Worcester Riverside park is a 5km long continuous open space running along the east and west banks of the River Severn between Diglis Island in the south and Gheluvelt Park in the north. Worcester City Council has invested heavily in the southern section of the Park, developing a popular circular walking and cycling route between Worcester Bridge and Diglis Island.
The northern section of the park is relatively under-developed and is in need of investment to deliver a consistent quality of public realm across the whole space. The park suffers from a lack of coherent distinctive identity and sections of it are disjointed and difficult to navigate for users.
Arkwood have been commissioned by Worcester City Council to develop a new brand identity for Riverside Park that can unify its disparate elements. This identity will be used to help visitors orientate themselves along the length of the park. In parallel, Arkwood will develop proposals for new entrances, restored public realm and ecology and bio-diversity to encourage greater levels of activity throughout the greenspace.
The design process will be intensively collaborative with the views of a wide variety of stakeholders being sought through interactive workshops, interviews and a series of pop-up events. Arkwood will be supported in delivering the project by Middlemarch Environmental, Community First Partnership and Greenwood Projects.
Jon Sheaff commented – ‘we’re very excited to working with Worcester City Council to develop a new identity for Riverside Park that will support the development of this key strategic greenspace. We look forward to engaging a wide variety of stakeholders to develop a new way of thinking about Riverside Park and the ways in which it can make Worcester a really exciting place to live and work’.