Regeneration company Urban Splash has been selected as the preferred bidder for Sheffield’s former Cole Brothers building – and they’ll work with an architect with a close personal connection to the iconic structure, because his father designed the original.
He’s Simon Allford, co-founder of AHMM Architects, and the son of David Allford, who designed the building sixty years ago. Simon said: “My connections with Sheffield, and this building, run deep and far back. My family is from the city, my father was born there, and we both studied architecture at the University of Sheffield. I am looking forward to working in the city to help the client team reinvent this Sheffield icon, which was designed over sixty years ago by a son of Sheffield, my father David Allford!
“The refurbishment of the Grade 2 Listed Cole Brothers building is perhaps the key project in the ongoing reinvigoration of the Sheffield city centre. We have worked with the Urban Splash team for many years and we look forward to collaborating with both them and the City of Sheffield.”
The Urban Splash vision is to transform the building into a mixed-use space with substantial areas of the building reopening for the public, with the ground floor filled with retail, food and drink and the upper floors providing flexible workspace for Sheffield’s growing business base.
The plans will see Barker’s Pool and Cambridge Street entrances opened up to allow for outdoor on-street dining areas, similar to the popular seating introduced on Division Street. The lower ground floors will be used for leisure purposes; the upper ones as workspaces, studio spaces, a gym and rooftop offices together with a publicly accessible pocket park at the top of the former car park.
The developers plan to keep the existing car park structure but with fewer parking spaces for use by the tenants of the building only.
Mark Latham, Regeneration Director at Urban Splash, said: “We know how important this building is to so many Sheffielders and look forward to sharing and developing our ideas for its future together with the city.
“This scheme bears all of the hallmarks of an Urban Splash project; from Park Hill, to similar urban and civic listed buildings in cities all across England, our portfolio is filled with award-winning schemes that have been transformed through working with an original building, keeping the best of the old , while adding new design ideas and new life.
“We will adopt a similar approach in our plans for Cole Brothers – engaging with local people as we immerse ourselves in the heritage and emotional connections many have here. There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but we are excited to get started as we take on another Sheffield icon.”
