Elephant Park

My first client-side role was as a development manager at Lendlease where I led the public realm vision for Elephant Park, a £2.5bn, 3000 home landscape-led masterplan in Southwark, London.

My key focus was to overhaul the landscape brief to ensure that people and nature were at the heart of every decision the project team made contributing to it becoming the thriving and successful place it is today.

Key achievements:

Reducing vehicle access to improve safety and air quality

A welcoming and relaxed 1.2 hectare park with mature retained trees

Extensive retail terraces along the edge of the park, adding value to the F&B offer and providing a unique 'dine in the park' experience

900 semi-mature trees planted up to 1.5km from red line boundary, providing multiple ecosystem services

Net increase of circa 150 trees within masterplan

The Tree House, a community building in the park with accessible upper deck, hireable space, cafe, and public WCs

Elephant Springs, a natural play area with sand, rocks and water

Naturalistic planting to promote biodiversity and human health

Meanwhile meadow to provide a welcoming entrance to masterplan and driving footfall to residential units

The role included setting the design brief for parks, streets and open spaces, procurement and management of design teams and working closely with stakeholders including local residents and businesses, internal Lendlease business teams, investors and local authority partners.

I regularly arrange guided tours for clients and other interested parties who want to come and see the value that landscape-led development can bring. Please get in touch if you'd like to arrange a tour.