Peter Swift, Director at DunwoodieSwift Architects, tells us about the exciting changes taking place at one of Newcastle's long-established practices.
Having been a Director at Dewjoc Architects in Newcastle for 10 years or so I decided to set up my own architectural Practice, SWIFT Architects, in 2011. I chose to do this with some highly talented people I had worked with for many years on numerous developments, both locally and nationally. These include St James’ Gate & the Newgate Centre in Newcastle; Metro Riverside Park, M&S Lifestore and the Baltic Jury’s Inn in Gateshead; Wynyard Business Park on Teesside & Belmont Business Park in Durham and Heathrow Express Rail Link and a number of large retail projects around the country.
In 2018 SWIFT Architects merged with Dunwoodie Architects, a well-respected specialist healthcare business of some 30 years standing to create a combined business with strength and experience in specialist acute, primary and mental healthcare as well as vast experience in commercial, retail, leisure, transport and residential sectors. At that time it was decided to retain the Dunwoodie name as it was so well known, particularly in healthcare circles and had successfully stood the test of time. However, as the client base & sector spread has developed significantly and is now much broader than when the businesses merged we believe it is now the right time to update the company name and branding to reflect the changes that have taken place over the past four and a half years.
As a result, going forward, the company name will change to DunwoodieSwift Architects. We have consciously linked the two names as part of the re-brand as the businesses have been functioning successfully as a single entity for over four years and the profile of the combined Practice is very different to what it was when they came together. We believe it is very important to demonstrate that significant change has taken place within the business and we feel that can be most tangibly demonstrated by organically evolving the company name. Whilst still having a very strong healthcare background and portfolio, the business has developed dramatically over the last few years.
I have repeated many times that I have been involved in some big projects during my career but none have generated more comment or interest than the STACK Newcastle project. Whilst being a relatively small project it has brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people over the four years it has been open, despite being closed for long periods during the pandemic.
I took the £100m Newgate Shopping centre project to planning twice, once whilst at Dewjoc & subsequently with the current occupier mix whilst running SWIFT Architects. One thing I can safely say is that not many people ask me about the Newgate Centre project with it’s 600 plus student beds and Maldron Hotel but STACK constantly generates comment and conversation, the vast majority of it being very positive. It would be very easy to say it’s just a load of shipping containers thrown together but I think it has been demonstrated over the last four years that it’s sum is a lot greater than it’s parts and it has brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people in that time. It’s unfortunate that it has now come to the end of it’s life but that was always the intention for this ‘meanwhile’ use. However, as many of you will have seen, we are now working with the future tenant on a new leisure scheme as part of the wider Pilgrim Street redevelopment not far from the previous STACK site.
Much of the learning we gained on the Newcastle STACK project was put to good use at STACK Seaburn in Sunderland which, in my opinion, is a step up from the Newcastle scheme, perched as it is overlooking the beautiful North East coastline. I wasn’t particularly familiar with the Sunderland seafront but I can genuinely say that it has been a very pleasant discovery. Hopefully it can prove to be another significant milestone in the continuing development of DunwoodieSwift Architects who have a bright future ahead, with a number of very exciting projects all around the country. Watch this space, you will be hearing a lot more about us as our evolution picks up pace!
