The Aberdeen City Garden Project was a £140.5m project to redevelop the Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen after Aberdeen oil tycoon Sir Ian Wood pledged to donate £50m to the redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. In 2012, he pledged a further £35m should the project overrun. The design 'The Granite Web' by Diller Scofido and Renfro and Keppie Design won an international design competition in 2011 and was approved in a referendum on the development of the current gardens in February/March 2012. The project was vetoed in August 2012 following a council vote.
The Current Gardens
The current Union Terrace Gardens opened in 1879 are sunken into the landscape of Aberdeen and cover approximately two and a half acres. To the North of the gardens, is His Majesty's Theatre, to the south -Union Street, to the west — Union Terrace and to the East the railway line. The campaign group Friends of Union Terrace Gardens opposed the development, instead preferring for the gardens to be left as they are with minimal development but cleaning them up to make them more appealing to the public.
The City Square Project & Initial Public Consultation
In 2008, Sir Ian Wood first announced his plans to donate £50m to the redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. In January 2010, initial concept graphics were created following a technical appraisal of the gardens' potential by Halliday Fraser Munro. A public consultation was held to gauge public support for the project. The consultation showed that 55% of people were opposed to the plans at the time. It also showed that the main concerns of the public were the amount of concrete, cost, the need for a contemporary arts centre, the potential for the development to become another shopping destination and the loss of green space. After the consolation, the project was rebranded The City Garden Project to help address the concerns of people regarding a concrete development and loss of green space as well as to help place emphasis on the garden/park direction of the project.
International Design Competition
On 18 April 2011 an international design competition run by Malcolm Reading Consultants was launched. The contest was open to entries until 13 June 2011 with the winner to be scheduled announced in December 2011 - though due to delays, the winner was not announced until January 2012. In total, 55 entries were submitted to the competition. Six were then chosen to move forward to the Public Exhibition which was held at [The Academy Shopping Centre] between 19 October and 2 November 2011. The six designs were: The Granite Web The Winter Garden Sculpted Landform & Connections The Flower of Scotland The Cultural Plaza Cultural Podium
Visitors to the exhibition used preferential voting to determine which two designs would then move on to face the final jury. Those designs were: The Granite Web — Diller Scofidio and Renfro (New York)/Keppie Design (Glasgow) with Olin Studio (Overall winner) The Winter Garden — Foster & Partners (London)/Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture (Beirut) with landscape architects Gardiner and Theobold
During the exhibition period, over 15,000 people visited the display. The winning design of Granite Web was announced on 16 January 2012.