Mark has left his mark on the city
Mark Osborne, the architect who designed Wapping Wharf, and the Gaol Ferry Steps, the transformation of The Centre, Goldney Hall and created the masterplan for Canons Marsh, including the Amphitheatre, Millennium Square and Anchor Square(Image: Alec French Architects)
A man who designed much of Bristol city centre’s 21st century look has announced his work is done and he’s retiring after 40 years of transforming the city. Few people in Bristol will have heard of Mark Osborne, but everyone will have seen the impact he had on the city, particularly on both sides of the Floating Harbour.
In a career that began back in the early 1980s, he was the architect who designed many of the landmark buildings and areas of the city, as the old industrial docks were transformed in the 1990s and into the 2000s.
Mr Osborne’s list of things he designed or drew up the masterplans for is long and impressive, and covers almost the entire transformation of the harbourside area from the St Augustine’s Reach to the New Cut.
He is the man who designed Wapping Wharf, including creating the new ‘High Street’ that is Gaol Ferry Steps, that connects Southville and the bridge with the harbourside. He is also responsible for the redesign of The Centre, which took it from a 1950s traffic gyratory to a ‘gateway to the Harbourside’.
The Harbourside and Canon’s Marsh in the late 1990s
In the 1990s, he worked on the ‘concept masterplan’ to transform acres of old gas works, industrial sites and warehouses into the Canons Marsh area that today includes Millennium Square, Anchor Square, the amphitheatre, the waterfront bars and restaurants on St Augustine’s Reach, all the way across to the ship-inspired residential flats of Capricorn Place, Hannover Quay and Porto Quay.
On wasteland between Gaol Ferry Bridge and Prince’s Wharf, Mr Osborne designed all the buildings that now make up Wapping Wharf, including the Gaol Ferry Steps pedestrian High Street, the recently-restored Gaol Gate, and the new offices at Cargo Work.
READ MORE: The radical changes coming to create a new Bristol city centreREAD MORE: Wapping Wharf – the ‘Bristol Riviera’ foodie hotspot that is ‘a light at the end of the tunnel’ for hospitality
Other projects Mr Osborne designed are yet to be built – so his legacy will continue long after his retirement now. He was the architect who designed the planned redevelopment of the Rupert Street multi-storey car park, which will be demolished to make way for a new Co-living residential development and student flats.
The design he came up with has twin towers above a new multi-storey car park, influenced, he said, by the Bristol Byzantine style that is unique to the city.
As well as the city centre and the Harbourside, Mr Osborne – who worked for Bristol architect firm Alec French from 1987 – also designed the transformation of the student accommodation blocks at Goldney Hall, transforming what were considered ‘eyesore’ buildings into a ‘romantic assembly of turrets, curves and courtyards’.
Mark Osborne, the architect who designed Wapping Wharf, and the Gaol Ferry Steps, the transformation of The Centre, Goldney Hall and created the masterplan for Canons Marsh, including the Amphitheatre, Millennium Square and Anchor Square(Image: Alec French Architects)
“During my time at Alec French I have had the opportunity to work with such talented people on some extraordinary sites,” he said.
“There is still a great deal of opportunity to make good architecture and place-making in Bristol, and it is heartening to see that we are involved in many of the best sites. It is what Alec French is renowned for and it has been a great pleasure and an honour to have played a part in transforming our city into the attractive and lively place it has become,” he added.
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