Meadowhall Shopping Centre

The main entrance to the Meadowhall Centre is reached by a 120 meter long avenue. This walkway, which stretches through the main car park, was in need of a fresh look to welcome and guide shoppers into the building.

To modernise the look and feel of the approach, we designed a scheme for either side of the walkway, creating an avenue of Liquidambar styraciflua pillar trees, whose leaves take on vibrant red colours in autumn.

The trees were underplanted with drought-tolerant, robust planting to encourage richer biodiversity around the site.

The mixture of shrub, herbaceous and evergreen perennials were carefully selected to tolerate the windy, exposed conditions. On top of this, they will provide year-round flowers, seeds and, more importantly, food for local pollinators and birds.

As the original beds were exposed to excess levels of salt seeping into the soil, we worked with steel fabricators Blagg & Johnson to create a set of bespoke steel planters, which form an effective and attractive barrier, protecting the plants and raising the planting for visitors to see.