Art is a great hook,” says Anna Devlet, head of community at British Land since 2010. She is talking about the FTSE 100 developer’s 13-acre Regent’s Place campus in the London borough of Camden, where BL has set out to use art to connect with its community of office occupiers and local residents as part of a wider programme of community engagement through place-making.
A prime example was a series of poetry slabs around the site that were produced by artist Emma Hunter working with local 12- to 16-year-olds. Hunter was one of two winners of a competition run by BL for Chelsea College of Art students to produce temporary installations for Regent’s Place.
The competition criteria included giving consideration to local community activities, helping people know where they are, and increasing footfall. That sparked Hunter to run workshops with young people from the site’s Samuel Lithgow Youth Centre, in collaboration with a poet.
The poems they produced were then graphically designed and given to a master stone carver. The award-winning installation has now been removed, but Devlet hopes a new home will be found for the engraved slabs.
Many more local schoolchildren have worked alongside professional artists at Regent’s Place. Some 470 have taken part in the developer’s Creative Curriculum programme with Camden School Improvement Service, exploring the artworks on the estate and using them as inspiration to create their own work, providing that “hook” Devlet covets.
Recent additions to the art in the improved public realm at Regent’s Place include Gary Hume’s 14m Pecking Bird (above) and Julian Opie’s moving light installation, Ruth Walking in Jeans. Both were part of Section 106 deals for the site.
“Art provides a useful way to connect with local communities,” says Devlet. “It enables you to talk about other skills that come into play to enhance an environment when something is built.”
That environment is also critical to engaging with office occupiers at the 2m sq ft campus. Does it work? BL certainly believes so. A 2014 study showed that the public art collection enhances the campus experience for almost 70% of people at Regent’s Place, and in a report marking its 30 years of involvement in Regent’s Place, BL’s head of offices, Tim Roberts, says: “Creating a development that delivers broader social and environmental benefits delivers business benefits.”
Enlivening: the Canary Wharf collection
Sally Williams has acted as public art consultant to Canary Wharf since 2002. The collection there now stretches to 65 pieces, and Williams is working on a book looking at the history of the firm’s art commissioning and buying.
“Olympia & York [the estate’s original developer] started commissioning artists from the beginning,” she says. “They wanted to have mature landscapes and artworks in place when the first tenants moved in. They had already built Battery Park in New York, where the ethos was to enliven the public space.”
The early commissions were very functional. From the mid-1990s, an arts and events programme started with exhibitions in empty shops and in One Canada Square. There was a hiatus when the markets crashed, but then, when the DLR started, Canary Wharf returned to building and a second phase of art commissioning began. Some exciting works were commissioned, such as the Willoughby Passage Gates, designed by jeweller Katy Hackney, and Wendy Ramshaw’s Columbus screen. “Commissioning was branching out to contemporary artists. These were very much pieces of art,” says Williams.
Ron Arad’s glass-fibre illuminated sculpture The Big Blue in Canada Square Park (above) quickly followed. Chief executive Sir George Iacobescu has been driving this process, which Williams says is vital. “An individual at the top of the company who has a passion for art makes a huge difference,” she says.
Now that the estate is complete, Canary Wharf’s commissioning process is on hold. Instead, the collection is growing through acquisitions, such as two Michael Lyons sculptures from a show held on the estate earlier this year. “Commissioning will start again when Wood Wharf comes on,” says Williams.
Crossrail takes form, line and colour
Developers including Canary Wharf, Almacantar and Derwent London are to co-fund public art for the new Crossrail stations being built across London. The Crossrail Art Programme will deliver artwork for platforms and tunnels, station concourses and street-level public realm.
Commissions will focus initially on the new stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Custom House, and the Canary Wharf Group’s development of Canary Wharf station. Eight international London-based commercial art galleries, including White Cube and Lisson Gallery, will be involved in selecting internationally recognised artists for each station.
Derwent London and Almacantar will contribute to the public art at Tottenham Court Road. Derwent London director Simon Silver says: “Crossrail is a historic moment in infrastructure development. We are living through a revolution. Our firm has an agreement with Crossrail to develop above the station. It would be pretty mean of us not to contribute to something like this when we are spending vast sums on buildings. Why not give something back in the form of art?”
julia.cahill@estatesgazette.com
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