Wembley Park has received the honour of winning the Trees and Development Award at the 2017 London Tree and Woodland Awards. This event celebrates the work of individuals, communities and businesses working to ‘improve and expand the capital’s urban forest’ and was hosted at City Hall.
This comes as a result of Quintain’s commitment to the use of trees as an integral way of creating unique public spaces at Wembley Park. Quintain’s current transformation of the 85 acre site which will create 7,000 new homes, alongside a range of shops, restaurants and workspaces, is centred around new tree-lined boulevards, civic spaces, a landscaped London square and a seven-acre park.
It was noted by judges that all the trees planted to date have established well within the environment and are now an important part of the public realm.
Olympic Way – the important pedestrian promenade between Wembley Stadium and Wembley Park station – is the next tree planting project with 22 new trees to be planted along the boulevard over the coming months. These new trees will be a variety of species selected from the temperate zones around the world and will benefit from a system of specialist root containers which provide the environment for them to thrive.
Once complete, Olympic Way will be transformed into an approach designed to fully complement the magnificence of the world famous national stadium and provide an attractive and convenient thoroughfare to Wembley Park.
A site wide tree planting strategy has been in place at Wembley Park since 2005, which aims to form the identity of the place by creating routes for people and a home for wildlife.
Julian Tollast, Head of Masterplanning and Design at Quintain, said:
“The transformation of Wembley Park is centred around new public spaces – we want to make Wembley Park a place where people want to live and spend time. Creating new integrated public realm is key to this and trees have always had an important role to play in bringing areas to life. As well as the aesthetic qualities of trees, they provide protection meaning markets and other activities can be held beneath them. Another advantage is that they enhance air quality – something that Wembley Park is committed to maximising, tying in with the Mayor’s agenda to improve air quality throughout London.”
Wembley Park collected their award at a prestigious ceremony at London City Hall on Tuesday 11 July. The event was hosted by Shirley Rodrigues, Deputy Mayor for the Environment and Energy and the award ceremony was conducted by Adam Shaw, journalist and Woodland Trust ambassador.
ENDS
Media enquiries
London Communications Agency
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Quintain
Harriet Pask, Tel: +44 (0)20 3219 2200, [email protected]