Project name: Openshaw Park
Location: East Manchester
Client: Manchester City Council
Completed: 2002
Value: £700,000
Manchester City Council and New Deal for Communities, appointed Landscape Projects for a project situated in the heart of New East Manchester, representing one of a number of initiatives to tackle depopulation and the fragmentation of communities. Landscape Projects worked with the Openshaw Park Residents Group to establish a park masterplan framework that would take a well-established but neglected recreation ground, and turn it into a community focal point. The masterplan was implemented and the design included new play facilities, meeting spaces, community art, a football pitch and boundary improvements and planting.
The park masterplan identified a series of phase 1 works, for which funding was successfully sought. The phase 1 works, comprising perimeter railings, play area and pathway installation, has established a manageable and popular park; the residents group developed detailed proposals for phase 2 works, including gardens and artworks.