A mixed-use development has been proposed to redevelop a site in Leeds left empty after a swimming pool was demolished and turned into a parking lot over a decade ago.
The 1.1-hectare Lisbon Street development, now known as Lisbon Square, would include two residential blocks of 33 and 22 stories, providing 629 apartments and 11,000 square meters of offices, 550 student apartments and an aparthotel with 3,000 square meters of co-working space.
The pre-application designs for the £270 million (US$383 million) proposal call for more than half (55 percent) of the site to be given over to gardens and landscaping and will feature a main public square linked to neighboring sites in Leeds’ West End, such as Park Square and Wellington Place.
The plot, one of the city center’s last remaining prime development sites, has had a difficult past. Leeds International Pool, which opened in 1967, was famously just centimeters too narrow to qualify as an Olympic pool. After it was demolished, a few projects have approached the site, including a 24-story residential skyscraper proposed in 2008.
The current proposal will be presented to Leeds City Council’s Plans Panel ahead of the submission of a formal planning application. Subject to planning approval, the project could start on site in early 2022.
For more on this story, go to Architects Journal.