel Investments on a large scale project at Durham Tees Valley Airport.

The directors have 40 years of experience combined, and their past projects include high-profile developments such as Newcastle’s East Quayside, the Grainger Town Renaissance and Eldon Square Shopping Centre.

The accomplished pair have also worked more recently on strategic planning and design in the Ouseburn Valley and Stephenson Quarter, as well as the characterisation of Northampton town centre.

Director Tony Wyatt said: “We saw a distinct gap in the market for an independent niche advisory service in urban design,which is a fast growing sector that links the separate professions of architecture and planning.

“Richard and I share a genuine commitment and belief in the importance of good design to make places better and improve the lives of the local people who live there, so setting up +PlusUD was a natural next stage in our careers.

“We set ourselves a challenging target in terms of winning projects, so to be both ahead of schedule and also to have been appointed by such well-known, blue chip organisations is particularly rewarding. “

+PlusUD now operate across the UK, and have offices in Yorkshire, the North West and Midlands, to expand and ensure a stable and secure network.

Director Richard Charge said: “It was clear from the outset that as well as a strong base in the North East, we needed a network across the UK to meet the needs of our prospective clients. This flexibility has been crucial to our successes in our first year.

“Every new business faces wide ranging challenges in its first year, never more so than in the current economic climate.

“Going into our second year, we hope to continue our expansion and progress with our current projects for residential master planning from our North East base.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .