acme

The first 12 steel fins have been installed for the Beirut City Centre rooflight in Hazmieh. Currently without any of the opaque soffit panels but giving a good first impression of scale. These fins are part of the lower middle section, spanning 16m from the wall to the restaurant side.

Leeds City Council’s City Centre Plans Panel has resolved to grant consent for Hammerson’s proposal for the regeneration of Eastgate Quarters.
The 92,900m² (1,000,000ft²) retail-led scheme will create approximately 4,000 retail and leisure jobs and will transform the site north-east of Leeds city centre, most of which has been empty for the past four decades.
Eastgate Quarters will make provision for two of the UK’s largest names in retailing, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, alongside 130 new retail and restaurants units.
The scheme, designed by ACME, includes major changes such as a new civic square and the pedestrianisation of all the streets within Eastgate Quarters. The £600 million scheme also includes the restoration of historic buildings, a two level shopping arcade which will complement Leeds’ rich architectural heritage, refurbished offices and the largest shopper car park in the city with around 2,500 spaces.
Commenting on the decision Andrew Hilston, Project Director for Eastgate Quarters said: “I am delighted with the positive decision from Leeds City Council. Hammerson has been working hard over the past few years to develop the best possible scheme to put Leeds firmly on the retail map. The scheme will create thousands of jobs, boosting the local economy, and will strengthen Leeds’ status as a leading European city destination.”
Adding his thoughts, Jeremy Collins, Property Director for John Lewis said: “We welcome the news that Hammerson has been granted planning permission for Eastgate Quarters, which will bring John Lewis one step closer to having a retail presence in Leeds. We firmly believe the development will successfully regenerate the area and lift the city to a new level in the hierarchy of UK shopping destinations."

The first lighting mock-up of the car parking ramps in Beirut has been completed. Taking inspiration from Dan Flavin's work with light and space, the concept uses simple coloured fluorescents on back-painted coloured walls to indicate the upper and lower ramps to the three underground parking levels. This method aims to enhance the driving experience with little additional expenditure.

Concrete works are progressing on site in Beirut and the third level of the retail circuit is well in progress, leaving only one more floor slab to come before construction of the rooflight can commence in August/ September of this year.

Our Masterplan for Leeds Eastgate has finally been submitted to Leeds City Council for Outline Planning.
From the Hammerson Press Release:
HAMMERSON SUBMITS APPLICTION FOR LARGEST REGENERTION SCHEME IN LEEDS
Hammerson has submitted an outline planning application to Leeds City Council for its 100,000m² retail led, mixed used regeneration scheme. Over the past two years the consented regeneration scheme has been fully reviewed and the new proposal better suits current retailer requirements and improves connectivity with neighbouring parts of the city. The £600million scheme will transform the 6.9 hectare Brownfield site, most of which has been empty for the past four decades, creating a new focus for the North East of the city centre and delivering in the region of 4,000 new jobs.
Designed by ACME, the revised proposals feature a two level shopping arcade, complementing Leeds’ rich architectural heritage; a new civic square; the restoration of historic buildings; the largest shopper car park in the city with around 2,500 spaces; refurbished offices, and the pedestrianisation of all the streets within the scheme including Eastgate.
Eastgate Quarters will have in the region of 130 new stores, creating space for top end high street retailers, international and independent brands and an extensive catering offer. The scheme will be anchored by a flagship John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.

We are very honoured to be included in Tom Dyckhoffs article on The New Generation Of Architects in The Times, where ACME are joining an illustrious line-up including Nord, Carmody Groarke, DSDHA & dRMM.

from the article:
"ACME: Goodness this lot are ambitious. I haven’t seen a firm of young architects so adept at marrying experimental shapes with commercial nous for yonks. Acme has been going three years and already is working on massive projects in Bahrain, Damascus, Beirut and, er, Swansea.
How come? Experience. Friedrich Ludewig, its co-founder, cut his teeth at Foreign Office Architects, managing projects such as the Highcross shopping centre in Leicester, with its lacy, filigree façade, before setting up Acme with Stefano Dal Piva in 2007.
This love of the “skin” of a building, spun like fabric into decorative patterns then twisted into all manner of forms, seems to be Acme’s forte. Its first completed project, Hunsett Mill, a holiday home in the Norfolk Broads, won a RIBA award this year and is up for the Manser Medal for Britain’s best new house. It’s stunningly confident for a first project: tripling the size of a 19th-century miller’s cottage with a “shadow” of charred timber, folded, like origami, into angular shapes both modern yet, evoking the area’s timber barns, traditional and cosy. Its next big British project is masterplanning and designing a chunk of central Leeds for the Eastgate development, stalled for a couple of years, but now back from the dead."

Photography Jon Enoch

Hunsett Mill has won an RIBA Award and been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, the Stephen Lawrence Prize and the Manser Medal.

ACME has been selected as architectural designers for the rooflight of the Beirut City Centre shopping mall in Lebanon.

ACME has been selected as Masterplanners for the £600m Leeds Eastgate Development by Hammerson. ACME will work with the wider team of consultants and Leeds City Council to create a vibrant new mixed use city quarter, with 100.000spm of new retail arcades, department stores, cafes and restaurants around a new civic square, with a new Outline Planning Application to be submitted in early 2011.

ACME has been commissioned by Coastal Housing Group to design a number of buildings in the historic city centre of Swansea, Wales.

ACME has completed its review of Isa Town City Centre, Bahrain for Majid Al Futtaim Properties L.L.C.

ACME has been shortlisted with Yooshin architects & engineers and Handam architects for a competition to design the UN Memorial in Choongjoo City, Korea.

ACME has been invited to work with Mindfolio on a strategic masterplan vivion for the Great Mall of Dubai located in International City, UAE for developer, Nakheel.

ACME has been shortlisted for an invited competition for Parc Tawe in Swansea, comprising options for an Innovation Campus for Swansea University, a green park and public square as well as a supermarket, cafés and a large underground car park.

ACME has been selected by the London Development Agency (LDA) as one of 26 practices appointed to the Architecture, Landscape and Urban Design Framework Panel.

ACME has been commissioned to design an open roof cover to New Burgess Street as part of the Sevenstone project in Sheffield.

ACME has been shortlisted for an invited competition to design an extension and new exterior cladding for a Kaufhof department store in the Ruhrgebiet/, Germany for Metro Group Asset Management (Dusseldorf).

ACME has been appointed for Block 2 of the Sevenstone Quarter in Sheffield, UK by the developer Hammerson PLC. The project occupies the most visible plot of the development and will form the new visual gateway into Sevenstone when completed in 2013. Construction work for the first blocks is intended to commence in 2008, with Block 2 scheduled to start on site in 2011.