Local artists and architects will be meeting this weekend to try and come up with an alternative use for Preston’s Bus Station.
AdvertisementThe event follows an open letter sent to all of Lancashire County Council’s councillors by a group of arts leaders including the designer Wayne Hemingway.
Future options for the Bus Station was the subject and it called on councillors to explore a “third way” for the building.
Now the likes of Guild 2012 director Stella Hall, brutalist architecture expert Tom Jeffries and Dr Christina Malathouni from the Twentieth Century Society will speak at the open meeting on Saturday 11 May.
Organised by Gate 81, an arts project aiming to explore different and creative uses for the building, it is called Reimagine Preston Bus Station.
The event is free and organisers state: “If you’re passionate about helping shape the Bus Station, if you work and live here and you want to add your voice and get involved in urban design processes, if you are an architect, artist, designer or developer, anywhere in the world, please join us to imagine a positive future for the building.
“This collective and collaborative event will aim to generate proposals for a viable and realisable future for the Preston Bus Station building and the surrounding area.”
The Bus Station is currently earmarked for demolition after a failed attempt by local businessman Simon Rigby to convince Preston City Council to sell the site to him.
The county council and city council currently support an option to demolish the building – hailed an architectural masterpiece by many – and build a smaller bus station in its place.
Details of the event are available via Eventbrite and runs all day.
Image credit to Tony Worrall.